The GOP Just Laid the Foundation for the Next Financial Crisis?

Have Republicans just laid the foundations for the next big financial crisis?

The country has just barely emerged from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

So why are Republicans trying to help Wall Street crash the economy - again?

While the country was glued to the James Comey hearings, House Republicans passed a bill that economists say would set us up for another financial crisis.

The so-called CHOICE Act repeals most of the protections put in place by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act - and also limits the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The CFPB has returned $11.8 billion to 29 million (9% of the U.S. population) consumers since 2011.

Do Republicans just not read their history or they so fanatically committed to helping out their oligarch backers that they just don't care that every attempt at deregulation in modern history has been followed by a crash?

Comments

Dick Imus's picture
Dick Imus 5 years 51 weeks ago
#1

Hey Thom; melting down in Congress, Az.

I started a Petition on change.org

https://www.change.org/p/the-set-congressional-pay-at-equal-to-the-avera...

I would like this to get some legs! Thanks dic

Legend 5 years 51 weeks ago
#2

If you are in the 1% I understand why you vote Republican. If you are not, why do you vote Republican? Name one good thing that the Republican Party has done for the Middle Class.

Outback 5 years 51 weeks ago
#3

"Do Republicans just not read their history or they so fanatically committed to helping out their oligarch backers that they just don't care that every attempt at deregulation in modern history has been followed by a crash?"

Now Thom, this has to be the most rhetorical question I've ever heard you pose. I think the answer is more than obvious.

But since you mention the "Choice Act", I'd like to bring up another legislative shell game congress passed a few years ago when veterans were litteraly dying on the steps of VA hospitals because they couldn't get in to see a doctor. This was called the Veteran's "Choice Program" by which, if a vet couldn't get in to see a doctor within 30 days, (s)he could opt to see a private doctor and the VA would cover the bill.

As a vet who uses VA health care, I've recently become reacquainted with the VA Choice program, because in order to see my VA primary care physician I now need to wait until August, 2018, not the 30 days mandated by the original legislation. That's right, 14 months! This is because I had my annual physical in May and wasn't due for another scheduled appointment for a year from then, plus a generous 90 days. This is a change that was slipped into the program by the sociopaths that make a big deal out of supporting the endless supply of hobbled veterans they've created by pushing for endless unfunded wars, funded by the dwindling Social Security Trust Fund.

My advice is to break out the vaseline anytime the Republican controlled congress advances anything with the word "choice" attached.

Suze O's picture
Suze O 5 years 51 weeks ago
#4

I'll bet the Republicans are in a hurry to crash the economy - as soon as possible - so they can blame it on Obama and get the attention off of Trump. It is imperative for them to finish destroying both the Democratic Party and the government services Americans want to keep, so they are desperate to retain their majorities in Congress. Since any wins the Democratic Party gets in the 2018 elections are a threat to their agenda, being able to vilify the Democrats as ruiners of the economy is another big propaganda hammer. Dems need to understand that they are NOT going to get back control of any branch of government very easily. (Remember how GWB actually made gains in Congress in the 2002 midterms?One of the very few times in history! That was no coincidence. Republicans have been playing a long game of making America a one-party state, and all their other moves - the judiciary, corporations, right-wing media, the economy - you name it - have been geared to that end.

Also don't forget the research Greg Palast and others have done into our voting apparatus being controlled largely by big businesses that favor Republicans. I don't think people understand just how much work the GOP puts into suppressing the Democratic vote in this country (see HAVA and voter suppression tactics). And the Dems say nothing about it because they think that with enough money, the people behind the machines will sway their way. It was the machinery, not James Comey, that took away Hillary's chances, and the machines just might want to give the Republicans more wins in the midterms. Remember the results in 2002 favoring GWB and being a dissappointment for the Dems? That was no coincidence. You're looking at people who want total control. And they're getting closer and closer to it.

Legend 5 years 51 weeks ago
#5

If the economy crashes, it is on the Republican watch. Went up steadily for 8 years under Obama despite Republican obstruction. But how can it crash when they are dangling carrots of repatriation of overseas income and 15% corporate tax? Only when they fail to do it. Look what Bush/Cheney did to the economy.

OrgDevGuy's picture
OrgDevGuy 5 years 51 weeks ago
#6

Thom, why have you stopped including links to share these posts? The Facebook link at the top of the page is to your page, not for sharing & not to the specific posts.

stecoop01's picture
stecoop01 5 years 51 weeks ago
#7

I think I finally figured something out:

Trump and Putin....Pinky and the Brain.

ScottFromOz 5 years 51 weeks ago
#8

Thom asks the rhetorical question: "Do Republicans just not read their history or they so fanatically committed to helping out their oligarch backers that they just don't care that every attempt at deregulation in modern history has been followed by a crash?"

The answer is: They don't know, and they don't care AND they don't care that they don't know.

Here's another quote: "Stupid is as stupid does."

wmleidy's picture
wmleidy 5 years 51 weeks ago
#9

the owners of the republican party expect only two things, one is tax cuts for the rich, and the other is corporate welfare. the republican goal is increasing wealth inequality to make america great once again, in the feudal sense of the word.

snax's picture
snax 5 years 51 weeks ago
#10

Everybody seems to miss the larger picture: A crash is what the people at the very top actually want.

Why? Volatility creates profits for the Wall Street 'casino' investors, and it always comes out of the pockets of those who in relative terms don't own a controlling stake in anything.

The market goes up, they profit.

The market goes down, they profit. (Or get bailed out if they screwed that up.)

Either way, because they hold all of the cards and influence the people who make the laws and approve the bailouts, the very wealthiest still win. And the more of it that comes from you and I, the better it is for them.

2950-10K's picture
2950-10K 5 years 51 weeks ago
#11

This time around the banksters are in for a big surprise. The Teabaggers will block any government intervention, and to make matters worse, interest rates are already to low to have any stimulative potential. The Teapublicans will be clueless. It will be a Hoover shhht show all over again.

A giant foreign policy mistake will trigger the crash long before Trump's deregulation has a chance to screw things up. The entire world is on edge right now....couldn't be a worse time for a numbnut to be commander -in- chief of the largest military in world history. I'm sensing massive death along with massive panic....it's the Trump way, go for broke and go broke.

DHBranski's picture
DHBranski 5 years 51 weeks ago
#12

I think the bottom line is that it's out of our hands. We can sign truckloads of petitions, but we might just as well sign our names in the fog on our bathroom mirrors. I guess we could wage a revolution, as long as we make sure to punch back in at work on time. That we have single party government now is a fact. After all these years, the "masses" are too deeply divided and subdivided to do a whole lot about it.

DHBranski's picture
DHBranski 5 years 51 weeks ago
#13

Americans do have a sense of the dramatic. What the middle class fears, is what the poor have already adjusted to. Most survive. You find new ways to do that. It's humbling, sometimes brutal, and you adjust. You gain a dramatically new perspective of America, and of your place within this beast.

DHBranski's picture
DHBranski 5 years 51 weeks ago
#14

No, much has changed in recent decades. We appear to now be at the point where the rich do to the middle class what the middle class already did to the poor. The US itself has slowly been transitioning into just another third world labor state that discards those who aren't of current use. Our more just just didn't notice yet.

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 5 years 51 weeks ago
#15

Quick, someone write a book, only this time leave the date off the title so it will remain somewhat relevant when following historical patterns and the inevitable happens, you can spout "see, I told you so".

ErinRose's picture
ErinRose 5 years 51 weeks ago
#16

1) The American public, for all of its rallies and marches, is still asleep at the switch. They really don't get what is going on (too complicated) and it hasn't hit deep enough... yet.

2) The biggest transfer of wealth has also been the biggest heist the world has ever seen and they are setting us up for it to go again. Why not? It has worked so well for them thus far.

3) There is a formula to this just like what they have been doing to innocent countries, like Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, etc., for quite some time: Take a country, bomb the heck out of it (9/11) to frighten the populace and legitimize a regime, create total chaos (be afraid, be very afraid,) because in chaos they can steal all they want; it is the quintessential dust storm that hides what they are doing and covers their tracks afterwards. And because they control the MSM, they get to blame anybody else (Russia, people of color, US citizens who do subversive things like form unions,) etc..

All of this is just the 99th re-run of Wagon Train coming at us one more time. But people are so resolved to be comitose where all this is concerned. It's imperialism turned on America, but no one wants to come out of denial and deal with it. We are just going to get our teeth kicked down our throats again; one more time. It's like the nerd in the schoolyard who is too afraid to fight being had by the schoolyard bully once again. Being afraid is the excuse people give themselves so they don't have to do anything. MAYBE one of these times; cycles of abuse, people will find their backbone and finally eject the evil doers out of office and rip the face of decency off of the industrialists (Koch brothers, Waltons, Bushes,) and banksters (Rothschilds) who finance this insanity.

I've been racking my brain to account for this, what? Lazy behavior? No, I think it is very well planned and implement cultural norms that plays a big part in all of this. What I'm talking about are social values; particularly held by the English (descendants) in this country, and obvious among Southerners. They have been line-bred not to say anything or do anything against "their betters". I've heard this from childhood. Anyone with roots in Great Britain is familiar with this. You pull the forelock and bow to the better judgment of those in higher stations unquestioningly. Remember "question authority" back in the 1960's, and the Flower Children? IMHO the CIA is the culprit that introduced drugs into that movement to kill off "peace and prosperity" and the questioning of authority and they did it with force back then, too, (Kent State and the New Paltz Student Union). The CIA did the same thing down in East L.A., by introducing drugs down there and derailing that citizen effort, also.

English society still operates off of the notion that wealthy (landed) people are better than everyone else and that ordinary people, "commoners" must "do their duty" and be "obedient". The English who settled this country brought this zeitgeist with them and it's still operating in present days society. I live in the Deep South and I see it all around me all the time. The Republicans came into the South and took it over because the populace were already programmed with an agenda that lends itself to being subjugated. The flag waving and religous fervors are just the hooks that simple minds can latch onto; the flying buttresses to the walls between the classes and the servitude it represents.

So, for me, this is what is causing America to stand still and take the raping. Somewhere in our fundamental psyche it is programmed in that the rich are better than the rest of us, that they have the right-of-rule no matter how awful that shakes out for the citizenry, and that we owe our duty, loyalty, and servitude to our betters, unquestioningly and under any and all circumstances. Aren't these the very same things Trump was demanding out of Comey before he fired him? Aren't these the very things the corporate community (modern nobility) are demanding out of us (Standing Rock)?

And realize, education that teaches critical thinking has been judiciously excised from America in a pre-emptive strike against us that insures going into battle half witted. So, put together dumbed down, religious subjugation, a bigoted patriotism that requires a heavy hand and the loss of civil rights, fear and chaos (9/11), together with a monied uber class of corporate nobility, and you have one group (A) raping group (B), and group (B) programmed (by media, church, and culture) to think that this is the way things are supposed to be; so they take it without question.

I see this in the South particularly. Any time I try to talk about going against the Established Order, they treat me like I am a pariah, they walk away and sever all ties. Pre-programming of the societal kind.

People don't realize how Medieval this thinking is, why it was put in place, and who it best and only serves. Like I keep saying, have done all along: It won't be until people wake up, shake off their brain fog and get on with what must be done will anything be different. "Nothing changes if nothing changes," and people are too wilfully uninformed, misinformed (MSM), and afraid of change to elicit those things that would radically change what is, has, and will be going on here.

All this being said, I see a glimmer of hope after seeing what happened in GB with the Labor Party recently. Maybe if England can wake up, America can, too. Here's hoping...

***

Ronin's picture
Ronin 5 years 51 weeks ago
#17

When Reagn sat on the "Throne" our oppostion was found on two popular DC area bumper stickers: "Give Hinckley Another Chance" and the other one "Don't trickle Down on Me"... Aas you point out now and then,,, John Calvin lives! (vis-a-vis his "Chosen" AKA Republicans. Recall that peace march song Give peace a chance? We the oppresed at EPA used to sing ".. all we are saying .. is give Give Hinckley a chance..." (We called Ann Gorsuch "Anne Nonesuch" as she over stated no pursuit of environmental ussues.. it was her version of "Don't ask and don't tell" borrowed from gay rights movement. In her espoused narrow views.. environmentalists were mostly gay liberals. Global warming was a "gender preference" issue.

Ronin's picture
Ronin 5 years 51 weeks ago
#18

The largest brothel on teh planet is the US Congress. Elected officals are "pimped out" by thier money backers.. we know that.. but gets lost in the opposing discourse is that prostitution a more honest profession.. at least in the pay for sex trade... the "cunsimer" gest a "happy ending" in politics, dealing with Republicans is like going to a wife swapping party and coming home alone. As life-long democraft.. now in my 70's... I despsie elected officials like Al Franken.. he is Jeff Sessions "Biothch" and thinks it's funny... I don't. Our Congress.. like the President.. needs a "high colonic." That will make "America (feel) great again"

chuckle8's picture
chuckle8 5 years 51 weeks ago
#19

ErinRose -- I am going with lazy. As Thom points out, "democracy is not a spectator sport". He should continue and say autocracy is a spectator sport. Autocracy seems to be a very seductive spectator support. One of the more obvious examples is Brian Williams blathering about the bombing of Assad's air base. Obama went through the excruciating process of democracy and could not get congress approval. On the liberal side the left loves the SCOTUS for its Roe vs Wade and Brown vs. Board of Education decisions. SCOTUS is not a democratic process.

I think Thom needs to spend more time pointing out the shortcomings of autocracy, whenever he points out the desire for democracy. It seems the main appeal of autocracy is that we get some short time relief without having to think about the long term implications.

Radical's picture
Radical 5 years 51 weeks ago
#20

Dear ErinRose : Thank You for your incredibly accurate comments on how people are taught not to Question their bettors. This is one of the tenants of our Ayn Rand Moussolini Fascist run society. I would make some adjustments but your comments are right on the money. i reccomend listening to Chris Hedges whenever you can on Rt network 4.30 pm pacific time. Tuesdays.

Hughesbayou's picture
Hughesbayou 5 years 50 weeks ago
#21

It's disgusting that a few individuals an make things so crazy for so many. We're in an era where sometimes it comes down to one guy and he usually wants something in return. They have become so focused on the money they've lost sight of their commitment to the country.

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