Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) slammed the plan to bailout Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as socialism on Wednesday.
"Nothing wrong with it, but we don't have socialism here in the United States," Bunning said on CNN. "And if you want to go to socialism, let's go to France."
Bunning has said that he would work to block the government rescue of the mortgage companies proposed by the Bush administration.
"Well, it's the government taking over all of the mortgage market and being responsible for it," Bunning said. "The same thing is happening in medicine, the same thing is happening in health care. So we are going -- instead of free markets and open markets, which this country was founded on, we are leaning towards 25 years ago in France when they moved to socialism. I'm not for that."
He added that the "right solution" would be to leave the two government-sponsored enterprises alone aside from creating a regulator that would require them to obtain more equity.
The senator blamed the current housing crisis on the Federal Reserve Bank.
"By keeping rates so low and keeping the money supply so plentiful, they have driven the value of the dollar and our mortgage markets into submission," he said.
Daily Kos has plans to launch a site focused on congressional legislation this September.
The site will draw the liberal blog's editors and diarists. David Waldman, the blogger known as "Kagro X," is directing the project. The site does not have a name yet.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) compared Barack Obama's call for a U.S. combat troop withdrawal from Iraq to the retreat of Allied forces from Europe in World War II.
Lieberman, a supporter of John McCain's presidential bid, made his remarks on CNN Wednesday. He was defending the position that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror despite increased violence in Afghanistan.
"Well, the two aren't inconsistent," Lieberman said. "I mean, I think about World War II. I mean, Sen. Obama essentially has taken a position that we have to lose, we have to retreat and lose in Iraq to win in Afghanistan. We don't have that luxury. We have to win in both places, just like we couldn't pull out of Europe in our fight against the Nazis to just concentrate on Japan because they attack us at Pearl Harbor."
Lieberman added: "We had to win both for our security and our freedom. And, in fact, what's worked in Iraq, which is the surge that John McCain advocated so courageously shows us the way to win now in Afghanistan."
Both McCain and Obama have called for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Obama, however, has said that counter-terrorism operations should be focused on Afghanistan, while McCain has stressed the need to maintain a troop presence in both countries.
Lieberman suggested military success in Iraq may be leading to increased battles in Afghanistan.
"But I also say that the active battle front may now be shifting to Afghanistan because we are -- we have succeeded in Iraq," he said. "If we had done what Sen. Obama wanted us to do and pulled out of Iraq, today, Iranian-backed extremists and Al Qaida would basically be in charge of Iraq. That would be a tremendous boost for them in Afghanistan and that's why we're in such a stronger position. So I think they've lost -- they're losing certainly in Iraq and that's why they've shifted some of their focus to Afghanistan. We now have to shift it."
In this month's People Magazine, Cindy McCain will receive kudos for donning a more relaxed hairdo, varying her usual pinned-up coiffure with a looser, half up/half down look arranged by Los Angeles-based stylist Piper Baker.
According to People's online poll, 74 percent of readers prefer the more relaxed look, and People congratulates her for "showing her softer side."
John McCain kicked off his speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Wednesday by heaping praise on Barack Obama.
"Don't tell him I said this, but he is an impressive fellow in many ways," McCain told the NAACP. "He has inspired a great many Americans, some of whom had wrongly believed that a political campaign could hold no purpose or meaning for them."
"His success should make Americans, all Americans, proud," the Arizona senator said. "Senator Obama talks about making history, and he's made quite a bit of it already. Whatever the outcome in November, Senator Obama has achieved a great thing -- for himself and for his country -- and I thank him for it."
"Of course, I would prefer his success not continue quite as long as he hopes," McCain added.
If there was some doubt that Barack Obama would carry California, the Field Poll helps erase it.
Obama leads John McCain 54 percent to 30 percent. Among Obama supporters, 54 percent said they're very enthusiastic about their candidate, while just 17 percent of McCain supporters said that.
Though the Illinois Democrat lost his party's primary to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), her absence from the ticket makes little difference. Just 9 percent of Democrats polled said that not choosing Clinton makes them less inclined to back Obama in November. More Democrats than not -- 48 percent to 40 percent -- oppose Clinton as the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
MoveOn.org is seeking donations for a new advertisement in which it criticizes John McCain for not supporting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
"John McCain doesn't want a timetable," a narrator says in the ad. "He'll spend hundreds of billions of dollars more to keep our troops in Iraq for years and years."
The narrator adds that Americans and Iraqis, including Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have expressed support for a withdrawal schedule.
The Republican National Committee responded to the advertisement by saying that the liberal group and its presidential candidate, Barack Obama, have been wrong to oppose the U.S. military surge.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) plan to lower gas prices Wednesday, calling her proposal "silly" and "absurd."
"Nobody's going to believe that any of these proposals they're talking about are real," McConnell said on Fox. "That silly proposal to open up 10 percent of the Strategic Reserve is about three and a half days worth of oil."
Pelosi asked President Bush earlier this week to release a "small portion" of the more than 700 million barrels of oil currently being held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
McConnell, like Bush, favors a lifting of drilling bans offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"We're sitting on a sea of oil, both onshore and offshore," McConnell said. "We know what to do. We need to go about it."
Pelosi has called the GOP plan to lift drilling bans a "hoax."
"It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas," Pelosi said Monday.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is clearly relishing the rift between House Republicans and the Bush administration over how to respond to the housing crisis.
In a Tuesday letter, Frank scolded Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), the top Republican on the Financial Services panel, for sending him a letter Monday asking Frank to delay action on a giant housing package moving through Congress.
Instead, Bachus wrote that he favors enactment of just a portion of the legislation, a measure reforming oversight of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Most Viewed RSS Feed »
