When so-called Democratic ‘moderates’ make a big fuss about balancing the budget, I’m somewhat sympathetic. Right now we need the government to spend money to make up for the lack of investment coming out of the private sector. We could tax an equal amount of money to our spending, but that would be at least partially self-defeating in our current economic environment. So, I don’t think we’re currently in a situation where it makes sense to complain about deficit spending. But we should certainly be concerned about it. And when things improve, we need to work on eliminating our deficits. I don’t mind deficit hawks as long as they aren’t dogmatic about it. If they can bend with the times, I think they serve an important function in the Democratic Party.
But how can I sympathize with Evan Bayh wanting to strip the cram-down provisions out of the Banking Bill?
Bayh and Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter are pushing an alternative bill that narrows the range of borrowers who could have their mortgage principal reduced. Lobbyists tracking efforts by Senate Majority Whip Durbin to drum up industry and Senate support for a measure like the House bill said talks appear stalled. Eliminating or watering down the cram-down provision would be a win for the banking industry and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has pushed to move banking provisions separately from the cram-down measure.
This isn’t a case of ‘moderates’ acting as fiscal disciplinarians. This is just putting the banking industry’s interests over the interests of some of your most vulnerable constituents. That’s all it is. There isn’t any upside. There isn’t any excuse. It’s just plain and simple whoring for the mortgage-lenders at a time when we’re desperately trying to slow the foreclosure crisis by helping people refinance their loans. In fact, the cram-down would help the mortgage-lenders in the short term by preventing them from going broke. It’s only in the longer term, when the housing market has stabilized, that the cram-down will come back to haunt the banking industry.
Bayh and his merry band want to serve the interests of business. Why is that? Is there some reason that the hardworking people of Indiana, of all places, have an interest in serving (mainly coastal) corporate interests? I understand when Bayh is a moderate on social issues or when he wants to show himself as a moderate legislator. His state is moderate-to-conservative. But Bayh acts like he represents Western Connecticut and Northern New Jersey instead of the cornfields and combines of the Hoosier State. What’s wrong with him?
Clear-thinking, analytical Booman doesn’t understand something? How can that be?
Ever see “Charlie Wilson’s War? Who do you really think finances Bayh’s re-election?
The same people that fund Lieberman.
The more important question is, why does he keep getting elected?
I’ve never liked him. I can’t understand why people think he’s useful to our party.
wasn’t he a candidate for prez?
!!
Q: “why does he keep getting elected?”
A:
Kool-Aid drinkersVoters who continue to send people like Dan Burton and Mike Pence back to the House year after year. Oh, Teh Stupid!Actually, I think you have the dynamic backwards – Bayh’s popularity with his constituents allows him to do things like this that may run counter to their interests. He burns a little bit of his cred when he does it, but last time I checked he was still quite popular in Indiana.
Add in the fact that this is something he’d never be attacked on from the right, and that if another Democrat managed to win a primary challenge against him from the left the Democrats would in all likelihood lose that seat, and there’s very little reason for Bayh to not do this if he thinks it’s a good idea.
As to why he thinks it’s a good idea there are a number of reasons (none of which I think are good). The most charitable is that as a Clinton-era “New Democrat” type, he might actually think that this is a bad idea economically – that forcing the banks to take a bad long-term deal would be bad for the country’s economy as a whole. People believe a lot of stupid things, and Senators certainly aren’t immune, so this is possible.
More likely, I’d bet he sees it as a bad move to make for the long-term goal of convincing businesses that the Democratic Party is the party of business – as you point out, the cramdowns are long-term losers for the banks involved. Once things turn around, banks will remember who was on their side and who forced them to take the bad deals, so he may be thinking long term and not short term. (A stupid decision that puts the economy and people’s livelihoods at risk, but I’ve never seen Bayh as being all that empathetic to the plight of normal people anyway).
The least charitable explanation is that he gets a lot of money from banks, so he’s their whore. I actually think that interest groups tend to find pols to give money to who are already doing what they want and work to get them elected, rather than outright bribery of pols who might otherwise be unsympathetic to them. So I tend to think that’s less likely than the idea that this runs counter to Bayh’s long-term vision of the Democratic Party myself. But I suppose it’s an option.
Elkhart, Indiana is an economic mess these days.
The problem is that politics is always defined as right v. left when it’s top v. bottom. People vote for a candidate because he’s perceived as a guy who lives next door, or fishes the same stream, etc., instead of what he’s going to do regarding your job, your mortgage, your healthcare, etc.
Guys like Bayh, who uses his dad’s family name (as I recall, his dad was a good liberal back in the day) as a brand name. He manages enough of the left side of the equation with his brand name, attracts the right with his reactionary stances, and all the while is serving the top against the bottom. He’s essentially a fraud.
Today … Birch Bayh would be considered the far left of the Democratic Party .. and I think Evan was spooked because Birch was eventually defeated by Dan Quayle(yes .. of potato .. or was it tomato? fame)
They’ve had their fun in the sun long enough. They’ve brought us to the brink of ruin. For once, getting them coming and going like they’ve done to so many is fine by me.
He’s been bought and paid for. It really is that simple. Bayh will defend the banksters’ rights to take from us until he is removed from office. Period.