2010 midterm predictions

[theeedude]

Bullshit. No matter how much oversight there was, the "everyone deserves a house" crap would have ended up like this.

Even Barney Frank admitted it.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010...se-financial-servies-committe-fannie-freddie/

But that didn't stop him from doing an about-face and pressing for the SAME failed policies that brought us here.

What was the definition of insanity???

It was the private ranking agencies that rated the debt to accommodate it being sold to investors, which is what fueled the bubble.

 

[Amused]

It was the private ranking agencies that rated the debt to accommodate it being sold to investors, which is what fueled the bubble.

Try reading the entire article I posted the link to, okay?

 

[theeedude]

Try reading the entire article I posted the link to, okay?

It's not going to prove the point you are trying to make, because the point is flawed, but I'll read it when I am done with partying.

 

[Amused]

It's not going to prove the point you are trying to make, because the point is flawed, but I'll read it when I am done with partying.

No matter how you spin it, you will not twist reality. In no way did the republicans cause the housing bubble or sub-prime crisis. BOTH were brought on by leftist policies.

As I said, the GOP had many chances to stop it, but never did. They did not, however create the problem.

 

[Lanyap]

"Election Day is next Tuesday. According to a new poll, one out of three voters is still undecided. It's a tough choice. Do you vote for the people who got us into this mess, or the people who can't get us out of this mess?"

—Jay Leno ...

 

[theeedude]

No matter how you spin it, you will not twist reality. In no way did the republicans cause the housing bubble or sub-prime crisis. BOTH were brought on by leftist policies.

As I said, the GOP had many chances to stop it, but never did. They did not, however create the problem.

They crated the problem by not stopping it. That's what I mean by insufficient government regulation. GOP presided over the housing bubble and did nothing as outright fraud was being perpetrated. It was their job to do something. They failed, they are responsible.

 

[Lemon law]

I agree Red. All I want is for government to stay out of the way as much as possible. The only thing any government does extremely well is kill people. While I'm sure there are times when that's a very valuable talent to have, right now isn't one of those times.

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Sadly Greenman you may be a fool, but I cannot agree with you. It is partly the job of American government to change its policies as the world changes.

America did very very well in the heady days after WW2, and built up huge national wealth when we had a very positive balace of trade advantages with the rest of the world, that position went negative in 1980, and continues to go ever more negative ever since.

Sadly that is what ails America and neither party is addressing the real issues. We have outsourced our economy, the world has changed and we have not, and until the American people quit being a hot bed of apathy, we will continue to swirl down the toilet.

Does it really matter which evil overlord party gives us that final flush down the crapper?
As the only debate is now to give tax breaks to the rich as we all flush ourselves, rich or poor down the collective crapper as obsolete fools.

At least the very very rich can flee the country before the bottom drops out of the American economy, the moderately rich, the endangered middle class, and the poor will end stuck in our own delusions of a glorious American past squandered away in bi-partisan collective stupidity.

 

[Schadenfroh]

The Dems are going to get their asses kicked. If it were the Republicans in power now they'd be the ones getting their asses kicked. Neither party has anything.

Pretty much, this is all about ousting the ruling party. I was shocked when so many of my relatives told me they were voting against my home county's representative, simply because he was a Democrat and an incumbent, when they had supported him ever since I can remember.

 

[MotF Bane]

The people in power have no solutions, and those who will be gaining power likewise have no solutions.

 

[Bateluer]

Pretty much, this is all about ousting the ruling party. I was shocked when so many of my relatives told me they were voting against my home county's representative, simply because he was a Democrat and an incumbent, when they had supported him ever since I can remember.

People want fresh blood. There are elected officials in Congress that have been their since Eisenhower was president. Somehow, I doubt thats what our founding fathers had in mind. Its why our elected officials have such a major disconnect with the will of the people, and sometimes, with reality itself.

There needs to be some term limits for Federal Congress, 2 terms(12years) for Senators, 3 terms(6 years) for Representatives, perhaps?

 

[Lemon law]

The people in power have no solutions, and those who will be gaining power likewise have no solutions.

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It pleasures me none to agree with MotF Bane, but sadly, its a pretty accurate summation.

But at the end of the day, where does the blame lie, and that blame may well belong with the apathy and stupidity of the American electorate.

We get what we vote for, and we have nothing to blame but ourselves when we vote for liars and fools.

 

[ebaycj]

There needs to be some term limits for Federal Congress, 2 terms(12years) for Senators, 3 terms(6 years) for Representatives, perhaps?

This.

 

[ProfJohn]

Gullible voters who vote Republican and put the country on a bad track in the failure of democracy here against the corruption of monied campaigns: 54%

Are you aware that the Democrats have spent more money this election cycle than the Republicans?

 

[Jiggz]

R's got wiped out because they created this mess.

You keep on walking forward while looking back and thinking you're actually moving forward! How about a 180 turn so you'll see exactly where you're at?

 

[Craig234]

Paul Krugman's got it right:

Not very, say some pundits. After all, the last time Republicans controlled Congress while a Democrat lived in the White House was the period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 2000. And people remember that era as a good time, a time of rapid job creation and responsible budgets. Can we hope for a similar experience now?

No, we can’t. This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.

Start with the politics.

In the late-1990s, Republicans and Democrats were able to work together on some issues. President Obama seems to believe that the same thing can happen again today. In a recent interview with National Journal, he sounded a conciliatory note, saying that Democrats need to have an “appropriate sense of humility,” and that he would “spend more time building consensus.” Good luck with that.

After all, that era of partial cooperation in the 1990s came only after Republicans had tried all-out confrontation, actually shutting down the federal government in an effort to force President Bill Clinton to give in to their demands for big cuts in Medicare.

Now, the government shutdown ended up hurting Republicans politically, and some observers seem to assume that memories of that experience will deter the G.O.P. from being too confrontational this time around. But the lesson current Republicans seem to have drawn from 1995 isn’t that they were too confrontational, it’s that they weren’t confrontational enough.

Another recent interview by National Journal, this one with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, has received a lot of attention thanks to a headline-grabbing quote: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

If you read the full interview, what Mr. McConnell was saying was that, in 1995, Republicans erred by focusing too much on their policy agenda and not enough on destroying the president: “We suffered from some degree of hubris and acted as if the president was irrelevant and we would roll over him. By the summer of 1995, he was already on the way to being re-elected, and we were hanging on for our lives.” So this time around, he implied, they’ll stay focused on bringing down Mr. Obama.

True, Mr. McConnell did say that he might be willing to work with Mr. Obama in certain circumstances — namely, if he’s willing to do a “Clintonian back flip,” taking positions that would find more support among Republicans than in his own party. Of course, this would actually hurt Mr. Obama’s chances of re-election — but that’s the point.

We might add that should any Republicans in Congress find themselves considering the possibility of acting in a statesmanlike, bipartisan manner, they’ll surely reconsider after looking over their shoulder at the Tea Party-types, who will jump on them if they show any signs of being reasonable. The role of the Tea Party is one reason smart observers expect another government shutdown, probably as early as next spring.

Beyond the politics, the crucial difference between the 1990s and now is the state of the economy.

When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the U.S. economy had strong fundamentals. Household debt was much lower than it is today. Business investment was surging, in large part thanks to the new opportunities created by information technology — opportunities that were much broader than the follies of the dot-com bubble.

In this favorable environment, economic management was mainly a matter of putting the brakes on the boom, so as to keep the economy from overheating and head off potential inflation. And this was a job the Federal Reserve could do on its own by raising interest rates, without any help from Congress.

Today’s situation is completely different. The economy, weighed down by the debt that households ran up during the Bush-era bubble, is in dire straits; deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger. And it’s not at all clear that the Fed has the tools to head off this danger. Right now we very much need active policies on the part of the federal government to get us out of our economic trap.

But we won’t get those policies if Republicans control the House. In fact, if they get their way, we’ll get the worst of both worlds: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible tax cuts — cuts they have already announced won’t have to be offset with spending cuts.

So if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

 

[ProfJohn]

They brought it on with lax oversight, let industry regulate itself, we are now reaping the fruits of that flawed ideology.

It was the Democrats who blocked regulations that would have stopped Fannie and Freddie years ago.

It was also the Democrats who created the housing problem in the first place with their push to end redlining and other practices.

They created an environment where home ownership meant everything and sensible loan terms meant nothing.

 

[manimal]

People want fresh blood. There are elected officials in Congress that have been their since Eisenhower was president. Somehow, I doubt thats what our founding fathers had in mind. Its why our elected officials have such a major disconnect with the will of the people, and sometimes, with reality itself.

There needs to be some term limits for Federal Congress, 2 terms(12years) for Senators, 3 terms(6 years) for Representatives, perhaps?

While I agree with the spirit of the argument tying it to the founding fathers is weak unless you want to paint Adams and a few other sacrosanct deities....


I firmly agree with term limits. Until we remove money from the system everything else is moot.


Until he jumped the shark politically I always had much respect for Mcain and his experience...

 

[First]

Try reading the entire article I posted the link to, okay?

Your Fox News opinion piece (rofl) does nothing to disprove his point. Republicans both started and largely fueled the financial crisis and if you think it started with CRA you're just horribly misinformed, which is about par for the course for you anyway. CRA defaults barely contributed to Sept. 2008 meltdown, a Fed study showed it all CRA-related loans that defaulted accounted for less than 2% of that grand total. Dems were certainly culpable, no question, and that includes Clinton and is sort of continuing with Obama. But ideologues, almost exclusively on the right, including Greenspan, Paulson, and Summers, were all ideologically opposed to the culprit that spread the risk to the whole system; CDOs and derivatives in general.

 

[Zebo]

Senate - R +11
House - R +78

 

[OrByte]

My prediction: short term win for Republicans

long term failure for America.

 

[ProfJohn]

Nate Silver is in the NY Times calling for 78 seats. Although it is a fictional account of the day after election I think he would stand by that number or something close.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytime...licans-could-do-even-better-than-expected/?hp

At this point I would say that 60 seats would actually be a disappointment for the Republicans and that we are looking at something in the 70+ range.

In the Senate it will come down to either CA or WA for control of the Senate.

BTW Jerry Brown wins the CA governors race then I would not be surprised to see Pelosi resign and leave office at the end of this term or as soon as Jerry takes office so he can put another Democrat in office.

 

[Zebo]

No matter how you spin it, you will not twist reality. In no way did the republicans cause the housing bubble or sub-prime crisis. BOTH were brought on by leftist policies.

As I said, the GOP had many chances to stop it, but never did. They did not, however create the problem.

You're kidding yourself.

Removal of the leverage limits from the investment banks, without which the housing bubble would have been stopped dead in it's tracks. That was Republican Hank Paulson going to a Republican SEC.

A Republican Department of Justice sued states to stop them from enforcing anti-predatory lending laws and other "liars" products.

Bipartisan fuck job.

Another motive that made lending $750,000 to hair dressers more feasible was the Republican Bankruptcy "reform", that left the common person chained to her debts for life.

 

[Zebo]

We won't get to the promised land no matter who is in power. The world, which buys our debt as a "safe haven", will get math and cut us off. Long before this mythical 1 trillion a year deficits as far as eye can see.

Prepare.

Bill Gross, one of the best money guys in the world, gets it. I encourage you to read it all. http://www.pimco.com/Pages/RunTurkeyRun.aspx

 

[trenchfoot]

We won't get to the promised land no matter who is in power. The world, which buys our debt as a "safe haven", will get math and cut us off. Long before this mythical 1 trillion a year deficits as far as eye can see.

Prepare.

Bill Gross, one of the best money guys in the world, gets it. I encourage you to read it all. http://www.pimco.com/Pages/RunTurkeyRun.aspx

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[nyker96]

In the back of my head, I was hoping they take both house and senate. I mean no point going 1/2 way with these things, so unclean. Now they can finally put aside the words and execute the same plan as the bush years. I am wondering, part out of curiosity, if we do the same exact thing in the same exact situation, can we expect a different outcome the 2nd time around?