Harry Reid thinks we are stupid

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 10/2/08 @ 2:53 am - Filed Under 2008 National Elections, National Politics

I listened to Harry Reid and the speech he gave just before the vote on the Senate version of the “socialist” bail out bill tonight.  In that speech he told Americans that the package limited the pay of Wall Street Executives.

He is stretching the truth so far that he lied.

You can read the bill yourself at Foxnews.com.  Please skip down to Section 111.  Executive compensation and governance.

One of the things that many Americans have been outraged by is the fact that the Wall Street executives and the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made billions of dollars in the last few years.

I have heard a large number of Democrat and Republican politicians claim that this bill will prevent those executives from profiting from this bailout; in fact, I heard many say that they were going to go back over the last couple of years and “claw back” or take back some of those excessive bonuses.

They lied.

This bill does not have any “claw back” provisions and it does almost nothing to limit executive pay.

Read it for yourself and vote accordingly in five weeks.

The Senate version of this bill is even worse then the House version that failed.  The Senate added one provision that may be helpful, they are increasing the FDIC insured limit to $250,000 per account.  I think this is a good provision as long as the premiums go up and it is revenue neutral.

The Senate added many terrible things including:

  1. A lot of pork barrel projects.
  2. A lot of unrelated spending.
  3. A contentious portion that changes the rules on health insurance and mental health or addiction.
  4. A large number of tax provisions and “extenders”

Worse yet; there is no provision in this bill to offset the spending.  The Democrats promised “pay as you go” and boy did they lie.  This is going to increase next year’s budget deficit to nearly one trillion dollars next year if it is accounted for correctly by The Congressional Budget Office.  I cannot imagine a one trillion dollar budget deficit; however, these idiots are planning on doing it… 

As far as the vote itself goes it was a disappointing 74 to 25 victory.  The Party breakdown was:

  1. The only Independent voted against it.
  2. 18.4% of Democrats voted against it.  ( 9 of 49)
  3. 30.6% of Republicans voted against it.  (15 of 49)

Both Indiana Senators voted in favor of this monstrosity.

McCain, Obama, and Biden all voted in favor of it as well.

As has been well documented on this blog I have been wavering between voting for the Republican Presidential candidate John McCain and the Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr.

This has clinched it; I will be voting for Libertarian Bob Barr.

Mike Sylvester

Comments

6 Responses to “Harry Reid thinks we are stupid”

  1. Kristina Frazier-Henry on October 2nd, 2008 6:09 am

    Mike - can you focus me in on the pork barrel spending and then specifically - the contentious area re: changes on health care? Where are those (generally) located (what page?)

  2. Mike Sylvester on October 2nd, 2008 8:14 am

    Kristina,

    The bill is currently 451 pages long. The only portions I have read have to do with the bailout itself.

    The New York Times, Drudge Report, Wall Street Journal, etc. all are summarizing portions of the bill in their news stories.

    Mike

  3. Jeff Pruitt on October 2nd, 2008 8:45 am

    Kristina,

    There are simply too many to list here. Just look at the table of contents for Division B & C. They deal with energy and tax code respectively…

  4. Jeff Pruitt on October 2nd, 2008 8:53 am

    Here’s one of my favs:
    SEC. 325. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY
    SUSPENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RESEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.

  5. John Colgate on October 2nd, 2008 10:20 am

    Are these guys NUTS?
    Are WE nuts?

    SEC. 325. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY
    SUSPENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RESEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.

    Just 4 days ago the world was going to grind to a halt due to this “Serious Crisis”. now, we are right back to the same old s—t! Instead of saving working Americans savings, these clowns have time to come up with this and stand in front of the public and slobber about bi-partisian co-operation?
    Kill me now!!!!

  6. john b. kalb on October 2nd, 2008 10:50 am

    How about the $10 million for the company because they make wooden arrowheads for kids toys? Or the $180 million for the rum makers in the Caribbean or the millions for the Hollywood film industry? I am so sorry that we can’t vote either of our gut-less senators out next month! But we sure can get rid of Mark Souder! Let’s DO IT.

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