I have never been a fan of John McCain. His preening about being a “maverick” struck me as someone merely taking pride in betraying his party’s principles. Nonetheless, McCain’s contrarian instincts may be just what we need to lead us through the current economic crisis caused by the collusion of Washington and Wall Street.
We are in this mess because Congress allowed it, despite spot-on warnings from members such as McCain who predicted what was coming. In 2006 he called to his fellow senators’ attention a report from Fannie Mae’s regulator that some of the company’s employees “deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives,” and that Fannie Mae “used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination.”
McCain cosponsored the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act and urged his colleagues to support its passage, saying, “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the financial system, and the economy as a whole.”
The bill did not make it out of the Senate committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, chaired by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the No. 1 recipient of campaign contributions money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That certainly smacks of undue influence – the very sort of coziness McCain has long opposed and promises to combat as president.
And Barack Obama – the No. 2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money – has the gall to sneer at McCain’s claim to be the true reformist?
Obama’s response to the events of last week should frighten any sentient American. After meeting on Friday with a team of economic advisers from the Clinton administration (this represents change?), Obama said he supported a rescue plan, but “what we don’t want to do is get too bogged down in some complicated legislative wrangling.” So it’s better for Congress to push through even bad law rather than appear not to react quickly to a crisis? Can Obama say “Patriot Act”?
Most stunning, in the face of reports that the bailout could cost taxpayers as much as $1 trillion, Obama insisted that the nation should go even farther into debt. He supports adding to the bailout an economic stimulus plan like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., proposes, which would add billions for highway spending, unemployment benefits, and other welfare programs.
Moreover, Obama said all this massive debt being piled on taxpayers would not prevent him from piling on more: He vowed not to scuttle his agenda for an expanded welfare state nor abandon his plan for a tax cut. That doesn’t represent the politics of hope; that’s the politics of lunacy.
In many ways, the proposed bailout represents exactly what Obama and his fellow leftists want: a centralized economy under tight government control. The Federal Reserve must be given “as broad authority as necessary,” Obama said Friday. But even House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke already has too much power.
“I think Chairman Bernanke is a responsible and thoughtful person,” Frank said. “But no one in a democracy, unelected, should have $800 billion to dispense as he sees fit. He can make any loan he wants under any terms to any entity or individual in America.”
Obama just doesn’t get it. He would be the wrong man for the times, and we can’t afford more of the same.
Consider that the United States today is almost unrecognizable from the country we were when George W. Bush took office. After the terrorist attacks of 2001, fear triumphed over freedom because the one quality that could have prevented that – courage – is one our president lacks.
We already know that our next president’s first challenge will be shepherding us out of a financial crisis apparently created, in part, because money was able to buy influence. Obama was the darling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; McCain was their nemesis. His maverick instinct turned out to be right. That bodes well for McCain’s ability as president to deliver change we can believe in.
Melanie Scarborough is an award-winning commentary writer whose work has appeared in more than two dozen newspapers, magazines, and books.
