Biden Blasts McCain on Regulation
Posted by Bryant Daniels on 09.17.2008
Speaking at a rally in Ohio, Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden blasted Senator John McCain for his inability to regulate the markets properly prior to the current economic crisis.
"All of a sudden it's, 'My goodness, there's greed on Wall Street. My goodness, we need common sense regulation. My goodness,' " Biden said in Maumee, Ohio.
"So let's take a look at John's conversion here," Biden added later. "Something happened on the road to Damascus; John fell off his horse, but he got back up on the same horse."
"So John, you got back on the same horse, you continue to push a plan that's designed to deregulate the health insurance industry," said Biden, asking people in the crowd to raise their hands if they trust insurance companies to take care of their needs.
"I got one person [who] raised their hand. I got also a bridge I got to sell you and guess what? It's in Alaska, and it goes to nowhere."
This type of thinking is exactly the problem with modern day conservatism, and the unadulterated faith in the free market. I recall Rudy Giuliani, while still in the race, mocking Hillary Clinton for having doubts about the unfettered free-market. Well Rudy, this is exactly why. Regulation is not the enemy and it's not excessive governmental meddling in economic affairs; It's necessary. Conservatives like to claim the free market solves all, but most economists today will tell you that invisible hand Milton Friedman spoke of doesn't really prevent or handle all of the possible economic problems that arise. As wonderful as the free-market is, and it is the best system in the world, it still needs regulation to prevent disasters. Government doesn't always have to be the enemy, and in fact it's relatively effective when it is given economic duties to perform for the country. When the market is deregulated, the gap between the rich and the poor grows, as it has under Bush, to levels roughly equal to the 1920's. Corporate greed is real, it's powerful, and needs to be monitored.
i have a question has Biden done anything in his years congress to do anything to prevent the current situation ?
Posted By: Guest#1463 (Guest) on September 17, 2008 at 08:35 PM
It's pretty clear that government manipulation, as opposed to a hands-off approach, created a large chunk of this mess. With government understood to guarantee their debt, Fannie & Freddie were enabled to continuously channel money to lenders, therefore lowering the lending standards that would otherwise exist in a true free market. In this case, government is most assuredly "the enemy."
Posted By: mainmanX.com (Guest) on September 17, 2008 at 10:07 PM
IIRC, McCain, along with the BUSH administration, pushed for more oversight of FM/FM and the DEMOCRATS stopped it. It was also people like McCain who fought against the Clinton changes to the Community Reinvestment Act that essentially forced banks into creating the subprime market in order to get congress off their back for not lending money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back.
Posted By: Chris Connolly (Registered) on September 17, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Raise taxes on the "evil rich", make their companies fill out more paperwork, and ramp up the handouts to more "hard working Americans"
SMELLS LIKE A CURE TO A SLOWING ECONOMY TO ME! I can't wait until everything is fixed next year by the Messiah.
Posted By: Eric (Guest) on September 17, 2008 at 11:48 PM
Democrats have there hands dirty with fannie and freddie and thats why the democratic congress aren't touching it. And Biden jokes about the bridge to nowhere... HE VOTED FOR IT!
Posted By: gwpbrian (Guest) on September 17, 2008 at 11:56 PM
Surprise of the day: it was the Republicans who wanted more oversight.
Posted By: Tito (Guest) on September 18, 2008 at 12:07 AM
If Obama loses, he has Biden to blame.
Posted By: Vincent (Guest) on September 18, 2008 at 01:53 AM
STAY CURRENT