Monday, October 13, 2008

Better than Monday night Football: Cong. Manzullo responds to Bailout issues and others raised by Abboud, Cable and Streaming

Tonight's Chicago edition of "Public Affairs," features Cong. Don Manzullo (R-Egan, 16th Cong. Dist. 16 year incumbent). The show airs throughout the City of Chicago tonight at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 (CANTV) and tonight's Aurora edition of "Public Affairs," airs on cable in Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30pm on ACTV-10. The Aurora station, Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10, reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.
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You can watch tonight's show with sixteen year, 16th CD Republican incumbent Cong. Don Manzullo (R-Egan), taped Sep. 30, 2008, on your computer. The show includes Cong. Manzullo's discussion of his no vote on Sep. 30 on the first proposed bailout and other domestic public policy issues-- and foreign public policy issues, as well as his reactions to some of the positions and assertions of his Democratic opponent, Robert Abboud. For a detailed list of topics discussed, click on the More Info link to the right of the picture.
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You can watch the show with Robert Abboud, 16th CD Democratic Nominee, taped on Sep. 21, 2008, on your computer. The show includes Abboud's discussion of bailouts, how he would have voted on the proposed 700 billion dollar bailout (based on what he knew of the bailout as of Sep. 21), other domestic and foreign public policy issues, as well as his reactions to some of the positions and actions of his opponent, Cong. Manzullo.

For a detailed list of topics of the show with Abboud, a partial transcript, and more about the 16th Cong. District, please go here.
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A partial transcript of tonight's show is included, below.

Jeff Berkowitz: …Franklin Raines [head of Fannie Mae] made off like a bandit, right?

Cong. Don Manzullo (R-Egan, 16th CD): He made 90 million dollars in six years. We had a hearing in 2000. The man should have been incarcerated over what he did.
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Cong. Don Manzullo: …in 2000, we had a hearing before the Financial Services [committee] and I had signed onto three Fannie Mae reform bills, 2000, 2003 and 2005. In 2000, Franklin Raines came before the Committee and he had hired some kind of a lobbying firm to go out and get 2000 postcards from people who supposedly were my constituents to lobby me to say that they did not want these basic reforms. But, we started investigating and found out that the lobbying firm went out and got some people that were dead, some people that never existed and 24 of the 25 people we talked to didn’t even know they had signed a post card to keep Fannie Mae in its present state. So, at that point, when the lobbyists came in from Fannie Mae, I threw them out of my office. I said, “Get out. Don’t dirty my office.” I knew that they were running a corrupt organization. That is a semi-government organization that had a PAC.

Jeff Berkowitz: But, should you have been leading the charge?

Cong. Don Manzullo: I was.

Jeff Berkowitz: As a member of the House Financial Service Committee, should you have been—

Cong. Don Manzullo: We were all doing that—

Jeff Berkowitz: Publicly saying we ought to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Cong. Don Manzullo: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: When you say, we all, who are you putting in there?

Cong. Don Manzullo: Well, a lot of Republicans and several Democrats.
And, the problem is—

Jeff Berkowitz: It came up again in 2005, right?

Cong. Don Manzullo: It came up again in 2003. We had another bill that went nowhere. 2005, the bill that would have increased the capitalization requirements for Fannie Mae passed the House—

Jeff Berkowitz: It was pushed by the Republicans as well.

Cong. Don Manzullo: That’s correct because we were in the Majority.

Jeff Berkowitz: You were in the majority.

Cong. Don Manzullo: It passed the House.

Jeff Berkowitz: President Bush supported that.

Cong. Don Manzullo: I think that’s correct. And, then,

Jeff Berkowitz: 2005, Barack Obama would have been in the U. S. Senate then. Do you remember Barack Obama and what he had done by then?

Cong. Don Manzullo: It did not come up for a vote. It went over to the Senate and somebody put a hold on it.

Jeff Berkowitz: What about Barney Frank? What was he doing then?

Cong. Don Manzullo: Barney Frank was opposed to it.

Jeff Berkowitz: He was opposed to it!

Cong. Don Manzullo: That’s correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, isn’t Rep. Frank a Democrat? And, he says the problem here is that we didn’t have enough regulation. You folks wanted more regulation.

Cong. Don Manzullo: That’s correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: How can this be? The mainstream media paints this as the Republicans are bad guys because they didn’t want more regulation. Democrats are the good guys. That’s what Speaker Pelosi said. And the MSM bites at that, right?

Cong. Don Manzullo: Well, what we wanted was—in a sense it was more regulation—we wanted more openness.

Jeff Berkowitz: You did want more regulation.

Cong. Don Manzullo: …what we really wanted to do was to increase the capital requirements, to make better loans. And, that is regulation.

Jeff Berkowitz: And, to cut back on those loans. You wanted to increase the ratio of capital to assets, which means one, increase capital, but fewer loans, fewer bad loans to people who can’t afford to …buy those houses.

Cong. Don Manzullo: That’s correct. And, that passed the House under Republican leadership and it died in the senate.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you’re saying if Robert Abboud were to criticize you for not being sufficiently in favor of regulation, you would point to this and say, no, you were. You think you were doing enough?

Cong. Don Manzullo: Well, we did everything—

Jeff Berkowitz: I mean, it is not enough to vote yes. Were you really taking a leadership role? That’s what Abboud would say. He’d say. I think—he has been on this show---I’m trying to be fair here, but if he were here, he would say Don Manzullo didn’t take a leadership role in stopping this. What do you say to …your Democratic opponent, Robert Abboud?
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Cong. Don Manzullo: …Let me tell you what I did. …There’s a 2004 Hearing that will be coming up on our official website, where I

Jeff Berkowitz: What is that website.

Cong. Don Manzullo: It’s www.Manzullo.House. gov …right now, if you go to the website, there’s a hearing where I examine the Head of the Fed, Bernanke, July 17th of this year.

Jeff Berkowitz: Ben Bernanke, one of the Masters of the Universe.

Cong. Don Manzullo: One of the Masters of the Universe, and… I had to grill him because the reforms they wanted to put in, such as you can’t buy a house unless you can afford it—

Jeff Berkowitz: Sounds like a sensible idea.

Cong. Don Manzullo: Yeah, but it did not take effect until October of next year.
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…the Fed had the authority all along to say no “liar loans,” in other words, you cannot take out a mortgage unless you could afford to make the payments and you have to show proof of your income. Very basic, business, common sense things. The Fed had the authority to do that, but they refused to do that.
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From Tonight’s “Public Affairs,” taped on Sep. 30, 2008
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For additional partial transcripts of the shows with Cong. Manzullo and candidate Abboud, please go here.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. *************************************************************
"Public Affairs," is a weekly political interview show airing in Chicago on CANTV, in the Chicago metro area and in Aurora on Comcast and also often on the Illinois Channel. You can watch the shows, including archived shows going back to 2005, here.
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Recently posted shows on the Public Affairs YouTube page now include a show taped Sep. 30 with Cong. Don Manzullo (R-Egan, 16th CD) about his no vote on the bailout, jobs, trade and other issues related to his election contest with Democrat Robert Abboud, a show taped Sunday, Sep. 28, 2008 with State Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) and a show taped on Sunday, Sep. 21,2008 with 16th Cong. Dist. Democatic Nominee Robert Abboud (D-Barrington Hills), two shows featuring clips and interviews, primarily from the Democratic and Republican National Party conventions, go here to watch 2nd Convention clip show and shows with Cook County Cmsr. and Obama Media Team Member Forrest Claypool and much more.
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