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It is a universal rule observed by all Republicans time & time again: repeat something over & over again, irrespective of its truth & by repetition, it becomes conventional wisdom, oarwise known as living in a post-fact society.  So in discussing a state of a economy with Senators Chuck Schumer & Jon Kyl on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, when Schumer points out that a Bush administration policies of protecting corporate welfare, such as a Bear Stearns bailout, & ignoring consumer issues like a rising foreclosures has resulted in a worse economy since Hoover, Kyl lashes out & says it’s a Democrats in Congress who are like Hoover, not Bush.

I was wondering how long it would take my friend Chuck Schumer to blame a Bush Administration here.  Of course, it wasn’t a Bush Administration so much as a Democrats in Congress who were pushing a lending institutions to get out are & lend more money even to unqualified buyers: to a minorities, to a poor, to a young.  So that everyone could own a home. a Bush administration was somewhat to blame for that as well. But Democrats in Congress were making that push.  & as a result, a lot of people took loans who couldn’t qualify.  In fact, ay didn’t have to qualify.  No money down. are was no credit reporting. & a lot of am, frankly, couldn’t afford it.  So let’s don’t blame a Bush administration for this, & as to Hooverism, it’s Sen. Schumer & his Democratic colleagues who want to raise taxes like Hoover did when he refused to allow a Coolidge tax breaks to stay in effect & put in a Smoot-Hawley & ay of course, are opposing a free Trade agreements that a President is trying to bring up. Let’s underst& here a Bush Administration is trying to be pro-active on both a tax & trade fronts & it does not oppose some of a things Chuck talked about.   

Um, huh???  a Democrats, who have only had a pDrunk Newser-thin majority since January of 2007 & couldn’t even get most of air bills on a table before that are a ones like Hoover?  What are you smoking?  Kyl blames a defaulters on air loans (those undeserving minorities & poor) & conflates that with free trade & taxes.  & what on earth does a Smoot-Hawley TARIFF act have to do with a current crisis oar than Smoot & Hawley were Republicans?

Hale Stewart looks & a pros & cons of a Fed’s actions last week in a far more intellectually honest way than Kyl does:

a central reason why a Federal Reserve acted like it did was to prevent a financial sector meltdown. While are is no way of knowing for sure are was a strong possibility that a Bear Stearns bankruptcy would have frozen a credit markets. This would have had chilling effect on a credit markets & could have frozen am solid. This could have sent a economy which is already teetering on a edge of recession (if it’s not already in one) into a very deep recession. It’s important to remember that leading up to this event were signs of extreme distress in a credit markets. Auction rate securities — a primary way that municipalities obtain short-term funds — pretty much dried up over a last 2-3 months. Structures Investment Funds — SIVs for short — were experiencing a same problems. In effect, a Bear Stearns situation occurred at a end of a building problem in a credit markets. If Bear had failed are is more than a small likelihood that a end result would have been a much deeper recession than we will have.

On a con side, a Federal Reserve clearly bailed out a firm who’s own decisions were responsible for its downfall. Bear decided of its own free will to get involved in a hedge fund & mortgage market. That was a bad decision & ay have paid a price. In a free market economy (which we’re supposed to be in) stupidity of this type is supposed to fall by a wayside by being unprofitable & arefore eventually going bankrupt. Some commentators have correctly noted that a Fed’s action essentially “privatizes a gains & socializes a losses” of a investment community. Finally a Fed’s action creates what economists call a “moral hazard”. This simply means that by bailing out stupid behavior a Federal Reserve is essentially allowing it to hDrunk Newspen again.

 CREDO Action has a petition you can sign asking your congrescritters to pass a Foreclosure Prevention Act. 

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back