Meet Jim Bunning, Mr. No Bailout

A couple of you noticed that one United States senator -- baseball Hall of Famer Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican -- voted "no" on the housing bill that includes big tax breaks for home builders.

This prompted praise in the comment section for the hard-throwing conservative from Kentucky.

Firesale wrote:

"94 to 1 Senate vote for a Bailout.
I guess that solves it.

BUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!"

Later, "J" wrote:

"Firesale, I agree with you. I sent Bunning an email yesterday telling him how impressed I was with him standing up and doing the right thing. I also told him how I am a lifelong democrat who is fed up and willing to change teams over this."

Bunning (pictured) didn't go looking for publicity on this. He did not make a speech on the Senate floor opposing the housing bill and did not put out a press release. Earlier this year he cast doubts on the idea of government purchases of mortgages, saying, "I am concerned that further government action will expose taxpayers to excess risk or be a bailout."

His comments yesterday on the Bear Stearns bailout are also worth noting. The preferred narrative in Washington at the moment is that the collapse of Bear Stearns was a freak, unforeseen, rumor- and panic-driven "run on the bank" that forced the Fed's hand in the middle of the night. Bunning, at yesterday's Senate hearing, wasn't buying it:  He accused the Fed of "ignoring repeated red flags in the run-up to Bear's failure."

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Office of Sen. Jim Bunning

Comments

[John]

Peter,

How about a piece on how many homes will actually get bailed out of this bailout?

(Amount of bailout $ divided by price of homes being bailed out / amount of bailout $)

My math came out to WELL UNDER 100,000 homes, although that could be slightly more if city governments used the $ to help distressed homeowners keep their homes.

Given that we're looking at 2.2 MILLION homes facing foreclosure now, with more to come, I don't see that doing much to stem the tide of the housing correction.

I'm not in favor of the bailout, but I'm even less in favor of the government getting a lot of mileage out of pretend solutions.

I wish the government would treat its citizens like grownups, rather than trying to distract us with false promises like we were gullible children. But then, given the way people bought into the "housing prices only go up" mentality of the last 6-8 years, maybe treating the populace like gullible children isn't a bad strategy.

[save your ammo]

BUNNING's the new Icon of NO BAILOUT.

-- Lone dissenting vote against Grenspan's last
confirmation.
-- Lone dissenting vote against Bernanke's
nomination.
-- Lone vote against the Bailout.
-- Lone harsh words for the Fed Reserve
over the Bear-Stearns rescue , "(This) Socialism...
must not happen again!"

Bunning once threw 9 consecutive strikes to
drop three opponents. Hope we'll see at least
five more from him in the innings to come.

Look's like old Jim is pitching in another
PERFECT GAME. Way to go, Senator!

[Laker]

Guys,
I think we all need to contact Senator Bunning and offer him support and contribution. HE sure not getting a dime for NAR and NAHB. So we better help him. All other 99 are corrupt, and are getting paid by them so we sure don't need to pay them!

Who exactly is being bailed out???
1) Speculators
2) Irresponsible people that bought without caring to price
3) Fraudster banks that gave money does to make fees.
4) Home builders that made tons of billions $ in 2001-2006
5) Careless spenders (loan owners) that refinanced their houses and pull cash out to buy LCD TVs, RV, Boats, Vacations, Jet ski, and more.
6) Greedy realtors and mortgage brokers.

Who is not getting bailed out and therefore screwed:
1) First time middle class home buyers.
2) Responsible home owners that bought and can afford their mortgages (mostly using fixed rate)
3) Fixed income senior citizens seeing their fixed income evaporate and dollar devalued.
4) Home Owners that bought with 20% or more down payment (would not get bailout as their mortgage is still comfortable...)
5) The average middle class tax payer that was not part of this debacle, paying crazy high costs for gas and food, and seeing his savings evaporate.

So....the bailout is great right??? American Dream!

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Wow, impressive.

I wonder if he voted for Paulson as Tresury Secretary though?

Speaking of the Paulson, why is it that there is nothing in his 'reform' about regulating hedge funds or Wall Street firms that can run up trillions in derivative positions? These guys do that on purpose knowing 'they'd be too big to fail.' That's kidnapping, taking the country hostage!

[NotSoSure]

Bailout = typical Bush/conservative practice: keep the profits private in the name of capitalism, bailout the gamblers when things collapse to socialize the risk.

[sunsetbeachguy]

Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay also used the "run on the bank" meme/excuse for the collapse of Enron.

Can we file this one under convenient excuse?

It is just believable enough that the American sheeple will buy it, long enough to be a bailout.

Bunning is right up there with Ron Paul as far as Congresspeople with some level of integrity.

[dclogang]

Bravo! Bravo! Mr. Bunning.

The only sensible person in Washington.

He's got my vote for president.

[RE: Notsosure]

Notsosure:

Bush has consistently held a no bailout position (except arguably Bear Stearns).

It is the Democratic Party (i.e. Barney Frank and Crhis Dodd) who seem so gung ho to bail everyone out).

[JonB]

I have emailed Senator. Bunning and commited to send him $1000 if he ever runs for President.

[Michael Snyder]

I couldn't help myself, so i sent this along to Senator Bunning:

Senator,
It's not a card in the "Trivial Pursuit" game but you're making friends on the west coast with your stand against the federal manipulations associated with subprime. It seems our Congress & most of the Fourth Estate are the only ones left that actually believe this debacle has anything to do with foreclosures.
On the blog,"http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/" the word is all about leverage, corruption, leverage, more derivatives some payola and a bit more leverage until this Ponzi scheme disguised as a house of cards almost imploded last month after Carlyle Fund collapsed on margin calls that were leveraged 32:1. Here I thought crack was a poor man's drug.
Opening the Fed's discount window to a "broad range of collateral" along with the convenient extension from 28 to 180 days makes Paulson's move the largest money laundering scheme in history. Now the reason for propping up MBIA and Ambaq is obvious as they continue to rate subprime infected junk bonds as AAA investment grade paper so the Fed can buy them. I'm betting it's the ratings agencies that were on the verge of implosion and Bear Sterns was as much a smokescreen for the real action at the discount window as a no load free-bee for Morgan. Ted Turner would be proud.
Larry, Curly & Moe... I mean Henry, Ben & George seem bent on keeping this over leveraged house of cards afloat at the expense of the integrity of the dollar. You've got to see the tsunami on the horizon in 180 days as those loans the Fed is laundering the subprime paper with come due. Wall Street's solution has been to invent yet another derivative in the form of credit default swaps that are being traded between people that have no way to cover the liabilities implied by these instruments, yet they've almost brought the bond market to its' knees. Actions like this are proof that Wall St. is incapable of regulating itself. This isn't just greed on steroids, it's stupidity on crack.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch gas is up to $3.91 on the corner, but there is a noticeable drop in cross town traffic. I think I caught a valet panhandling in Beverly Hills and shops are going up for rent in the best neighborhoods. Consumer credit defaults are on the rise as people squeezed by the cost of food & fuel can no longer use their home equity to cover their consumer debt.
I was relieved to hear Donald Trump say, "It's the oil." All food chains build from the bottom up, and just like our fate is inexorably tied to the plankton in the ocean; the health of our country is tied to the well being of its' citizenry. All of its' citizenry, not just those making over a million a year. When Greenspan decided to remove food & fuel from the Fed's "core inflation" figure the collapse of Reganomics was eminent. You can trace a steady decline in the Dollar vs Euro and other major currencies from that point. NAFTA has destroyed not only our manufacturing base but the market for our goods as outsourcing and illegal immigration drive American wages to a third world level. Opening up individual retirement plans to the stock market has served to enrich a few while hundreds of thousands of retirees are contemplating cat food as a protein source. If George Bush is an example of what Harvard teaches its' MBAs it's small wonder we're in deep Bandini.
It seems you are the only Senator who actually cares more about this country than the lobbyist in your doorway. Please have one of your staff log onto the Times & check out the course of discussion over the past months. We may be a long way from Kentucky, but we're in your corner.
Respectfully,
Michael Snyder

[Joseph...The Real Estate Guy]

Being in the real estate biz for over 17 years and I happen to agree with most of you here!!!

I had a salesperson license for 13 years and a Broker's license for the last 4 years.

I have not recruited, but 1 person, because of the ignorance and dishonesty out there.

The lack of knowledge in the Finance and Real Estate fields drives me up the wall!

Most brokers only care is the bottom line!

www.asktherealestateguy.com

Hopefully coming soon!

[Stop the Housing Bailout]

Folks, we should all definitely contact Senator Bunning and thank him for his efforts.

I just did, and I hope you folks will as well.

To stop the bailout (remember, nothing has been passed yet, and the President has not signed it into law), we need to let politicians know that there are Americans against the bailout.

Please contact your reps and your local media to get the word out.

[original thinker]

Polls show that almost two-thirds of Americans are against this kind of bailout. So what happens?

94 Senators vote for it...
3 are absent, chasing a Presidency to support it...
2 have "gone fishing"...and

1 has the courage to continue his lone campaign against this type of business-as-usual that has
led us to what promises to be the greatest financial nightmare since the Great Depression.

So on the key issue of our time, the majority of this nation is being supported by one senator
from Kentucky. Can we call that a Republic?

If we really want change, maybe we should be calling Jim Bunning, "Mr. President".

[Kathy]

Joseph the real estate guy, you seem like an honest person. I hope you survive this bubble and can continue to make a living.

[CD]

Followed your advise and wrote him an email pledging my complete support and then more emails to our CA senators who do not care. We shall see.....As one of our fellow blogger said " are we pissing in the wind? "

[Michael Snyder]

CD
Inevitably we're pissin' in the wind. What's important is the direction we're facing.

[CD]

Snyder

Touche'.

[Jdiva]

I am sooooo a democrat BUT... I love what Jim Bunning stands for. We must let the market correct itself. Hmm....Maybe I'm not a democrat after all....

[Drew]

Senator Jim Bunning is senile. His erratic and eccentric behaviour over the past few years has led many people to come to this conclusion.

He probably meant to vote in favor of this bill but simply forgot what he was voting on.

[mattress man]

Bunning doesn't look erratic to me. Seems damn
consistent. We need more eccentric behavior like this
in the U.S. Senate.

I think when he votes against Bernanke
there's more behind it than the fact that
"Helicopter Ben" looks like Sadam's brother!

[Keith in CT]

Good for Bunning. We need to march on Washington to stop this bailout. What about all the people who lost their homes already over the past year. This bailout isn't to help the middle class citizen. It's to help the rich from losing money down the road. Let those with money to risk swallow their pill for once. Us with no money to risk are going to bail them out by paying higher taxes. We need to revolt on this issue. It's time to stand up and be counted or they'll be hell to pay.