John McCain's Gramm Gamble

By Patricia Kilday Hart of the Texas Observer:

In the early evening of Friday, December 15, 2000, with Christmas break only hours away, the U.S. Senate rushed to pass an essential, 11,000-page government reauthorization bill. In what one legal textbook would later call “a stunning departure from normal legislative practice,” the Senate tacked on a complex, 262-page amendment at the urging of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

[...]

Gramm promised that the amendment—also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—along with other landmark legislation he had authored, would usher in a new era for the U.S. financial services industry.

[...]

Gramm created what Wall Street analysts now refer to as the “shadow banking system,” an industry that operates outside any government oversight, but, as witnessed by the Bear Stearns debacle, requiring rescue by taxpayers to avert a national economic catastrophe.

[...]

Gramm serves as co-chair of the McCain 2008 presidential campaign. As one of the candidate’s chief economic advisers, he is mentioned as a possible secretary of the treasury in a McCain administration.

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Basically, one of the main guys whose responsible for our screwed up economy, the man who enthusiastically made it possible for corporations to run rampant at the publics' expense: good friend of John McCain, co-chair of his campaign.

Will the mainstream media point this out? Doubtful. They surely won't emphasize how TOXIC Gramm has been to our economy. In fact, I guarantee you they're going to spin it as if Gramm's policies had no effect on the economy whatsoever, they'll just blame it on the terrorists or something. That is, if they ever mention his name at all.

I'm not supporting Obama or anything, but for the love of God: don't vote for McCain.

No, really. Don't vote for John McCain.