"I do believe that we could have gotten there today had it not been for this partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House," said Republican Minority Leader John Boehner.
But the truth is much more complicated (Isn't it always?). This bill was never going anywhere. Democrats were not going out on a limb to save George Bush's rear-end without plenty of covering votes from his own party. The GOP meanwhile, chose to blame Nancy Pelosi's speech before the vote, even if it meant throwing their candidate under the bus.
The Market, that golden calf worshipped by Democrats and Republicans alike, has delivered what false gods always do: disappointment and disillusionment. Bill Clinton, the Reaganaut cloaked in liberal sheepskins, signed one of the worst pieces of deregulation ever devised: , the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act, which undid the regulation of the financial services industry put in place under FDR after the failure of the financial sector. Sadly, it was Jimmy Carter who made it safe for Democrats to offer up our children to the deregulation idol. Carter began the deregulation ferver by taking apart the regulations on the transportation industry, setting the stage for the market worship that Reagan exploited when he dismantled control over the energy sector. By the time George W. Bush took office, only the coup de grace remained.
It's time for some adult supervision of the people that got us here. It's time to stop believing that "The Market" is capable of solving our problems. We've got to reign in, not just the "excesses" of deregulation, but the whole unsavory philosophy which believes in "more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation." (Senator John McCain)
It's time to regulate. The Market be damned.
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