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Has Alan Grayson Lost His Mind?

Posted by Karl Denninger

I generally like Alan so I was stunned to see this bit of pandering - although perhaps I shouldn’t be, given that it’s election season and every one of the critters in Congress is trying desperately to justify their salaries.

5 minutes of worthwhile video, but….. (you knew there would be a “but”, right?)

Yes, we could cut the separate funding for Afghanistan and Iraq.  Of course we would then have the troops here, which still results in them being paid salaries, right?

The cost of a war isn’t just fuel for planes, bombs to drop and bullets to shoot.  It is also salaries for our soldiers, salaries for the development of weapons, salaries for places like Eglin and other bases.  If the total spent goes down that support to the economy goes down too.

You won’t see me argue for greater federal spending in the general sense.  But I will argue that until and unless you deal with the energy situation and our 40 years of stupidity in that regard walking away from the sources of our nation’s energy isn’t exactly smart.

Worse, however, Alan Grayson wants to give 90% of the money he would “save” through this move to “the people”, thereby not actually withdrawing the deficit spending (which we should do), but instead shifting it.

$16 billion of “deficit reduction”, so he claims.  But he’s not mentioning the $1.6 trillion in deficit that we have.

Cutting $160 billion wouldn’t be all that bad of an idea – that would be 10% of the deficit, and might actually matter.  Indeed, it would be what I’d call “a good start.”

But 1%? 

That’s pissing into a hurricane.

Nice try at populism draped in a false cloak of “fiscal responsibility” Alan.

It’s unfortunate that “on the numbers” your bill displays an IQ smaller than your shoe size.

One day, Vince McMahon will pay handsomley to get Ben Bernanke and Alan Grayson in the squared circle. Until that day, we should just hope and dream. In the meantime, we have litters and public appearances by the Florida Congressman, who takes the latest AIG “taxpayer payback” opportunity to remind everyone of just how deeply he loves the “we create money out of thin air” institution that is the Federal Reserve.

I write with concern about two announced deals that are lauded by AIG CEO Robert Benmosche as AIG’s plan to ‘pay back the taxpayer’. In reading through the deal, it looks to me like the Federal Reserve is simply engaged in yet another disguised bailout of AIG. It’s not surprising that the New York Fed continues to shovel money at AIG using its balance sheet, since this seems to be official policy, but this time, the bailout also involves cheating the IRS.

In describing the deal specifics:

This relationship is not significantly different from just making the subsidiaries collateral for the existing loan from the New York Fed, with four exceptions. One, the FRBNY’s right are downgraded in this deal from creditors to preferred shareholders. Two, AIG gets to claim “repayment” and take a tax loss to reduce the company’s income taxes. Three, the FRBNY credit facilities are already collateralized. Four, the New York Fed owns nearly 80% of AIG, putting it on all sides of the deal.

And most brazenly, and deserving of applause, the allegation that Bernanke is implicilty breaking the law by his most recent AIG bailout:

As the New York Fed owns most of AIG, this deal could be considered a faked sale to generate a capital loss for the purposes of injecting Treasury funds into AIG without the consent of Congress. Please explain the legality of the arrangement.

Full Grayson letter to Bernanke: