Dominic Lawson on guilty Democrats. Here are the first two paragraphs:
Of all the characteristics of a successful politician, none is more essential than bare-faced cheek. Never has this been more evident than in the past fortnight, as senior Democrat members of the US legislature have sought to lay all the blame for the country's financial crisis on the executive arm of Government and Wall Street.
Neither of these two institutions is blameless — far from it. Yet when I see such senior Democrats as Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Senate's Banking Committee, play the part of avenging angels — well, I can only stand in silent awe at the sheer tight-bottomed nerve of it. These are men with sphincters of steel.
Lawson goes on to explain how Frank, Dodd, and company blocked the reforms proposed by the Bush administration. The story is well-known to those who listen to talk radio, but may not have reached the PI, the Times, or KUOW.
Wouldn't it be delightful to see something as blunt and honest in one of the Seattle newspapers, or even — I can dream — on one of the "mainstream" TV networks?
And Lawson is right about this:
The saddest outcome of all this within America — apart from the crippling cost to the nation's taxpayers — is that the very people the Democrats had intended to help will be the biggest victims: for many years to come banks will demand the most stringent terms for mortgages to the least well off.
Those high ranking Democrats may not care about this result, but I do. Again and again, ever since the McGovern takeover of the Democratic party, some Democrats have made it harder for poor people to buy homes; again and again, those Democrats have escaped blame for their actions.
(For those not familiar with the newspaper, the Independent is well to the left of either Seattle newspaper. But it is also more open to dissent than either Seattle paper, so I sometimes find interesting things in it.
Frank, Dodd, and company have less nerve than Lawson thinks, because they know that "mainstream" journalists will protect them — especially in this election year.)
Posted by Jim Miller at October 03, 2008 09:31 AM | Email ThisWell, Bailout fans, EACH AND EVERYONE OF US just got tagged for a bill for a little over $2400 for each and every man, woman and child alive in this country today.
Does it make you all feel better? That they very same scum that caused this are the same ones advocating passage of this garbage?
It just, well, runs a tingle up and down my leg.
And man... have they considered this bill, or what? We should ALL read ALL of the studies done that support this massive waste of hundreds of billions of our dollars.
We should all POUR over the hearings where each and every dollar taken from us was justified BEFORE they took it.
What's that? There aren't any studies? No hearings? And those in government yelling the loudest for this plan were the ones who allowed this to happen in the first place?
Great. Swell. YOUR government in action.
Posted by: Hinton on October 3, 2008 09:59 AMUnfortunately, the GOP candidates seem unwilling to extend the blame beyond these, either. If the guilty parties were Republicans, somehow I think McCain would be less reticent to name names. *sigh*
Here's how WA reps voted:
Voting for the bailout:
Brian Baird, Norman Dicks, Rick Larsen, Adam Smith
Voting against the bailout:
Doc Hastings, Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott, David Reichert, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
The only "cost" that is going to come of this is any defaults. Of that $805 Billion, $205 Billion was "tax breaks" like suspending the not recent enforced an always crazy Alternate minimum tax, continuing the research and development tax credit, etc. Most all of these represent the current status quo and are neither costs nor tax reductions.
That leaves $600 billion in purchasing power for assigning packages of mortgages. These packages are huge, and represent thousands of mortgages each. Luckily they aren't sorted by any kind of critera, so represent pretty much random samples.
The default rate for normal mortgages is running 4-5%. So only 5% of the normal morgages are in default, and most of those will eventually be repaid, but at a lower interest rate or longer period of time.
The subprime mortgages are defaulting at about 15%, but there are much fewer of them. Subprimes probably represent about 25% of the total, at most.
So, the aggregate default rate is probably about 10%. Not good, but of the defaulters, it is likely that nearly all of them will at least repay the principal. In the meantime, the other 90% will be paying back with interest of about 5-6%, which would pretty much cover the losses on defaulters, with interest.
As a historical parallel, the Resolution Trust Company actually made money in the long run.
Personally I think the situation with Fannie and Freddie were scandalous. The Clinton people went in there and raped the joint, and the situation (liquidity crunch caused by the failure of Freddie and Fannie and resulting collapse of confidence) is dangerous, but I think it makes sense to keep real.
Bfr
Posted by: bfr on October 3, 2008 11:16 AMBwaney has plenty of plausible denial ever since he said he wasn't aware his ahem "boyfriend" was running a male prostitution ring out of Fwanks home. Talk about a cartoon character.....he's a real life Mr.Magoo with Elmer Fudds voice. Like I said, comical and tragic since he represents this nation in Congress.
Posted by: Rick D. on October 3, 2008 11:30 AMI was just contacted by Polling Point.
The questions were about the state of the country, favorability of Bush, the top concerns for the country and the economy AND about Obama and McCain. Most of the questions had multiple choice or slider (hot to cold) answers but a few wanted direct opinions.
Please tell us why you would vote for John McCain.MY ANSWER: I believe Obama is a Marxist who will usher unprecedented Socialism while the rest of the world is rightly turning against it toward freedom and free markets.
Nope, I didn't specifically say why I WOULD vote McCain, but that does not change my very valid reason for doing so.
Yeah, Barney Frank, Rangel and many other Democrat co-sponsors have been pushing this for a while. Bush has strongly opposed it.
Posted by: Palouse on October 3, 2008 12:20 PMI think the problem we're seeing with Barney is the press is so much in the tank for Democrats, they don't even pretend to fact check anymore.
The whole "coverage" of these events have failed to notice a few things, including that the democratic congress (admittedly with the willing participation of the republicans) have tried to turn homeownership into one a a bunch of entitlements.
So, we have these ads on TV running constantly shownig people say things like "I got really sick and the insurance ran out, so we just kept running up the bill. Now I owe a lot of money. *It ISN"T FAIR!!!*.
btw, I've been really sick and had the insurance run out. It was awful, and my heart goes out to those who that happens to.
But, really, we live in an age where we *can* do lots of stuff, but it gets really expensive. Cancer treatment, replacement of heart valves, transplants, etc are great, but somebody has to pay for them.
Everybody *should* get reasonable access to decent housing (*not some little apartment*), good food, all the education they can master, a good job and all the medical care they need.
But these things are not free, and it is our responsibility, not the government's to provide for them. If the commercial said "I paid for coverage and when the time came they arbitrarily denied the claim in spite of it being clearly covered" then that would be one thing.
But if its just a matter of someone wanting More Stuff, and "feeling" that its everybody's responsibility to give it to them , I say Grow Up, and quit trying to follow this fantasy because that way lies anarchy.
This applies to houses, too. Originally it was hard to get a home loan, but the Congress decided to fix that. Everybody has won and must have prizes. Now we see that the humiliating process we used to have to go through, which I've always thought was egregious ("Tell me about this late credit card payment in 1974") , had some basis in prudence.
I've seen lenders offering "candy" to people who couldn't afford the loan, and I've seen tricky juggling of what will happen when the ARM adjusts, but ultimately, *we* are the captains of our destiny. If you bite off more than you can chew, its your own damn fault.
(not you, #6, more like you in the abstract).
BTW, I know your not a number, but a Free Man.
Posted by: bfr on October 3, 2008 12:44 PMThen when O is elected and Frank Rains is the treasury sec they will push judges to retire these "bad" loans to "the poor minorities" who didn't know better and BINGO!!! We will effectively have REPARATIONS!!
Posted by: dave on October 3, 2008 01:08 PMWhile I agree completely, it's worse than that. Not a lack of "fact checking", but a lack of "reporting" at all.
If you just take ten minutes to watch the Youtube videos of the congressional hearings with Frank and other Dems just crucifying Republicans for even THINKING that the subprime loans representing a risk (this was 2004), you see right away there's a HUGE story there. But you'll never see this on prime time, because the MSM is supressing it.
Thank God for the Internet and easy ability to see the truth behind this.
These same Dems now go in front of the MSM cameras to point the blame at the lenders and Bush and the Republicans. In the past, they got away with it. Now, they may actually have to face up to it.
Now, to hope that the US electorate will wake up and do their homework and see just how bad this situation really is.
Posted by: Zarro on October 3, 2008 01:14 PMHere's my rule of thumb again: If you would not say it to a naive 10 year old kid, for instance your niece or grandniece, then don't put it in a post here.
Posted by: Jim Miller on October 3, 2008 01:39 PMThe passage of this flawed but necessary bill is not cause for celebration.
The financial crisis is not a failure of the free-market system. It is a failure of a broken Washington, and a government culture that allowed executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other firms to run amok, ultimately imperiling our nation’s economy. For years Republicans warned of this danger and advocated reform of these government-sponsored enterprises. And for years such reforms were thwarted by legislators with deep political ties to the worst offenders, putting the companies’ interests ahead of the interests of our country.
House Republicans stood on principle throughout this process. We secured numerous reforms on behalf of American taxpayers, such as raising the FDIC insurance cap, the SEC’s change to mark-to-market rules for certain assets that have worsened the credit crisis, and an insurance program that forces Wall Street to bear a financial burden in the rescue package. Republicans also were successful in stripping from the original Paulson-Democrat bailout plan of its special-interest earmarks for trial lawyers, labor bosses, and thinly-veiled political organizations like ACORN. This significantly improved legislation is much stronger than the initial Paulson plan and protects the interests of families, seniors, small businesses, and all taxpayers.
Posted by: Palouse on October 3, 2008 01:40 PMFringe left whackjobs such as yourself are stupid racists (of course) but you really should look in the mirror if you want to see who is responsible for your own troubles.
Brainwashed victims who thrive on excuses like yours have been living beyond their means for decades, amassing a mountain of debt ($10 trillion and rising) and the bill is becoming due at this moment.
You are going to lose everything. But if left-wing whackjobs transform this into a class- and racial-warfare event, you people are going to destroy America, too.
Now I know that the OhDrama-left wing whack jobs are, by definition, stupid, but let's not hear any more of this conservative scapegoating.
___________________________________
It was difficult for me to reach the moronic depths plumbed by Doormat, but I think I got it done.
Yes David, you should go ahead and shoot yourself immediately to put yourself and everyone here out of their misery.
Posted by: Palouse on October 3, 2008 03:15 PMYou must have one of those trick mirrors that make objects look larger than they actually are.
When I look in my mirror I see a conservative vegetarian buddhist in an interracial relatiionship who commutes to downtown Seattle on a bicycle.
so you can stop dishing out your stereotypical tripe now.
It was Frank, Obama, and Dodd with the help of Rains and Acorn who made this into a racial issue in the first place.
Posted by: dave on October 3, 2008 05:09 PMAs for Palin... well, "sounding dumb" is something you do so well, so I'll defer to your expertise.
Posted by: Hinton on October 3, 2008 05:54 PMSo why is this my business you ask? Because the auto finance companies started calling his old phone number at work a month ago, credit card companies started calling about three weeks ago and you guessed it his mortgage company started calling last week.
Lucky us, the a-holes in Washington DC just obligated us to pick up the tab for all of this high rolling. Why we can't let him lose his house, now can we? I'm one thoroughly pissed of hombre' and by God I have just about had it with the Republican Party for enabling this rip off.
I work hard and watch my budget, not that I wouldn't enjoy a European vacation right about now, but it doesn't fit into our family budget. Why in the blue hell am I being held accountable for all of this profligacy when I had nothing to do with it? In fact I advised against it in the strongest terms.
How does this idiot vote? You guessed it - straight Party line Democrat. He is too lazy to steal for himself so he helps to elect those who will do his stealing for him. Just the money he has blown on cars in the last decade would have provided he and his wife health insurance once he retires, and this is his #1 rant. he wants the gubmnt (you and I) to provide that because it is fair and America is the only industrialized country that doesn't do so. You do the math, 15 new cars traded in 6 months later at a 10 to 12 thousand dollar loss every time equals enough money for him to buy health insurance for him and his God damned wife from the day he retires until they both kick the bucket.
This is what your government has done for you this week.
Posted by: JDH on October 3, 2008 07:21 PMOMG!
I thought that guy wandering around in the THE END IS NEAR sandwich board died long ago!
I bet he can quote Nostradomus too!~
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on October 3, 2008 08:58 PM
Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure, The Wall Street Journal noted, ' Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that 'mistakes were made' and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company's books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years.' Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion.
Raines left with a 'golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ . The Government noted, 'The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner.' These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits.
Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard 'was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a 'stable pattern of earnings' at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, 'Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,'
On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004.
Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you! 'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million.' Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.
Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
FRANKLIN RAINES? ... Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor
TIM HOWARD? ... Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama
JIM JOHNSON? ... Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee
IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS - HIS ADVISORS CERTAINLY HAVE THE EXPERTISE - THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
check out this video showing republicans trying to call attention to problems at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and SEE DEMOCRATS DEFENDING FANNIE/FREDDIE AND DENYING THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Essentially, some are actually accusing the people trying to point out the problems of de facto racism. It is a total joke, these democrats. They were all in serious denial and didn't want to talk about any problems whatsoever. Fire these democrats! They have lost the right to lead this country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related
Posted by: Michele on October 3, 2008 10:59 PMToday the bailout bill (HR 1424 http://senateconservatives.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/ayo08c32_xml.pdf ) was signed into law by President Bush. EFF agrees that action was needed to be taken to reassure the markets. However, we proposed free market solutions like exempting capital gains tax for anyone who purchased these troubled assets.
We do not believe this will solve the financial problems facing the country because this bill essentially nationalizes the mortgage market and gives the Secretary of Treasury virtually dictatorial power over much of our economy. It does not address the pubic policy problems which led this crisis�things like government forcing financial institutions to give home loans to people who could not afford the payments.
We are deeply troubled by the intent section of the bailout bill.
The U. S. Constitution clearly says "to protect the general welfare" not to ensure the general welfare. But the purposes of this bailout bill include giving the Secretary of Treasury the authority and such facilities to use in a manner that:
-"protects home values, college funds, retirement accounts, and life savings;.
-"preserve homeownership and promotes jobs and economic growth;
-"maximizes overall returns to the taxpayers of the United States; and
-"protects public accountability for the exercise of such authority."
The bill reads more like the Communist Manifesto than a free market bill, and I read every word of its 451 pages.
Here is a summary of the bill.
1. It started out as 3 pages and is now 451. (http://senateconservatives.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/ayo08c32_xml.pdf), but only 112 1/2 pages are bailout. the rest is:
� energy improvement pages 112-244
� Broker requirements pages 244-261
� Tax breaks 261-310
-alternative minimum tax relief (sections 101-103 , pages 264-267)
-extend deductibility of state and local sales taxes (section 201, page 267)
-extend deduction of qualified tuition and related expenses (section 202, page 268)
-extend deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers (section 203, page 268)
-extend tax free distributions from IRA plans for charitable purposes to December 31, 2009. (section 205, page 269)
-$18 million in clean energy breaks (includes wave- and-tide electricity generators, fringe benefits for bicycle commuters, etc
-$192 million to cover a rum excise tax with money diverted to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.(section 308, page 279)
- $33 million in economic development funds for small business in American Samoa. (section 309, page 279)
-$4 million in tax credits for mine rescue team training. (section 310, page 280)
-$? million in expensing advanced mine safety equipment (section 311, page 280)
-$? million in Domestic production activities in Puerto Rico (section 312, page 280)
-$119-205 million in tax credits for business that employ American Indians who live on reservations and accelerated depreciation for property used on reservations (sections 314 and 315, page 288)
-$? million railroad track maintenance. (section 316, page 289)
-$331 million seven-year-cost-recovery period for land improvement at motorsport racetracks. (section 317, page 290)
-$? million in tax incentives to invest in the District of Columbia (section, 322, page 291)
-$? million in enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory (section 323, page 293)
-$148 million reduction of wool fabric import tariffs to the Wool Trust Fund to promote American wool competitiveness (section 325, page 295)
-$397 million deduction for domestic projects for film and television productions (section 502, page 298)
-$6 million for exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children (section 503, page 300)
-$223 million in payouts to fishermen who received payments for the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident (Section 504, pages 301-307)
-Mental health parity which will cost $3.8 billion over the next five years and will result in more uninsured people because mental health coverage will now be included in all health care plans - pages 310-344
-Rural schools - pages 344-394
-Disaster relief-pages 394-451
-"Spending reductions [I can�t find them!] and appropriate revenue raisers for new tax relief policy"
-correct title of bill page 451
2. Notice this is a "mental health" and "substance-related disorder" bill that had the bailout added to it.
3. President Bush, on October 1, told us not to worry because it is not really $700 billion. It is only $250 billion to start and then the Treasury can ask him for another $100 billion and, if needed, go back to the Congress for the remaining $350 billion.
SO WHY IS THE DEBT LIMIT RAISED BY another $700 billion, which is in addition to the $800 billion increase in July. (SECTION 122, PAGE 68 ) .
4. The underlying assets involved do not even have to be in the United States! Here is the definition of a "troubled asset,� right from the bill:(Section 3(9). This permits the Secretary of Treasury to bail out foreign investors.
"(9) TROUBLED ASSETS.� The term ��troubled assets�� means� (A) residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008, the purchase of which the Secretary determines promotes financial market stability;
and (B) any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability, but only upon transmittal of such determination, in writing, to the appropriate committees of Congress."
Note: conspicuously missing from the definition is the requirement that the asset's underlying thing (that is, the property that was mortgaged, etc) lies within the United States. Also note that Treasury must tell Congress if they add "new types" of debt, but that Congress has no right of review or censure.
5. The bill authorizes the government to renegotiate loans for people who can't afford them! The government can reduce the interest rates; reduce the loan principal; and do other similar modifications. (Section 110, pages 27-29). Think of the difficulty of implementing this without fraud taking place.
What a socialist grab. Whoever is elected /re-elected next month will have the most sweeping authority and virtually unlimited resources to spend to have their way with the economic course in American History. Private enterprise as we call it will be less free than ever, and ownership as we know it will erode as the possibility for politically manipulated transfer of wealth is embraced as the "finest hour" when the US Senate and US House came together to fix this problem.
Bob Williams
___________________________________
Thanks to Bob and the EFF for putting this out there.
It was 22 years ago this week that I last took off the uniform of an officer in the United States Army. I had spent 14 years of my life, including 6 years and 3 months overseas, in the defense of my country.
In all that time, I had never; before, during or since my time in the military; felt anywhere near the sense of shame I have for the disgraceful conduct of the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States that I feel now.
Make no mistake: both political parties bear guilt and responsibility for this debacle. It is to our Nation's everlasting shame that they have BOTH played politics with this issue and with our lives.
I cannot adequately express my sense of anger at this utter, total and complete betrayal of everything I swore to defend.
It is my sincerest hope that when reviewed by the Supreme Court (as it inevitably will be) that it is thrown out on its ear, as its authors and those who voted for it... and the president who signed it... should also be removed.
Yes, I know he leaves on Jan. 20. (And I know he won't be replaced by anything better) But this betrayal, which is geometrically worse than any other action he's taken in office, places his tenure as president in the dungeon of ignominious disgrace not even exceeded by that waste of skin, Carter.
Those who supported this garbage are among those that let this situation get to this point. None of them are worthy of our confidence or trust.
Posted by: Hinton on October 4, 2008 01:00 AMSeriously, Mike... step away from the bong BEFOREW you post in the future. Please?
Posted by: Hinton on October 4, 2008 11:02 AMSince McCain is running against Obama, as a conservative I have to vote for Obama.
Things will get worse with McCain.
Things will get much worse with Obama. And that is why I am voting for Obama. For things will only get worse with McCain but they need to get much worse for us to survive as a nation.
Of course a statement like that needs an explanation. And I will do so in the form of an analogy. Do you know how to cook a frog? Well, if you put it in a pot of boiling water the frog will quickly jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of water that is warm and turn up the heat gradually up to boiling the frog will just sit there not even realizing it is being boiled alive.
Obama is the one who puts the frog into the hot water and McCain is the one who turns up the heat gradually. With Obama his extremism will cause a backlash so great that America will start electing good leaders to oppose him. It happened in 1980 and it happened in 1994. And it will happen again.
But McCain he will really be the death of the Republican Party. As I said above things will get worse with McCain and therefore he and the Republican Party will get the blame. And then America will elect a Democrat in 2012 for President. And if recent history has shown us anything it has shown that the Democratic Candidate has been getting increasingly extreme. So I can't tell you who the Democrats will put up that year but I can tell you that person will be as extreme if not more extreme than Obama. So, how long are we putting off having an Obama-like President? Four Years?
And meanwhile McCain has shown that he wants to drive conservatives and conservatism away from the Republican Party. For those of us who believes that the only solution to our country's problems, it is unacceptable that neither of the two major parties represents conservative values.
So, I am left with the ultimate act of "tough love". Not to say there aren't hard times ahead for there is but that is true with McCain as well. But at least with Obama there is hope that things will get better after him. With McCain all hope is lost.
Posted by: Steve on October 4, 2008 12:57 PMDavid, your problem is that you confuse George W. Bush with "conservative." This simply is not the case. I am a conservative and registered Republican (since 1994) and have been unable to vote for a (R) for President ever since. How do you think I feel?
The blame for our problems can be spread to both parties, and the housing crisis to the likes of Carter (Community Reinvestment Act) and Clinton's pressure on FNMA and FRE in his latter term to get everyone into a house.
However, none of this means we should elect an outright Marxist that is guaranteed to make the situation even worse than what it already is!