Stand Up McCain!

At the 2008 GOP Convention, you eloquently challenged all of us to stand up:

"Fight for what’s right for our country.
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.
Fight for our children’s future.
...stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history."

Now, I'm asking you to stand up for freedom and against the Paulson Plan.

I listened to the speeches on the House floor in support of and against the Paulson plan.  It is clear that more than just $700 billion of taxpayer money is at stake.  One after another, Democrats rose to speak about the failure of the free markets, about the failure of the Bush-McCain ideology.  What ideology are they talking about?  Capitalism, free markets and freedom from government abuses of power.

Free Markets are on trial and they're losing badly.

You and Sarah need to stand up for free markets and set the record straight.  This is not a failure of free markets - quite the contrary , it's a failure of government intervention into free markets.  It is a failure of the Clinton Administration's efforts, in 1993,  to force banks to lend money to people they would not have otherwise loaned money to.  Sub-prime loans increase five-fold under Clinton from $200 billion to over $1 trillion and that "toxic paper" has finally come home to roost.

Priority One - call for Dodd & Frank to resign immediately.

America is against this bill because it does not stop the underlying problem, government-sponsored sub-prime loans, nor does it hold accountable Members of Congress that rejected reform of sub-prime loans, Democrat leaders in Congress.  In fact, it puts the fox in charge of the hen house.

Here’s a four-step bill America will vote for:

1. Resignations of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank – Democratic leaders of the Senate and House Banking Committees
2. 5 year phase-out of government-sponsored sub-prime loans - all CRA, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac loans.
3. Suspend the Mark-to-Market rule – this will repair bank balance sheets overnight.
4. 5 year suspension of cap gains tax – this will flood US financial markets with new capital.

These four steps can be done quickly and will help restore confidence in our government and our markets.

In addition, they could suspend the corp income tax, to attract even more foreign investment and create millions of new jobs.  Also, you could submit a bill for term limits for Congress - Senators to two terms (12 years) and Representatives to four terms (8 years).  This will help address the long-term problem of corrupt leadership, but these ideas may be too controversial to pass quickly.

Bush's effort in 2005 to reform the GSE might have helped us avoid this mess - Obama, Dodd and Frank, in fact, all Democrats opposed reform, and all Republicans were for it.  In any event, it is completely unacceptable that the same Democratic leaders that injected toxic sub-prime loans (Dodd, Frank, Waters) into our financial markets can oversee any new scheme.   We need a bill that makes Democrats nervous, not Republicans.

Senator McCain - stand up and lead the effort for a good bill Americans will support - Congress will follow.

Thanks...Matt