C'mon Nancy! C'mon Harry!

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Sunday September 21, 2008 · 4:40 AM PDT

2008/09/21 · 04:40

We are quickly approaching a climactic moment that could mean everything to the Democratic Party. The Bush administration + Fed Chair Ben Bernanke have approached Congressional Democrats to ask them to approve a bailout plan that they insist is necessary in order to prevent a financial collapse. All the signs are now pointing to the likelihood that Nancy and Harry will orchestrate yet another collapse of will in their desperate fear that the Republicans might try to blame the Democrats for failing to save the economy. If this is true, then we Democrats are likely to miss a glorious, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to utterly discredit the Republican Party for at least a couple of generations.

Please Nancy, please Harry, don't do anything stupid just because you're feeling the pressure. Contrary to what the Republicans are telling you, time is actually on your side. Think about this. If the whole financial sector of the economy were to collapse 3 days from now, the blame for it would not be assigned to the Democrats who refused to be rushed into another bone-headed scheme put together by Republican strategists. History will remember, as will the electorate next month, that it was the Republicans and their whole laissez-faire approach that destroyed the economy. Think about it...the worst thing that could happen is that the Dems win an overwhelming victory in November and the Repugs end up discredited for a couple of generations.

I'm not saying that you should refuse to cooperate with Bush just to guaranteed the long-term destruction of the Republican Party and to end the evil they have perpetuated, as much as the American people would benefit from that. I'm just saying ALL OF THE PRESSURE IS ON THEM, and they know it. They are the ones who face judgment if everything falls apart. They are the ones who created the crisis through their foolish ideas. You have the time you need to wrest the most titanic concessions out of them. Do NOT accept whatever they are proposing because the end of the world they created is at hand. Find some way, anyway to address the most crucial need of the moment without agreeing to their 'solution.' Buy yourself some time; you're in the driver's seat.

Here is one way you could buy yourselves the time you need. Pass some legislation that would authorize the Treasury department (or some agency you create) to use taxpayer money to buy the assets of Washington Mutual when it finally is unable to pay its bills. Do NOT allow the Treasury Secretary to pay what WAMU thinks is a fair price for those assets. Buy those assets at firesale prices. Don't pay any more than Bank of America paid for Merril Lynch. The taxpayers want to buy financial companies for the cheapest price possible.

Once the Taxpayers have acquired WAMU, fully capitalize the bank and lend as much money to firms as they may need to keep the economy humming along. The 'great urgency' of the current crisis will pass. Credit will not 'dry up' if the Taxpayer's Bank is making loans to all who need them. Once that great concern is addressed---the fear that banks will stop lending---it will then be possible to plan a more sober and methodical approach (think Chapter 11) to remove the all the bad debt from the economy that no firm wants to buy.

Please Harry. Please Nancy. The Republicans' approach to running the economy is on trial. Remind the American people constantly that this whole mess was their creation and that you are not going to help enable their incompetence any more...

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