“Socialized Medicine” – Mr. McHugh’s distortion of a National Health Insurance program still rings in my ears. A distortion he purposely and repeatedly used to denigrate a noble and way overdue solution to a pressing national problem. Of course he did it to appeal to his voter base’s primal instincts. To acknowledge that it was a valid solution to a problem that desperately needs solving was to oppose his President, who he has enabled for eight years. To acknowledge a real solution would only invalidate his useless grandstanding tax break bills that solved nothing and went nowhere. His opposition to National Health Insurance was a calculated stance to maintain his populist (both Republican and Democratic) base. A base that hates taxes but has no compunction about pork spending and a government subsidized economy, so long as it comes back to this district

Today he had a particularly hard choice between maintaining his conservative populist ideology that abhors government intrusion into the private sector and deserting his President or voting to “socialize” the banking sector. While the healthcare of his constituents doesn’t rise to the necessity of creating a real solution, the needs of all those poor distressed and suffering bankers, CEO’s and Wall Street wheelers and dealers prompted him to give away the shop to the tune of seven hundred billion dollars. Yes, Mr. McHugh, how does the phrase “socialized banking” strike you. How about “socialized investment” or, what the heck, a “socialist economy.” The bailout bill is an extortion of money from the American taxpayer, and John McHugh is all in favor of it. He has a lot of explaining to do to his base. I think they are catching on.

Let’s cut him some slack though. He’s desperate for the ranking position on the Armed Service committee and a sure way to forfeit that position is to buck the Republican leadership, including George Bush.

Let Wall Street drop. It will come back. Reckless banks are being taken over by stronger banks. Barclays gets Lehman Brothers. Citigroup gets Wachovia and Bank of American gets Merrill Lynch. So what. They are acquiring them in a fire sale, just as they should. That I can take this position with real credibility is because I just lost a lot of money today. Mr. McHugh has never had to save and has nothing in the market. His retirement pension is guaranteed by we taxpayers.

Yes, I will wager that the prospect of loosing a fraction of their fortunes will make the pirates of Wall Street real sick. Not to worry, they’ll still have their health insurance.

Now let’s turn and create a real solution to the credit crisis. There are two moral hazards from which to choose. John McHugh chose the moral hazard of bailing out reckless bankers and CEO’s. The majority of the House, as do the majority of the American people, reject this. The other moral hazard is correcting the root cause of the credit crunch: the individual homeowners who are in or going into foreclosure. Say what you want about those homeowners in trouble, but the mortgage brokers and bankers who obscenely profited from these loans also share in the blame. Bailout the little guy. Role back the interest rates to their initial values that were affordable and restructure the loans. As I noted a few days ago and published in the Watertown Times yesterday, rolling back the variable rates, including allowing bankruptcy judges to restructure loans allows everyone to win – including the banks and the secondary market investors. They just don’t win as big.

Guaranteed, that solution will win a convincing majority of the House.