April 27, 2010

Schiff wows 'em in Bristol

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Peter Schiff got an enthusiastic response Monday from Bristol Republicans who listened to his harsh rejection of what Democrats are doing in Washington.
Schiff, a wealthy financial advisor, said the government's vast deficit spending is "sucking all the lifeblood out of the private sector."
He said that senators are "completely clueless" and fail to recognize they "are being lied to by Wall Street" about the best way to respond to the economy's troubles.
Schiff told the GOP's town committee that the problems that caused the economic collapse were all rooted in national politics. He blamed the Federal Reserve for making borrowing too cheap and government agencies for insuring housing loans that would never have passed muster if the private sector had been forced to look closely at them.
He said he's made his money "trying to protect the wealth of my customers from the destructive policies coming out of Washington."
Schiff, who's locked in a three-way battle for the right to claim the GOP line in this year's Senate race, said that because of federal money policy and too much regulation, "Free markets weren't allowed to function."
That's why they ground to a halt in September 2008, he said.
Schiff said that U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial regulation bill "doesn't do anything to address" the underlying woes that caused the crisis. Instead, he said, it just adds more red tape.
"We are making the problems worse," he said.
Schiff said that during the past decade, the volume of regulations covering financial institutions has grown substantially, to the point where it is "unreal." It's getting so hard for anyone but the largest banks and finance firms to comply with the rules that forming new businesses is becoming all but impossible.
Schiff said he never could have set up his own shop with today's red tape.
His main concern, though, is an out-of-control federal deficit that has reached $12.5 trillion and is heading for $14 trillion by next year.
To pay the interest on that debt today is possible, he said, only because of policies that have held interest rates in check.
But when interest rates rise, Schiff said, the government won't be able to pay back the money it owes.
"Where are we going to get that money?" Schiff asked.
He said the government will only have two choices: default on its obligations or rely on inflation to undermine the money, "which, unfortunately, is exactly what we['re going to do."
Schiff said that the high-tech bubble's burst a decade ago at least left us with some interesting new companies and technologies. When the housing bubble burst a few years ago, at least we had some new houses to show for it.
Now, he said, we're in the middle of a "government bubble" that will leave us with nothing at all when it bursts.
"Nothing is getting better. We are digging ourselves into a deeper hole," Schiff said. "We can't keep spending and regulating the economy and expecting it to survive."
Schiff said he would block further efforts to spend money the government doesn't have.
He would also, he said, take the hard steps necessary to shave spending.
"The problems cannot be solved without pissing people off," Schiff said.
He said the Congress has to begin to do the right thing "before it's too late."
Unless it acts soon, Schiff said, "they'll wipe out the savings of an entire generation."
If he's elected and can get 39 others to join him in the Senate, "we can shut down the government."
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Haven't we suffered enough with the "smartest guys in the room" who brought you CDO's, CDO-squared and the too big to fail? Government isn't necessarily the solution, but we just went through 8 years of the "private sector knows best" and that didn't work out so well.

P.S. 1995 and Speaker Gingrich called, they want credit for the idea of shutting down the government.

Anonymous said...

Schiff is correct - the government is way to big and needs to be reduced to have any effect on peoples pockets. Unless something is done we will be in a depression. Pay wages are not increasing and we all know that interest rates are going to go up soon - you really do not need to have a degrees to understand what is about to happen next if things are not changed.

Odin said...

I didn't waste my time reading the whole story because Peter Schiff is just another full-of-crap Republican wannabe. But I want to know where was he when the federal government was sucking billions of dollars out of the economy to pay for Bush's war in Iraq? And that bit about "protecting my clients' wealth" or whatever...would that be the clients that he told to just not pay any federal income taxes? Or was that his father? I get these Republican whackjobs mixed up.

Anonymous said...

Odin once again has his head up his keaster.

Anonymous said...

Odin:

Union hack wanna-be.

Anonymous said...

The country is smothering itself in debt. Schiff is 100% correct on all counts. Whether or not Schiff wins anything or not let's hope the electorate in this country isn't as naive and/or ignorant as "Odin". Apparently the majority in Connecticut either are or are close to as being so (thanks partially to the growth of the welfare state). God help us.

Anonymous said...

Local party has been told to support McMahon

gop policy said...

typical gop strategy = buy it.

Democrat strategy said...

Democrat strategy:

Let the unions buy it for you.

Anonymous said...

Supporting McMahon is a good idea...she is paying her own way and is beholden to no one. She believes in less tax and smaller government. She is a strong woman, already accustomed to the media and not afraid to speak out.

Newsflash to Odin: the war in Iraq has been Obama's for some time now.

Schiff 2010 said...

McMahon came off poorly to me in the debate. She seemed kind of arrogant. She kept needling Simmons about his lack of real business experience which was very hypocritical because her military/foreign policy experince is nil compared to Simmons'.

Schiff really impressed me in the debate. He clearly sees what's wrong with our country and that fixing the economy is the most important path in improving our country. Even in regards to foreign policy he's brilliant. He correctly stated that we shouldn't be invading foreign countries or engaging in wars because at the present time the US is "broke" (in debt).

Anonymous said...

It don't take much to wow the Bristol Republicant's

Anonymous said...

Got money and don't know how to spend it? Run for something. At least the economy will get some of it back !