Greed is Loosing our Republic

September 09, 2008

Up until the victory of WWII, American leadership stuck to certain key principles set down by the Founding Father’s and institutionalized by Alexander Hamilton.  Namely, America must maintain economic independence from the rest of the world so that it can remain politically independent.  This was only accomplished by a “liaise’ fair” approach to the economy – government stays out of the free market.  Government was not there to “save us” as it does today.  But rather, to ensure the nation was defended, commerce can prosper and respect for the property rights of individuals upheld.  The Republic was to be commanded and controlled by its citizens, who are best able to decide the nation’s course.  With the emergence of the Federal Reserve in the 1920s, Roosevelt’s Social Security System, the expansion of the welfare state via Johnson’s “Great Society”, and the infiltration of socialist beliefs and self-indulgent behavior of late 20^th century generations, we have moved from that Hamiltonian Republic to one with a central banking controlled, quasi-socialist economy motivated by political power and greed. 

With the command and control of the economy through politically appointed people to unconstitutional institutions, we the citizenry have allowed our elected officials to create a multi-trillion dollar crisis which we will pay.  These unconstitutional entities are namely the Federal Reserve Bank (owned by a consortium of banks), it’s hand-maiden the IRS and their minions Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac.  This has resulted in trickle down greed – those loaning money to people who they knew could never repay; and those taking loans for mortgages they knew they could not afford.  This socialism (central power of the economy) has collapsed in on itself at the taxpayer’s expense.

Obama tells us it’s the McCain / Bush problem.  This from the candidate who took $550,000 from Fannie Mae for his campaign via James Johnson who was appointed by President Clinton to head Fannie Mae in the years that began and grew its questionable lending practices.  Then Obama chose Johnson to head up his vice presidential candidate selection team.  So much for change we can believe in.

McCain says he’d indict Wall Street.  Wrong.  Besides Johnson, let’s start with Franklin Raines (former budget director under Clinton) who succeeded Johnson at Fannie Mae.  Then Jamie Gorelich, former deputy attorney general of  Clinton and Vice Chair of Fannie Mae from 1998-2003.  All of these characters took millions of dollars via risky business practices and set in motion this centralized loaning system collapse.  Senator McCain, who are you protecting?

On May 23, 2006 the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) released the “Report of the Special Examination of Fannie Mae”.  This report outlined corruption at Fannie Mae which would lead to its collapse.  Federal regulators even attempted to sue Raines and other executives to recover compensation due to their accounting practices.  Here I give McCain some credit.  He actually tried to get Congress to recognize the report and start its own inquiry.  Enter the House Financial Services Committee headed by Barney Frank, Democrat from Massachusetts, and the Senate Banking Committee headed by Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut.  They blocked review of the OFHEO report on their committees.  These are the committees with oversight and regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Additionally, with the help of Nancy Pelosi, who commands and controls bills that may enter the floor for vote, the three have blocked for two years Republican Senator Sununu and his colleges on the Senate Banking Committee to win approval for a bill that would create a new regulatory body for Fannie Mae to crack down on the company’s risky business.  Maybe Obama has been calling for more regulation now because, after his notable 134 day career as a senator, he started running for president and missed out on this proposal by Sununu.

So here we are now with Hank Paulson of Goldman Sacks and Ben Bernacke of the Federal Reserve Bank, Inc. choosing which banks to bail out by printing money out of thin air and leaving the trillion dollar tab to be paid by you, me and our great grandchildren. How is it possible that we can let unelected, politically appointed individuals to make these decisions for the nation?   Have we really allowed our republic to digress to a point where two private unelected citizens are entrusted to get us out of this disaster?   Where in the constitution is that possible?

And what of our elected leaders who allowed this to happen?  Barney Frank is calling for more regulation.  Christopher Dodd is no where to be seen. Nancy Pelosi says Bush is to blame.  Congress is heading back to their districts to get re-elected.  President Bush is quietly doing who knows what in the White House.  McCain is going to indict everyone but the perpetrators.  Obama admittedly does not have a plan, but knows that somehow McCain is responsible because he’s from the same party as Bush.

Benjamin Franklin said at the signing of the Constitution…”Gentleman, you have a Republic, if you can keep it.”    Looks like we couldn’t.