via huffingtonpost
Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.
Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."
Oh. my. God.
OK it is time to take this charlatan out. This is completely unbelievable and she is either too breathtakingly stupid to be in the White House (or even head of a small state) or she is purposely painting the bailout as a boon for taxpayers.
While American taxpayers are in the bag yet again for untold billions of dollars (initial estimates point to the Bailout costing hundreds of billions and possibly trillions), the ultimate example of corporate welfare and greed and irresponsibility is being touted by her as a boon to taxpayers - a TAX CUT, if you will. Go Joe, Go Barack, please I beg of you DO NOT let her get away with this. This is unbelievable, willfully ignorant and hits her biggest perceived weakness - lack of knowledge on how the country runs.
Show some balls.
[Note: She has now said this "gaffe" more than once. Looks like it's gonna part of her stump speech.]
UPDATE: And I might add that John McCain himself should be hammered on this. Every "gaffe" Palin excretes should be brought right back where it belongs and framed as illustrating John McCain's ridiculous judgement in choosing this woman to lead the free world.
UPDATE II: I appreciate the David Gregory concern trolls but no, this is not being "mis-read". From the article:
Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.
"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say."
Added Andrew Jakabovics, an economic analysts for the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress: "It is somewhat nonsensical because up until yesterday there was sort of no public funding there. Even today they haven't drawn down any of the credit line they have given to Treasury. 'Gotten too big and too expensive' are two separate things. The too big has been a conservative mantra for a while and there is something to be said of that in that they hold about half of the mortgage guarantees that are out there. And in the last year they have been responsible for roughly 80 percent out there. The 'too expensive to tax payers,' I don't know where that comes from."
Even conservative analysts acknowledged that the statement simply did not hold true.
"Heretofore, if the treasury had a balance sheet there would have been a liability but there was never a taxpayer payment before [the bailout]," said Gerald P. O'Driscoll, an economist with the Cato Institute. "[Fannie and Freddie] were not taxpayer funded. They had taxpayer guarantee, which is worth something, especially in the stock market..."
Thank you anyway and thanks to everyone for recommending this up.
For more information on the bailout please check out bonddad's excellent diary here.
UPDATE III: AND A QUESTION FOR CHARLIE GIBSON TO ASK SARAH PALIN: Everyone else is doing it so here goes mine. I haven't seen this suggested but it seems pretty straightforward to me:
Charlie Gibson: "Governor Palin, do you consider the office of Vice President to be a member of the Executive Branch of government, or is it as Dick Cheney believes, outside the Executive branch?"