Moveon.org Attack Ad Points Finger At John McCain For Economy Woes

E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Attack Ad Points Finger At McCain For Economy Woes

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

Recipient E-mail:*
- Your Name:*
- Your E-mail:*
Add a Message:
Send me a copy of this e-mail.

Type the characters in this picture:*

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

Print Share + Comments

Oct 3, 2008 9:59 pm US/Mountain

Attack Ad Points Finger At McCain For Economy Woes

Written By Raj Chohan

Reporting
Raj Chohan

DENVER (CBS4) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: John McCain in Denver at a women's town hall meeting on Oct. 2.
CBS
Click to enlarge 2 of 2: About Reality Check: Raj Chohan focuses on matters of public policy and political persuasion. Online, he features his sources & an outline of his investigative steps on the pathway to his conclusions.

Close

numSlides of totalImages

Related Links

More Politics Stories

Both presidential candidates have tried to use the struggling U.S. economy as a weapon against the other. Democrat Barack Obama has recently pointed the finger at Republican John McCain. The surrogate Moveon.org has put a similar message into a recent attack spot.

AD: John McCain's friend Phil Gramm wrote the bill that deregulated the banking industry and stripped the safeguards that would have protected us

The claim is misleading. The ad refers to a bill passed in 1999 that allowed commercial banks to get into the investment banking business. A number of economists along with former President Clinton credit the bill with easing the severity of the current financial crisis because it allowed banks like J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America to buy up the imploding investment banks of Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch.

Many economists agree the cause of the current financial meltdown is a complex web of factors that stretched across Democratic and Republican administrations. The culpable factors included lax monetary policy, lax oversight, overly generous lending policy, bad investment decisions by Fannie, Freddie and the big investment banks, irresponsible mortgage brokers and home buyers. All of it played into a perfect storm, and, for obvious reasons we all want someone to blame. So who does John McCain blame?

AD: John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie, the post says McCain pushed for stronger regulation, while Mr. Obama remained notably silent but Democrats blocked the reforms, loans soared, and the bubble burst.

There is some spin here. Democrats including banking committee chairs in the House and Senate, Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, did obstruct attempts to put more regulatory controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

McCain sounded a warning in 2006, but he was a late covert to the movement. By then, the housing market was already starting to come unglued.

Obama raised concerns about the need for more oversight before McCain did, but Obama was not a player in the 2006 Republican led oversight bill, that the GOP majority at the time never called up for a vote.

Bottom line, there's plenty of blame to go around and it crosses both aisles. It's one of those cases when it seems no one is to blame because everyone is to blame.