Republicans Suggest Federal Reserve is Trying to Get Obama Elected
DRAT! I could have written this post earlier today with a long analysis and then just posted the highly predictable article below to it. Now I’m in rush so I’ll just paste in part of the article that I KNEW we’d see today or I KNEW we’d see if the Federal Reserve took any new measures before election day to help the economy.
And I bet many TMV readers who are independent voters as yours truly, expected to see it too. And the quotes were taken yesterday before the Fed’s action today.
The increasing likelihood of a new Federal Reserve effort to boost the economy has some Republicans questioning whether the central bank is trying to help President Obama win reelection.
Congressional Republicans, wary of the Fed’s recent efforts to stimulate the recovery, said Wednesday that the its political independence could be jeopardized if officials embark on another round of stimulus so close to Election Day.
“It really is interesting that it is happening right now before an election,” said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho). “It is going to sow some growth in the economy, and the Obama administration is going to claim credit.”
“I am shocked, just shocked, that politics are going on in this city!” Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said sarcastically.
On Thursday, the Fed’s policy-setting committee will announce its latest decisions regarding the nation’s monetary policy, followed by a press conference by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
With the economic recovery continuing to lag, financial analysts believe the Fed is on the cusp of launching another massive effort to stimulate the economy. Many expect the Fed to unveil a third round of massive bond purchases known as “quantitative easing.”
By buying up billions of dollars worth of bonds, the Fed believes it can spur more economic activity by lowering borrowing costs, despite interest rates that are already near zero. Roughly two-thirds of economists surveyed by Bloomberg believe the Fed will announce “QE3” on Thursday.
Republicans have harshly criticized similar Fed efforts in the past. Last year, GOP leaders in Congress sent a letter to the central bank urging it to stay on the sidelines, warning its policy choices were encouraging damaging inflation.
But Fed officials have held their ground, refusing to rule out further attempts to tackle unemployment and insisting they do not take politics into consideration when weighing their decisions.
The bottom line is this: people are suffering and these guys are suggesting the people suffering need to suffer more because it might make people think Obama improved their situation:
Help the economy = Help election Obama.
Wait: Isn’t this the same conclusion some Republican members of Congress made before Obama even set his fanny down on his chair in the Oval Office?
The Fed’s action did spark a “bump”:
BLUE chips surged more than 200 points after the Federal Reserve announced a much-anticipated plan to aid the US economy. The news sparked a similar rally in gold while rattling currency and fixed-income markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 206.51 points, or 1.55 per cent, to 13,539.86. The blue chips’ rally picked up steam through the session, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke detailed the central bank’s plans geared to stimulate the US economy.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 23.43 points, or 1.63 per cent, to 1459.99, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 41.52 points, or 1.33 per cent, to 3155.83. Shares of materials and financial companies rallied. All three major indexes reached multiyear highs.
“The doom-and-gloomers are probably not that happy about this,” said Michael Strauss, chief investment strategist of Commonfund, which has more than $US25 billion under management. “Will it push the economy to grow 4 per cent? No. But it does provide more ammunition, and that’s better than what the market was anticipating.”
The central bank will buy $US40bn of mortgage-backed securities a month, and is willing to take more action if the labour market doesn’t improve, its policy-setting committee said. The Fed also extended an existing stimulus effort known as Operation Twist, under which the central bank has been selling short-term bonds and using the proceeds to buy longer-term bonds in an effort to bring down long-term rates. Officials also said they expect to keep short-term interest rates near zero until at least mid-2015, past the previous estimate of late 2014.
“Hats off to Mr Bernanke today. He had to say something that would give the markets confidence, and he definitely did that,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist for TD Ameritrade.
The Fed’s statement extended a rally that had started last week with the announcement of stimulus from the European Central Bank. The Dow industrials are up 3.8 per cent since that announcement. The bond-buying decision also whipsawed bond, commodity and foreign-exchange markets.
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The economy goes on whether we are in election season or not. Should our whole government shut down months before an election just so there is no chance of any action being seen as political?
And I thought our government these days WAS 100% political 24/7…. At least for the Republicans who claimed that their number one priority years ago was to make Obama a one-term president. I’d be more than happy if the obstructionist Republicans took a permanent vacation and left legislation to real adults who care about the American people. Another example of the Republicans placing their own selfish interests ahead of the interests of the American people they are supposed to represent. Thankfully all of my elected officials are Democratic and want to do what’s right for the country.
Gotta hand it to republicans, they have fully embraced new-era-of-attention spans.
GOP knows that 15 seconds is more valuable than 15 minutes.
Given enough soundbites, you can drown even an ocean of opposition.
It sounds like the Republicans are acutely fearful that this just might work.I’m sure the idea of giving the economy a jolt right in time for November 6th is terrifying for them, because it will definitely help Obama’s chances against Romney. Romney’s whole campaign has centered around his supposed ability to lower unemployment and spur economic growth.
Throughout this election season, the GOP has persistently complained that Democrats resent and actively try to prevent American success. Surely they would not want to interfere with the success of millions of Americans if the economy improves!
Yup, still waiting for his plan.
With the Republican obstructionism over Obama’s job’s bill, and other legislation intended to help Americans if the Republicans really want to see true resentment and prevention of American success the GOP just needs to look in the closest mirror.
expected response, Dems would have done the same.
The total shame of all of this is that congress had much more power to help the economy, but partisanship (read Republican obstructionism) prevented them from doing it. Bernanke’s hands are somewhat tied as to what he can do. Congress could do all sorts of things to help increase employment.
Absolutely, StockBoyLA.
The Republicans even stalled a Veterans jobs bill Rand Paul said “[it] was for a good cause – to call for the release of Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find bin Laden.”
Thoughtful observers* know the real reason… Republicans don’t want things to get better until they are back in charge and they’re totally oblivious to the fact the America is watching and know what GOP is doing and why.
* All except the “Anyone but Obama” crowd (and they don’t fall into the “thoughtful observer” category) who don’t care if our country fails! They simply can’t stand the fact a black man in the White House. (But they’re not racists they keep telling us.)
Yea this has obviously been the GOP gameplan for some time now. Anything that goes right is going to help Obama get re-elected, so they have been doing their best to make sure nothing happens to go right, and hoping the voters are stupid enough not to notice who is actually creating the gridlock and instead blame the President. It has been one of the most craven political strategies ever, and I am shocked the American people haven’t been lambasting the GOP for it more. This is just another example.
Bingo.
Maybe they’re are finally, gradually figuring this out. If so it’s been late in coming – hopefully not too late.
sigh…once again damn em if they do and damn em if they dont …for the republicans this isreal toxcity that holds the country back…just like an insecure child that is beaten back …the ongoing toxcity to drstroy obama hurts every sector of the country…
It has been one of the most craven political strategies ever, and I am shocked the American people haven’t been lambasting the GOP for it more. This is just another example.
I mostly agree, except I think that most of the public is not used to following Congressional votes that carefully. Also, I think that the media should have made more out of this in the public interest, because even putting partisanship aside ( and I admit to mine) this has been the most disgraceful and dysfunctional four years in our lifetime . The country is facing some devastating financial issues that keep getting kicked down the road for the next session
And for those who think turnaround is fair play, Democrats voted with George W Bush about 40% of the time and the GOP has voted with Obama 10% of the time. I don’t think you can successfully govern a country with those numbers , but of course, as we have been discussing, that is exactly the point. I WOULD think that Congressional opponents would use some of these votes or lack of them as a campaign tool– it would seem pretty effective if a Congressman voted no on The Veterans Jobs Corp act, for example.