GOP plans to increase spending in 2015

[FriendlyFire]

So? What's your point?
Democrats cast the deciding votes. That would be bipartisan.

J

If the Republicans win, we get Republican policy; if the Democrats win, we get Republican policy.

secret riders attached post-midnight and written by lobbyists. Nobody apparently knew about those details, signed off on party signatories, until the next day

1. ERISA changes relieving corporate pension funds from making good on retiree benefits
2. repeal of push-outs allowing (only big) banks to gamble under taxpayer cover (at the very least, if the banks gamble with taxpayer insurance we taxpayers should get some of their profits)
3. new EPA restrictions and repeal of endangered species
4. reduced funding for IRS audits (I'm sure just of corporate tax audits, they can continue with average taxpayers)

 

[onejayhawk]

Given the vote ratios, it wasn't the Democrats that pushed it through. The Republicans were the star and a minority of Democrats played a supporting role.

Of course. We may have obstructionist Democrats blocking progress in the Senate.

J

 

[JollyRoger]

Yeah - the Warren-Cruz coalition.

 

[Kaitzilla]

repeal of push-outs allowing (only big) banks to gamble under taxpayer cover

WHAT!

Those were the $$$ Trillions that were truly being gambled with.
Now the FDIC covers them?

 

[FriendlyFire]

WHAT!

Those were the $trillions that were truly being gambled with.
Now the FDIC covers them?

Republicans are surprised by this ?
This is what Republican have been saying all alone, That the Big Banks and Big Business are in bed with Democrats and have been against the American people.
Those Democrats always against government regulations, always underfunding enforcement agencies like the IRS, CDC and EPA. They are so in bed with Big Business and corporations.
Thanks Obama

It would allow banks to again use money for derivatives trading and other exotic and risky trades under the protection of federal government insurance.
The provision was slipped into the budget, which is designed to keep the US government funded until the middle of next year.
Financial reform groups have called it "astonishing", "appalling" and without a "sane motivation".

Some Democrats said it would only benefit a few of the biggest banks, saying the language included in the repeal was exactly the same as language written by lobbyists for global bank Citigroup.
"If it passes, the only beneficiaries will be the five, six biggest banks in the US, since they're the only banks that engage in this kind of activity," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-...ng-to-repeal-law-for-benefit-of-banks/5963278

 

[Kaitzilla]

GRRRrrrrr
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-12/why-swaps-matter


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs.../the-item-that-is-blowing-up-the-budget-deal/

But the regulatory change could also boost the profits of major banks, which is why they are pushing so hard for passage, said Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

"It is because there is a lot of money at stake," Johnson said. "They want to be able to take big risks where they get the upside and the taxpayer gets the potential downside," he said.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

These Defense spending cuts are curtailing the very apparatus that the American people will call on the next time we are attacked. In the mean time our training is suffering immensely, continued cuts will reduce our ability to effectively fight in the long term.

Bootstraps.

 

[JollyRoger]

Pull baby pull.

 

[onejayhawk]

Bootstraps.

Patton used his own money and a Sears catalog.

J

 

[El_Machinae]

Actually, I find that to be a neat divide on the Right. There're a subset of the Right that are so pro-freedom, anti-coercion that they believe that the military should be funded by private donations. I mean, if you're not willing to pay to preserve your nation, then is it really worth defending?

 

[Colonel]

The barbarians are at the gate, China, Russia and the terrorists. Continue down the budget cut path and we shall be surpassed or utterly destroyed by one of them. Then the world as a whole will go into a 100 year dark age.

 

[JollyRoger]

Can we use a few of those bucks to have China, Russia, and the terrorists have a go at each other while we stand back and watch?

 

[gay_Aleks]

I either am with a head trauma, or this really happened. Did I seriously read what Colonel said?

 

[hangman]

GRRRrrrrr
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-12/why-swaps-matter


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs.../the-item-that-is-blowing-up-the-budget-deal/

Mon Dieu, we're sitting on another financial meltdown, aren't we?

 

[FriendlyFire]

The barbarians are at the gate, China, Russia and the terrorists. Continue down the budget cut path and we shall be surpassed or utterly destroyed by one of them. Then the world as a whole will go into a 100 year dark age.

We have meet the enemy, and it is us OBAMA

 

[gay_Aleks]

Come on, people. It's not even 2077. Wait your time before doomsday predictions.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Mon Dieu, we're sitting on another financial meltdown, aren't we?

Yes.

Now that we are daring the Big Banks to gamble as much as possible with taxpayer money, we just need another housing bubble of some kind.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/fannie-freddie-regulator-s-3-down-loans-draw-jeers.html

Fannie-Freddie Regulator’s 3% Down Loans Draw Jeers


By Clea Benson Nov 14, 2014 3:28 PM CT 16 Comments Email Print
(Corrects executive’s name in 8th paragraph.)


Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has set off a political tempest.

The cause: 3-percent down mortgages.

Watt, who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unveiled his plan in late October to allow the companies to back mortgages with down payments as low as 3 percent. Republican lawmakers and some industry executives are lambasting the change as an irresponsible opening of the credit floodgates.

The blowback shows the pressure Watt faces in his effort to expand homeownership six years after defaults on subprime loans set off the financial crisis. Watt said low down-payment loans are a safe way to help families with healthy incomes and meager savings buy homes. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Watt’s plan is a return to the policies that caused the housing crash.

Watt’s proposal is “an invitation by government for industry to return to slipshod and dangerous practices that caused the mortgage meltdown in the first place and wrecked our economy,” Hensarling said in a statement last week. The initiative “must be rejected.”

Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac, which purchase about two-thirds of new home loans and package them into bonds, currently allow down payments as low as 5 percent. Fannie Mae accepted 3 percent down as recently as last November before increasing the requirement as part of a tightening of its underwriting standards. Taxpayers bailed out the two companies in 2008.

Ah, here it is!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgreene/2014/12/09/3-down-conventional-loans-are-here-for-real/

Last week I shared that this was coming but that no announcement had been made. Well here it is, officially announced on Monday, 12/08/2014 and effectively online over the weekend of 12/13/2014; Fannie Mae will offer 97% LTV financing to help home buyers who would otherwise qualify for a mortgage but may not have the resources for a larger down payment.

I read the FannieMae press release and the official Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2014-15 to see if either was signed by Santa Claus, but they were not. First time homebuyers can now in fact put as little as 3% down and get conventional financing (no longer confined to the FHA only box). There are no prohibitive restrictions; in fact if two people are buying a home, only one of them need be a first time buyer. Standard FannieMae underwriting guidelines and standard PMI coverage and costs apply. This is a significant mortgage financing event and should bring more first time buyers into the active home buyers’ pool.

I would expect to see mortgage and real estate people waiving the 3% down payment banner in all of the parades and in all of the advertising media in the months to come.

 

[gay_Aleks]

You people sure like making streaks, don't you.

 

[onejayhawk]

You people sure like making streaks, don't you.

More like cooking steaks.

J

 

[Takhisis]

JollyRoger, you're completely wrong. Republicans, by definition, cannot mess with the budget. They always manage it responsibly. And spending taxpayers' money is clearly a wrong thing to do, and Republicans, therefore, can't be doing it.