Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, was grilled and drilled by Congress reflecting the frustration of its members over the state of the economy. In another country I feel most certain that Geithner could have been physically attacked. It seems that everyone has his knickers in a twist.
Congressional members bombarded Geithner with hard luck stories that have resulted from the economic crisis. There were even calls for Geithner to resign.
“Conservatives agree that as point person, you failed. Liberals are growing in that consensus as well,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.). “For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?”
Another went so far as to say
Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Tex.) took a different tack. “I don’t think that you should be fired,” he told Geithner. “I thought you should have never been hired.”
Even some of the Democrats joined in the chiding of Geithner. Of course, none of those folks, Dems or Repubs, have been in Geithner’s seat. In fact it was a year ago that TARP came into being. It was Congress who voted to ante up the hundreds of billions of dollars to save Wall Street from the greatest downfall in American history.
At that time BernieHund was dead set against the bailout. The dark cloud hanging over Wall Street at that time seemed to be concentrated on the rich and devious. Since then the ripples of devestation have spread across all America. Still few of those first falling dominoes have had to pay for their greed. Regulatory reform has not taken shape, at least not in the way America wants it to… but that is an issue that seems to play out in Congressional hands. So far Congress has fumbled the ball.
Across Capitol Hill, senators signaled their opposition to rushing regulatory reform. While some Democrats voiced reservations about parts of the bill, Republicans went further, faulting Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) for pushing ahead before the roots of the crisis were understood.
It is our opinion that “the roots of the crisis” are understood. Greed controlled those who control the money… the banks and the mortgage brokers. We as Americans bought into a dream that we should have known was going to turn into a nightmare. Sooner or later everyone has to pay the piper. We are doing it nationally.
In defense of those who grabbed the opportunity to own a home without sufficient income to keep it or complete understanding of the deal, for those who lived on their credit lines rather than paying for their purchases, BernieHund is tired of hearing how dumb and stupid these people must be. Just look at the Madoff rip off. Bernie… Madoff, not Hund… took billions from people who were supposed to know better, from the educated, from the prominent millionaires and billionaires who became so greedy that they began to believe that they had found the Madoff goose that laid golden eggs. All of us, rich or poor, black or white, professionals or day laborers, educated and ignorant bought into a piece of the dream. So, for those who are looking down their noses at those folks who have faced foreclosure due to the subprime mortgage debacle, maybe it is time to be honest with yourself.
All that said we are a country of people who have been trained by McDonalds. We have been trained to believe that all we have to do is drive up to the speaker and say what we want, drive to the window and pick it up. Ask and receive. Credit cards made it too easy. Credit was too easy.
Back to Geithner. He has made mistakes. Obama has made mistakes. We won’t even go into the mistakes that were made before the Obama administration. It is sufficient to say that by the time the present administration arrived at the fire the house was burnt almost to the foundation. But, should Geithner resign? Hell no!
Congress is shirking its responsibility to its constituents back home by pointing the collective finger at Geithner or Obama. Of course, each member of Congress is being bombarded by sad stories of foreclosures and unemployment. And, each member of Congress knows that this mess took longer than a year to create and is going to take longer than a year to remedy. Of course Congress should know that nothing gets done overnight…. Ah… healthcare bill?
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