The evil twins

— Editor's note: Tanya Amador- Daigle is reporting for Florida Weekly on the presidential election. She has a unique perspective on the primaries and the process for choosing a candidate, having traveled the country reporting on primaries and caucuses for the Purple States project. To learn more about Purple States go, to www. purplestates.tv.

 

With the presidential election only a month and a half away, I've shifted my research into high gear. I'm done with lipstick and pigs and have moved on to the issues again. The political project I'm involved in, Purple States, just kicked off the second season and this week we are talking about the economy. My, my, my, passions are running high on the Web site. There's lots of blame going around and even a little name-calling. Who can blame them? Americans are fed up.

I'm taking a closer look at the policies of each candidate and really analyzing what their intentions are. Of course, as I've said before, campaign rhetoric doesn't always equal White House policy. So, the research I'm doing now to educate myself on John McCain and Barack Obama could literally be worthless by next year.

One thing that really has me biting my lip is the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout. Just the name sounds funny to me. Like two creepy puppets that look like Raggedy Ann and Andy, only scarier. And it is scary indeed. The entire situation is frightening. From what I can discern, the firms are too fargone NOT to bail them out. A necessary evil, as they say.

What makes me angry is the blatant corporate cronyism. Why aren't these guys under investigation? Shouldn't Fannie Mae be held responsible if it intentionally fudged financial reports so that senior executives could get bonuses? Shouldn't it be illegal for Fannie/ Freddie to hire the lobbyists who go to Congress to fight reform bills that are supposed to regulate them?

I've heard a lot of people complain that the taxpayers will get stuck with that bill. But that's only part of it. What about accountability? Is anyone else mad about the fact that these senior executives may get a nice severance package, a retirement package and deferred compensation, leaving shareholders and taxpayers to suffer?

To his credit, Senator McCain has co-sponsored legislation to reform the evil twins. He has said, "Americans should be outraged by the latest sweetheart deal in Washington…" and adding that, as president, he doesn't want to "stick Main Street Americans with Wall Street's bill." More importantly, his goals are to get rid of the lobbyists, shrink Fannie and Freddie and then privatize them so that taxpayers will never again have to bear the burden of their mistakes and corruption.

I have to say that I don't put too much faith in McCain's puffing up at lobbyists. After all, he, as well as Obama, cannot deny that their circle of advisers includes former lobbyists and directors from both mortgage giants. It might be a little convenient that McCain called for a ban on lobbyists only a few months ago.

One thing that gave me some hope was that Senator Obama has sought clarification that those expelled senior executives would not receive any sort of "windfall" as part of the takeover. And why should they, given their actions?

At the same time, I'm not sure I agree with Obama when he says that Fannie/ Freddie should remain the public/private hybrid that it is, but with tighter government regulations. Maybe total privatization is a better approach. I think the free market does a better job than government when it comes to economics.

One thing that Obama has said that has me puzzled is this: whatever path the government pursues, it should protect affordable housing. I'm not quite sure what he means. Is he eluding to the fact that these two mortgage giants made it possible for everyone to get a mortgage? Even people who had no business getting one because they couldn't afford it? Is that what he's saying? I certainly hope not because we all know how that turned out.

OK, let's give Obama the benefit of the doubt. Surely he means… Oh, who am I kidding, I don't know what he means… somebody please tell me! Go ahead. I'll wait.