McCain Flip-Flops On AIG Bailout In 24 Hours
McCain Flip-Flops On AIG Bailout In 24 Hours
Yesterday, the federal government offered insurance giant AIG an $85 billion loan to in the biggest government takeover thus far in the ongoing credit crisis. Interviewed on NBC’s Today Show before the decision yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that “we cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else”:
No, I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG and I’m glad that the Secretary Paulson has apparently taken the same line.
Interviewed on ABC this morning, however, McCain suggested that he supported the bail out:
I didn’t want to do that. And I don’t think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here. They were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption.
ABC observed that McCain today “sound[ed] somewhat accepting of the Fed’s action on AIG.” Watch a compilation:
McCain’s change on AIG comes on the heels of economy-related flip flop. McCain told NBC yesterday, “Of course I don’t like excessive and unnecessary regulation.” But on CBS’s Early Show minutes later, McCain said, “Do I believe in excess government regulation? Yes.”
Yglesias observes, “It would be pretty mavericky of McCain to stick with his guns on this. … The good thing about being a maverick, I guess, is that either response would have sufficed as a mavericky one. Or else that McCain just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” See ThinkProgress’s running tally of McCain’s flip-flops here.
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oh, that was just maverick McCan’t going with his gut again.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pmMcCain today called out Wall Street’s casino culture. Um, does the guy with the notorious gambling problem (craps) really want to go with that frame?
What happens in Vegas…stays in Vegas!
September 17th, 2008 at 12:54 pmMcCain can largely thank his de-regulating maverick compadre Phil Gramm for this mess.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:55 pmA clarification came from the McCain campaign today:
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
(Thanks to Robert McCloskey for this famous quote)
September 17th, 2008 at 12:57 pmHell yeah! We are all shareholders now!
oh wait, we’re not?
let them collapse.
thanks mccain!
September 17th, 2008 at 12:58 pmI thought I heard Pitbull Palin chortle that she was glad that big government wasn’t getting involved as well.
So much for core values.
¶ AIO
September 17th, 2008 at 12:59 pmMcCain = Mavericky McSillyPutty
September 17th, 2008 at 12:59 pmSink or swim–only for the individual consumer. Remember the hue and cry over “irresponsible borrowers” who should just suck it up and suffer the consequences of their bad financial decisions? I do realize that the failure of these institutions will have far-reaching effects on the economy, but it doesn’t increase our confidence in our government when the big guys get bailed out over and over….while individual families suffer, often for reasons not of their own making.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:00 pmBut there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here. They were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption.
I’m curious Johnny Boy, is that count more or less than the millions affected by the S&L scandal you aided and abetted? Whose life savings you helped your swindler friends get?
This is the perfect time to reintroduce Charles Keating to the campaign. Any takers?
PEACE
September 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pmCould someone please pay for a proofreader?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:08 pmDeformer McCain is no reformer.
Palin rapidly rose in the sky like a proverbial skyrocket. In a few days she peaked, and then she rapidly fell back to earth where, upon impact, she was transformed into a black hole that sucked in McCain… And then there was nothing left at all…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:08 pmFor republicans, “interdependence” only works in one direction.
If a large corporation is in danger of failing, it needs to be rescued.
If a significant segment of American society is in danger of failing (e.g., the middle class) . . . well, they’re on their own. They made bad decisions and they have to live with them.
I prefer a more balanced view of “interdependence” — one that takes into consideration both individual and corporate interests. That probably means that “someone’s ox will still be gored” from time to time but, at least, there will be some confidence that our leaders are doing the right thing to optimize benefits for all rather than just constantly maximizing benefits for the few.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:09 pmI actually think it is more mavericky to go with both. If either is good, both has to be better, right?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:09 pmRegulated entities don’t seem to be having any trouble whatsoever , you senile old twit ; how come all the unregulated entities , which you yourself and indeed your top economic advisor in Gramm have forever touted , seem to be the ones that have to be bailed out ?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pmGreed ran the system up. Executive incentive pay causes CEO’s to swing for the fence, undertaking riskier ventures.
Now the taxpayer catches the failing firm after they strike out financially?
The system will unwind. Vaporware financial products can’t be propped up indefinitely. Bush is putting the reckoning off.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pmHere’s the pattern with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and A.I.G.
1. Accounting scandal
2. CEO change
3. Financial practices supposedly cleaned up
4. Mortgage crisis causes huge losses
5. Taxpayer funded government rescue
6. New CEO’s
None of the above are banks, which are regulated. However, George W. wants to allow nonbanks to buy larger chunks. The Carlyle Group is itching to garner big pieces of regulated banking institutions. More disaster capitalism?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:15 pmthe Lone Voice of Reason Says:
oh, that was just maverick McCan’t going with his gut again.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I don’t think McCain is a “maverick”, but an “erratic” doofus.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pmI can’t believe what I just heard McFlippy say “Obama just sees this economic crisis as a political opportunity” This from the guy who, after 26 YEARS of backing deregulation has suddenly seen the light and is now a born-again regulator. I mean WTF? The latest tack is to blame the Dem’s for this deregulation mess.. funny this whole campaign they’ve (the repubs) been saying they need to get gov’t out of the way of business, and the democrats are part of that problem. Make up your mind already. They think we are stupid… the scary thing is collectively, they might be right.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:20 pmThe economy is as important to women as to men, if not more so.
Women are not flocking to McCain:
Women’s rights groups endorsed Barack Obama for president Tuesday, asserting the historic selection of a female Republican vice presidential candidate does not make up for John McCain’s lack of support on issues important to women.
“We don’t think it’s much to break a glass ceiling for one woman and leave millions of women behind,” said Eleanor Smeal, chairman of the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee.
Smeal was among leaders from six organizations that announced their endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee at a news conference.
Obama also won the support of the National Organization for Women, which said it has not endorsed a candidate for president since Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro shared the Democratic ticket in 1984.
NOW backed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries. “We join with her in saying ‘no,’” said NOW President Kim Gandy, referring to a line Clinton used at the Democratic convention last month. “No way, no how, no McCain.”
Gandy and Smeal dismissed polls that suggested McCain has received a boost in support from white women after he picked Palin.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:20 pmGrampy McGonnaDieSoon says - My friends being a maverick means that I can say one thing on minute then say something the opposite the next, that is what mavericks do, we do things no sane person would, that’s what being a maverick is all about, it’s about change, yes change, I can change what I said yesterday in to something real mavericky today and say just the opposite of it, mavericks don’t have to take stands on anything, rule of law, fcuk that, I’m a maverick, I don’t need no stinking laws, mavericks make up the law they like today then change them tomorrow, now I want you all to watch the Palin, watch the Palin, watch the Palin, watch the Palin, you’re getting sleepy, very sleepy, don’t think about the issues, be distracted by the Palin, watch the Palin….Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Distraction and mavericky flip flopping, that’s what the country needs, besides he is like the Wizard of Oz, he knows how to fix everything, but he’s not going to do it until he steals the election.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:34 pmWow! The flip (bailout? hell yeah!) came less than 24 hours after the (cow)flop (No bailout). By this time next week he’ll be voicing two mutually exclusive standpoints in the same sentence.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:39 pmWe are not shareholders. Let AIG collapse for all the bigotry and racism they have imposed on poor Latin American countries. I’ll never forget how they pissed off the hotel workers union in Puerto Rico. When few members of the hotel workers union set the entire Dupont Plaza Hotel (once a Sheraton, and now owned by Marriott) on fire on new year’s eve 12/31/1986. So many innocent americans died! Now let the whole facade, built on racism, bigotry, and tyranny, crumble down. How sweet it is, poetic justice at last!
Wall Street is a hotbed of bigotry, greed, tyranny, and racism, that exploits not just 3rd world countries, but also americans here at home. Rip-off artists on a grand scale, stuck-up arrogant bigots bring them all down.
AIG should give thanks to the idiot freak GWBush for their demise. The incompetent idiot they so eagerly wanted for president has allowed this entire economic mess to unravel, spending trillions on a failed criminal war. This one’s for you idiot!
September 17th, 2008 at 1:41 pmone more clue Says:
By this time next week he’ll be voicing two mutually exclusive standpoints in the same sentence.
____________
He already has.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:44 pm.
So my tax dollars are going to bail out financial institutions and I still have no health care?
.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:45 pmYup, that’s the sign of an original maverick for you.
John McCain on the AIG Bailout:
“Before I was for it, I was against it.”
Sarah Palin on the Bridge to Nowhere:
“Before I was against it, I was for it.”
Please do not try to adjust your set. It really is this bizarre.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:47 pmTired of being lied to Says:
Please do not try to adjust your set. It really is this bizarre.
__________
Who’s on second?
No, what’s on second, who’s on first…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:48 pmTired of being lied to Says:
Yup, that’s the sign of an original maverick for you.
John McCain on the AIG Bailout:
“Before I was for it, I was against it.”
Sarah Palin on the Bridge to Nowhere:
“Before I was against it, I was for it.”
Please do not try to adjust your set. It really is this bizarre.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Don’t try to adjust your TV set, you’re entering the Twilight Zone… ah, no, it’s the McCain campaign.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pmMax-1 Says:
So my tax dollars are going to bail out financial institutions and I still have no health care?
__________
Yep… wait until they start using your tax dollars to bail out HMOs that refuse to give you coverage…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pmDow down -346 at this moment….
….Got Depression?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pmFish on Deck count up to ???
Isn’t there some kind of limit? Like Salmon?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:53 pmBuckie, -358 and holding (for 45 seconds)…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:54 pmMax-1 Says:
So my tax dollars are going to bail out financial institutions and I still have no health care?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
But your health gives no interests and/or benefits to the (real) elite. Your lack of health, in the other hand…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:54 pmThis is the best candidate that the Republican party can offer?!?!?!??? The party that once backed the grossly inexperienced Abraham Lincoln has no devolved down to this??? Add to this mix Ms. “The Rapture is Coming so I’ve Got To Take Charge” Palin into the mix and you wonder how Anybody could be so deluded as to admit knowing them, much less supporting them. It just gets worse and worse.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:54 pmImpeach Pelosi, Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Impeach Palin and restore the Rule of Law!
Buckie,
I was just going to post the same thing…
How will MFlipper Straight Talk this spin?
.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pmRUCerious Says:
That’s on catches not on release statements…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:57 pmThis gaffe has been added to TP’s flipflop counter:
September 17th, 2008 at 1:57 pmJohn McCain’s 44 Flip-Flops
“…were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption.” To which he should have added:
‘…in a financial environment engineered primarily by my good friend Phil Gramm, in which multiple, interlocked, cascading failures could and likley would occur, because we sought to remove the historic firewalls between banking, brokerage and insurance operations, reduced or eliminated regulation and financial oversight, introducing new instruments which even some to the sharpest minds on Wall Street could not comprehend or explain, and which were effectively shielded from audits by their very complexity and lack of transparency.’
Or, something. Then the lying Maverick™ would finally be telling the truth for a change. I may continue to sit here holding my breath, contemplating how much my oxygen starved brain is beginning to hurt until he does so.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pmLet’s do a little math: let’s assume that an average health insurance for a family of four costs 10,000$ per year. I know, I know, it can differ a lot, but let’s use this figure for a moment.
With $85 Billion, you can pay up to 85,000,000,000 / 10,000 = 8,500,000 health insurances for families of four for a full year.
That is 8,5000,000 * 4 = 34,000,000 persons with healthcare. That’s almost all the insured people in the USA.
So, explain me again why Universal Healthcare isn’t possible in the USA?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pmWhy the flip flop? Check out
http://www.bloomberg.com/ apps/ news?pid=20601087&sid=a0MSoQeC0h5g&refer=home
“Harvard economics Professor Martin Feldstein, whose advice has been sought by McCain, is on the board of directors of AIG.
One of McCain’s top fundraisers, Wayne Berman, is registered to lobby for AIG, House records show. The company has paid Berman’s firm, Ogilvy Government Relations, $100,000 during the first six months of the year.
McCain’s congressional liaison, John Green, formerly lobbied for AIG at Ogilvy. He has taken a leave of absence from the firm to work on the McCain campaign.”
Maverick??? What a load of crap.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pmMCCAIN: But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here. They were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption.
Hey, how about that Reagan de-regulation? It’s working pretty well for that top 1%…
September 17th, 2008 at 2:04 pmNext he’ll say he was FOR protecting children from predators before he was AGAINST Obama voting to protect them.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:05 pmM. Lafferty, well spake!
September 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pmThe McFlipper express rears it`s ugly head again.Is this guy for real? If some how these maroons steal another ELECTION this guy is gonna reform who , what , when and where?He doesn`t know his a$$ from a whole in the ground.Obviously we need more gov`t regulations and I have just the Democrat to take on this mess and do what dems to best run the gov`t for the people by the people.I can`t wait till November 4th when Obama kicks these maroons in the pants and puts these corrupt re-pukes out of office and in jail.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pmCorrection to #38. “Insured” must be “Uninsured”, of course.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pmEvil Spaniard Says:
So, explain me again why Universal Healthcare isn’t possible in the USA?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Excellent question, my friend. :)
September 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pmMcCain denounced Reaganomics deregulation three times before the cock crowed.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:07 pmWhere is the Main Stream media on this one???????????
September 17th, 2008 at 2:07 pmClumber, wouldn’t that make him McPeter? Or McJudas, my bible study was a long, long time ago…in a faraway land..
September 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pmGet your heads around this figure: the conservative estimate of the looming financial meltdown on Wall Street is believed to approach 1.5 trillion dollars. Yeah, with a T.
The current rate of spending—of, if you prefer, pouring money down the drain—in Iraq is believed to be about 5.6 billion dollars per month. With a B. So, the direct meltdown costs will be equivalent to a little more than 267 months in Iraq, or a little more than 22 years.
More math from the Maverick™ who thinks we ought to be there for, say - another 25, 50 or even 100 years. Sounds about right.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pmAnd guess who went over to the McCon camp in a big splash today?
Lynn Forrester de Rothschild, married into the international banking family, called Obama “arrogant” and “has difficulty connecting with average Americans.”
After raising over $100,000 for Hillary, Lynn flew from one of her two home (either New York or London) to Washington, D.C. to endorse John McCain.
Lynn is the third wife of 77 year old international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. He’s also the ex-Chair of The Economist.
I didn’t realize there are so many levels of arrogance and elitism. Now where does Barack fit again?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pmHi Zoeey!! ^^
Glad to read you :)
September 17th, 2008 at 2:09 pmWow! I feel so much better, now that the Dow is down only 329 points!
September 17th, 2008 at 2:09 pmThe presidential race is just too @#$%&@ long! And Senator McCain is worn out trying to keep, more or less, the same pace as Senator Obama.
He is so tired that he cannot think straight, reason rationally, or even speak without contradicting himself (not as bad as Mr. Bush though).
I feel sorry for the old senator.
Obama/Biden ‘08
September 17th, 2008 at 2:10 pmMichael, where’s this money coming from, and as importantly, where’s it going to?
Are we borrowing it? If so, we’re in deeper shit than I can even imagine.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:10 pmWITH ALL THE MONEY THE GOV HAS GIVIN OUT TO SAVE THESE FIRMS FROM FAILURE….EVERY AMERICAN COULD HAVE HAD HEALTH CARE!!! And lets not forget better schools, roads,invest in cleaner future and so on.
This election will once and for all determine the IQ of this nation. Only idiots would vote for the emcumbant party that drove the nation to the breaking point.
Ask yourself this questions, Why are so many Americans with money moving to other countries to reside???? They travel around the world and realized the USA is not the be all and end all of the world.
Don’t agree??? Isn’t it funny how other industrialized don’t have problems like the US??? Isn’t it funny how these other countries that are doing well are all socialized countries???? Yes it’s funny how we wont look there way for answers because we know best right????
Being a liberal is being PROGRESSIVE in thought and ideas for the greater good of all citizens. America lost the old
September 17th, 2008 at 2:13 pmMarket capitalism has come full circle. Karl Marx must be laughing in his grave as the bourgeois wreaks havoc with the working class.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:15 pmHi Senor Evil. Always nice to read you. :)
September 17th, 2008 at 2:18 pmThe money is all borrowed. We saved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep foreign central banks from losing their shirts on their investments.
A.I.G. insured some of those “innovative” Wall Street financial products, now virtually unsellable.
Bush didn’t save any of these institutions to help the little guy. He let Enron/WorldCom retirees take it on the chin, allows people to foreclose by the tens of thousands , and is doing nothing to help people dipping into their IRA/401k to make ends meet.
The U.S. government is borrowing money to help big money center firms and their investors, which includes many foreign banks who buy Uncle Sam’s debt.
It sounds a wee bit like the mortgage crisis on a national level, huh?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pmThe estimated 1.5 trillion is primarily liquidity loss and devaluation. Poof! go the overvalued assets. Certainly those holding the assets lose, and some of those assets—those which fall below their initial purchase price—count as the loss of individual wealth. So in that sense, it’s not all real money you can put your hand on.
In another, the human costs in job losses and opportunity cost are enormous, and one has to also factor in the exercised government guarantees, which are ultimately paid for by tax payers, or with money cheaply printed which devalues the currency, drives inflation and passes those monetary costs onto… you guessed it, the taxpayers.
Then there are the costs of the war, which are paid for almost exclusively by borrowed funds, as the government and the nation borrow against and sell off our long time asset base, largely to the Chinese and to the Gulf Oil nations of the Middle East.
No matter who wins in several weeks, the losses will long continue. In a simplistic sense, it boils down to Obama/Biden working immediately to try to slow and stem the losses, or McCain/Palin charging forward as if none of this was really happening. Who wants another 8 years? Especially another 8 tighly compressed and accelerating just as this looming financial crisis is?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pm. . . and then I was against THIS, before I was FOR it!
September 17th, 2008 at 2:20 pmHere come Mickey Floppintale, hoppin’ down the flip-flop trail–flippity-flop, flippity-flop, happy on his way.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:21 pmPalin, the moose-gutting gal, will solve this complex financial problem !
September 17th, 2008 at 2:22 pmHere is a great example of how the liquidity crisis is driving current events:
Treasury sells $40 billion in bills for Fed at 0.30%
http://www.marketwatch.com/ news/ story/ treasury-sells-40-billion-bills/ story.aspx?guid=%7B2D90ADBB-4FD7-4154-8B7D-064AE5561B84%7D&dist=msr_2
Do the math. That’s a 12 million dollar interest obligation due, along with principal, in 35 days. Ouch. Well, at least we’ll stay afloat for another month as institutions collapse around us.
Say, how’s your 401.k portfolio doing these days? Afraid to look? You should be.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:24 pmBig Liar John doing what he does best.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pmKeating 5; McCain Feingold; Graham Rudman - as McCain made this mess, he should sell off a few of his houses to pay for it.
But notice: Middle Class (make less than $5 mill per year) if they loose their money it is their own fault. Corporations: We’ve got to help them.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pmtwo words–
KEATING FIVE.
‘nough said
September 17th, 2008 at 2:41 pmRemember when George Bush banned flip-flops from the White House?
September 17th, 2008 at 4:02 pmBush has turned socialist!!! Wow.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:29 pmI hate to say it obama and biden are doing the same shit. Biden says we shouldnt of bailed them out but we had too and obama said something along similar lines. Neither of them seem to know what to do.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:33 pm