United Liberty

From the group’s press release:

Thousand Oaks, CA — A national caucus of Republican activists has urged GOP legislators to stand firm against the “Paulson Bailout” of a corrupt financial regulatory system. “This proposal is a government takeover of the entire U.S. economy,” says Republican Liberty Caucus Chairman William Westmiller, “whose only purpose is to rescue those who made risky bets on bad mortgages.”

The Caucus [www.RLC.org] opposes any taxpayer payoff to rescue those who made bad investments in any sector of the economy. “The problem is not a lack of government control,” says Westmiller, “but rather the decades of market distortions imposed by Congress through subsidies, mandates, guarantees, andconstraints on free-enterprise mortgage offerings.”

This is a great day for American’s to take it upon themselves to solve our own crisis in our own personal way. I for one do not need the government saving me.

Watch what I am watching - http://cspan.org/ (Refresh to get new posts by pressing F5)

1:47 - H.R. 3997 Is defeated. This is a great day indeed.

1:45 - H.R. 3997 might be defeated

1:44 - 192 Y | 215 N - 26 votes left.

1:43 - 185 Y | 201 N - 43 votes left.

1:42 - 177 Y | 187 N - 19 seconds left (CSPAN counter)

1:41 - 168 Y | 172 N

1:40 - 162 Y | 167 N

1:39 - 157 Y | 153 N

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1:35 - 123 Y | 115 N

I received an e-mail from a family member that detailed protests by disability rights activists of Sen. John McCain. Here’s some of it:

The 2008 election campaigns have included rhetoric about tax breaks for middle income families, and media coverage has included stories about families who have children with disabilities. Left out of all the election rhetoric are the candidates’ positions on and commitments to those babies with disabilities who grow into adults with disabilities who all-too-often survive on extremely low incomes (less than 30% of the median income). These extremely low incomes are often the fixed benefit amounts of SSI and Social Security.

In 2006, according to Priced Out in 2006, the federal SSI benefit was $603/month and the average cost nationally of renting a studio/efficiency apartment was $633/month.

Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics notes that Bob Barr apparently requested that President Bush allow him to be involved in the bailout negotiations, with predictable results. Here’s the press release from Barr’s campaign:

“I respectfully request to be included in the discussions with congressional leaders, Senators McCain and Obama and representatives of your administration,” Barr requests in his letter to Bush. “I am adamantly opposed to the commitment of taxpayer’s hard-earned money to protect the companies and individuals who made bad investment decisions.”

According to CNN, John McCain has decided to go through with the debate after all:

John McCain, who earlier announced he was pulling out of tonight’s presidential debate to help forge legislation to bail out U.S. financial institutions, believes enough progress has been made for

him to debate Barack Obama, his campaign said today. But it added McCain plans to return to Washington after the debate. Obama issued a statement saying he plans to go back to D.C. as well.

Later on in the article, CNN notes:

Some fellow lawmakers said McCain hasn’t contributed much to the financial debate, and senior campaign advisers told CNN they believed it was politically crucial that McCain show up at the debate in Oxford, Mississippi.

Senator McCain is supposedly “suspending” his campaign because of the current economic crisis and has asked that the debate scheduled for this Friday evening be postponed til next Thursday- the day the VP debate was supposed to take place, giving Palin a probably much needed reprieve.

But McCain also canceled his Wednesday appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, claiming that he was already on his way back to Washington and would no longer be in NYC at the time of the taping of the show.  Turns out, this wasn’t exactly true- Dave found out during the taping that McCain was actually still in town, and then hilarity ensues.  Enjoy!

While the $700 billion bailout seemed a certainty only two days ago, outcry from the public and bi-partisan concern about giving the Treasury Department carte blanche has put some speed bumps in the path of passing this historical legislation. Though there is some finger-pointing going on between the two parties about who caused this crisis in the first place, it appears that an equal number of Republicans and Democrats are now questioning the wisdom of Secretary Paulson’s bailout plan and are willing to take a deep breath, step back, and consider all the options before saddling the tax-payers with this enormous and unpopular government intervention. Observing that the urgency placed on passing this plan immediately is reminiscent of Bush’s insistence on funding for the disastrous Iraq War, lawmakers are showing trepidation about making the same mistake twice. These kind of high pressure tactics are normally reserved for the used car lot, and our legislators are wise to think twice before investing the American public’s money into another Bush Administration lemon.

Bailouts Will Lead to Rough Economic Ride

By: Dr. Ron Paul - CNN

“The solution to the problem is to end government meddling in the market. Government intervention leads to distortions in the market, and government reacts to each distortion by enacting new laws and regulations, which create their own distortions, and so on ad infinitum.”

Socialism in the Treasury Chest

By: Mark Hemingway - National Review

“If you believe that the best way to handle the current economic crisis is hurling gobsmackingly large amounts of money at it, all to be used at the discretion of the Treasury secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, you may well be an idiot. That’s according to a rule of thumb devised by famed investor Warren Buffett.”

No need to vote in November- the die has already been cast and you can soon buy the commemorative gold coin to prove it.  A UK company has started producing gold, silver and platinum coins featuring the profile of Senator Obama and the words, “President of the United States”.  The Democrat Party must feel pretty sure about the election’s outcome as they’ve already ordered several to hand out to the party faithful in a few weeks.  The coins wil also be produced for public consumption should there prove to be substantial demand.

Ed Morrisey had this to say-