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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Selectric II who wrote (2477)	10/14/2000 5:29:20 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 10042

Selectric, I happen to be a expert on the S+L debacle. I spent six months researching it for a TV mini-series which never got produced. The quasi-fictional story was based on what happened at Silverado (famous for Neil Bush taking a fat salary for doing nothing but sit on the board) I interviewed regulators, bankers, feds, even private investigators hired to try and find the missing billions. It was an amazing story of a collosal inside deal and ponzi scheme which was destined from the beginning to rip off we the tax-payers on an enormous scale. Certain democratic congressmen took the campaign contributions and were involved, but by far most of the protection and the original generation of the entire scheme came from the Reagan administration and its friends in congress. Time and time again Donald Reagan and others in the RR administration refused to even investigate though banks were going under and money was disappearing at a shocking rate. They wanted to protect their contributors and sweep this under the rug, especially with the 1984 election coming up. Every banking regulator who tries to sound the alarm or try to get action from the RR administration was punished and ostrasized. Some were fired and their lives ruined. They were just doing their jobs trying to warn everyone what was going on but they were never listened to, and a lot worse. I have seen the video clip of RR signing the bill that started it all. This was the Garns-St Germaine de-regulation bill in 1982. I even gave you a quote from the most comprehensive book on the subject by Martin Mayer (which is not an anti-GOP book by any means). The bill basically removed all restrictions from S+L's and cut them loose to loan to whomever they wanted for whatever they wanted, and since the government was guaranteeing the money back they figured who cares, it's the tax-payers money anyway. Just to explain to you the facts, Reagan ran on deregulation blaming Carter for high interest rates which were crimping banks margins. The Garns-St Germaine act was a very deliberate attempt to "unleash the power of free enterprise from government regulation". Carter would have never-ever even considered such a bill even though he did have some mildly corrupt Dixiecrats around him like Bert Lance. Whatever you're talking about that happened in 1979 it wasn't the bill that caused the 800 billion boondoggle. I'll give you more written evidence if you need it but I get the feeling you just don't want to see the truth, being a Reaganite who thinks RR could do no wrong. Also, if you investigate further you'll see that the chief operators of the S+L banks in those days (Larry Mize, Charles Keating, Silverado boys etc.) were enormous RNC supporters. Larry Mize in Texas raised more money for RR than anyone else in the country for the 1980 race by hitting up all the S+L owners for big contributions. It was blatant corruption on an enormous scale considering what happened ocne RR was in office. The Garns-St Germaine bill was their pay-back and it came back effortlessly from the RR administration with Donald Reagan clearing the way. It was a priority of the administration. The effect of this deregulation was that we may be paying interest on that 600 billion - trillion $ bill for decades to come - unless someone pays down the deficit. Bush certainly won't do it. That we all know. The four biggest contributors to the national debt have been the Vietnam War, the arms race, rising health care costs and the S+L debacle. I'm not sure which one is the biggest. It was all put on the big credit card. Only now in the past 3-4 years has the national debt actually begun to decrease - and rather rapidly lately. But the tax-cut Bush is proposing will all by itself send the debt clock trilling back upwards again. It will also threaten whatever surplus we have to prop up SS, Medicare, education and a lot more. Add in Star Wars, more deregulation and tax breaks for cronies and you have even more debt. Neither candidate will be able to make good on all his promises without additional surplus years in the future, but Gore is the most fiscally conservative of the two and intends to continue paying down that debt. To me that is conservative. And right. Small government. Is that a good thing? In some ways yes, in other ways no. You can't have it both ways. More efficient yes everyone agrees. But smaller by draining money, cutting key programs and giving back money mainly to the upper income brackets and corporations, that will just mean greater debt and a withering safety net. It will bring higher interest rates and inflation. It will put more people on the street and start racial tensions going again. Remember LA riots during the Bush administration? Our tax rate is lower than anyplace in Europe. So are our energy taxes. Some suggest a flat tax which is a fine idea until you realize that the states would then have to raise their taxes including sales tax on everything you buy to make up the difference. You just can't have it both ways? And any across-the-board tax reduction mainly favors the rich. I myself am borderline rich but I don't mind paying a little more to keep this country running smoothly. Besides, we upper income guys know we have so many write-offs we never pay anywhere near the 45% or so we're supposed to pay anyway. Maybe 20-25% at the most. Deregulation sounds great but what are the results? Letting the foxes into the chicken coops. Freeing special interests we can't trust to run hog-wild. Ripping off the tax-payers, plundering and polluting the environment, taking short-term gains at great long-term cost to the nation. Again, if it ain't broken don't fix it. The past eight years have been a golden age for America. Let's keep it that way.