Maybe (NOT!) a Reason to Vote McCain? UPDATED

Clariifcation: This blog entry, with updates, is about McCain's extreme hypocracy relative to the polished turd, known variously as "Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008" or the "Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008", H.R. 3221, which was passed by the Senate on Saturday 7/26/2008. This abomination act provides unlimited Federal backstop to the GSEs ("Fannie Mae" and "Freddie Mac") , among other follies.

Original Post, prior to UPDATE:

From the St. Petersburg Times I see an editorial from Senator John McCain:

Americans should be outraged at the latest sweetheart deal in Washington.
...
Fannie and Freddie are the poster children for a lack of transparency and accountability.
...
We are stuck with the reality that they have grown so large that we must support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the current rough spell. But if a dime of taxpayer money ends up being directly invested, the management and the board should immediately be replaced, multimillion dollar salaries should be cut, and bonuses and other compensation should be eliminated. They should cease all lobbying activities and drop all payments to outside lobbyists. And taxpayers should be first in line for any repayments.

Even with those terms, sticking Main Street Americans with Wall Street's bill is a shame on Washington. If elected, I'll continue my crusade for the right reform of the institutions: making them go away. I will get real regulation that limits their ability to borrow, shrinks their size until they are no longer a threat to our economy, and privatizes and eliminates their links to the government.

(Yes I'm outraged, and that's without even talking about the tax break for Chrysler and some subsidy for some Canadian railcar manufacturer that somehow got snuck in.)

I'm not sure I get all that "we must support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" stuff, since Freddie and Fannie are both private institutions with no federal gaurantees, see here and here and here.

So I still can't help wondering if we wouldn't be better off putting them in runout mode and letting the stock and bond holders eat shit. It's probably the fastest way to drop house prices back to where they belong, and nothing good can come out of the housing industry until that happens. ("Where they belong" is where the "typical" buyer can afford the "typical" house with conventional financing - I hope to devote a post to this idea soon.)

Because the way I see it, this economy is in for a lot of pain no matter what the government does; that being the case, we would be better off if we came out the other side without monuments to crony-capitalism like FNM or FRE. Or the rating agencies Fitch, S&P, and Moody. Or Hank Paulson - why can't that less-than-worthless piece of crap leave now, while there is still some sort of economy left?

But barring that access of commonsense, McCain is at least moving talking in right direction on this.

UPDATE:

Good thing I said "Maybe"! SHEESH!

McCain couldn't be bothered to vote against this POS - neither he nor Obama could be bothered to vote.

Further:

Both presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), expressed support for the legislation, though neither took a break from the campaign trail to attend yesterday's vote.

"This is not the bill he would have drafted on his own. But it's time for action," McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said.

And also:

When asked about Congress' progress in passing the housing bill, McCain said he would have voted for the legislation.

Message for DipShit McCain: if you as a Senator, think a bill is outrageous, there's something you can do about it: VOTE AGAINST THE THING, moron!