BCT Editorial – 12/28/08

This page was last updated on December 28, 2008.

Bottom line; Editorial; Beaver County Times; December 28, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Banks must account for the bailout money they’ve received so far.”

As far as the central premise of the editorial, I agree the lack of transparency is flat out wrong. Then again, I opposed the bailout in the first place.

The reason for this critique is to address the editorial’s whitewashing of the role of congressional Democrats in this mess. Given the Times editorial history, it should be no surprise this editorial lays full blame at the feet of President Bush. The editorial implies congressional Democrats had no choice in the matter. This is hogwash; congressional Democrats were/are willing accomplices.

The editorial notes it took two tries in Congress to get the bailout bill passed. What the editorial failed to note was Republicans killed the first attempt. In that first vote, 60% of House Democrats voted for the bill while 67% of House Republicans voted against it. Though nowhere near enough, safeguards demanded by Republicans encouraged more Republicans to vote for the second version (H.R. 1424) of the bailout bill. Even then, a minority of Republicans voted for the bailout while a majority of Democrats voted for it.

On a side note, there still has not been a Times editorial that addressed what caused the financial problems in the first place. That fact alone speaks volumes.