I Write Letters

Sent today to the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other central Virginia papers:

Republicans Wants Financial Catastrophe, Democrats Should Let Them Have It

I initially supported efforts by Congressional Democrats to resolve the financial crisis on Wall Street by re-writing the Paulson Proposal for bailing out the financial markets.

In the last 24 hours, however, the House GOP and Senator John McCain have turned this crisis into a craven political ploy. The House GOP, led by Henrico Rep. Eric Cantor, is pushing for more tax cuts and more deregulation as their "solution." This is a sad joke.

Senator McCain, the Republican Presidential Nominee, has injected presidential politics into the negotiations, thereby helping to wreck the whole agreement. Sen. McCain, once a towering American hero, has in this campaign become a pathetic figure.

Wall Street pundits on cable TV are now railing against the Dodd Plan - apparently, if they can't get a blank check, they don't want anything.

And finally, Friday afternoon, I saw this:

According to one GOP lawmaker, some House Republicans are saying privately that they’d rather “let the markets crash” than sign on to a massive bailout.

“For the sake of the altar of the free market system, do you accept a Great Depression?” the member asked.

If McCain, the House GOP, and Wall Street don't want the Democrats' help, then there must not be such a serious financial crisis threatening to bring down the rest of the economy. If there was such a crisis, these clowns would not be so arrogant as to reject sensible solutions from Senators Dodd, Webb and others.

I remain convinced that the economy is heading for a very deep, very painful, and very long recession. I had serious misgivings about any bailout of the financial markets, but I also realized that if the markets completely froze, as they are close to doing, that the consequences for the American economy would be catastrophic.

Now, however, given the craven political narcissism of the Republican Party, I say "let the markets crash." If the GOP wants to risk economic Armageddon, then “for the sake of the free market system” let’s “accept a Great Depression.” They have spent the last four decades rigging this “free market” for the benefit of themselves and their Wall Street cronies, so it is long past time they bore the consequences of their actions.

In the end, perhaps they will finally realize their errors when the Democrats return to Washington after the election with huge Congressional majorities and the White House. Perhaps they will realize their failure when the Democrats, responding to a total economic meltdown, are forced to nationalize most of the economy.