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Dean: Senate health bill 'watered down':

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that Senate Democrats' healthcare legislation is so diluted it threatens the party's 2010 chances.

Appearing on MSNBC, the former Vermont governor and outspoken proponent of healthcare reform charged Democrats were "playing with dynamite in terms of dividing the party.”

"The big problem is the policy. This thing has been pretty watered down," Dean said during the interview, noting the House bill was "better" than the "decent" Senate bill. "Right now, it's about as watered down as it can get and still be a real bill. For example, there's really no insurance reform in this bill, already."

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MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan talks to Rep. Alan Grayson about the amendment passed by the House Financial Services Committee to allow an independent audit of the Federal Reserve. If Alan Greenspan is not happy about it, I take that as a good sign they did the right thing. It only took putting this country on the edge of financial ruin that we're not out of yet for the S.O.B. to ever admit he might be wrong about anything.

Ratigan: Alright first big newsmaker of the Meeting, Democratic Alan Grayson, better known for some of his fiery comments on Republicans and health care, now taking aim at the Federal Reserve along with so many others. He says the Federal Reserve is more secretive than the CIA, and his new amendment co-sponsored by Republican Ron Paul would allow the first ever independent audit of the Federal Reserve. The amendment edged out a competing proposal from North Carolina Congressman Mel Watt who wants to limit those very audits.

Congressman Grayson now joins the Morning Meeting. Your amendment approved by the House Financial Services Committee—a huge step forward. Where do you go from here and what’s your level of confidence Representative that you can continue to addendum behind this piece of legislation?

Grayson: Where we go is to stop the secret bailouts. There have been hints and hints now for more than two years that the Fed’s been conducting huge bailouts on the scale of hundreds of billions of dollars to favor large failed banks. Now we’re going to find out all about it, and we’re going to decide whether it’s good or bad.

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From The Daily Show:

While promoting her new book, Sarah Palin delivers her wisdom as a conservative boilerplate Mad Lib.

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November 19, 2009 MSNBC
Naomi Klein and Ryan Grimm explain to Dylan Ratigan why we need to audit the Federal Reserve.

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November 13, 2009 MSNBC
Dylan Ratigan pushes his "Space Agenda"
GO DYLAN!

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Dylan Ratigan has a bit of fun with a deadly serious topic and 'celebrates' the anniversary of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which tore down the wall between Wall Street investment banks, commercial banks, and insurance companies. Gramm-Leach-Bliley repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and/or an insurance company.

While I think Ratigan's theatrics are a bit over the top, the point he's trying to make is not. We're long overdue with some new regulations to get rid of these too large to fail entities with both regulating and breaking them up. Why the Obama administration has continued to keep our economy in a state where it could collapse again due to the risk these institutions pose is beyond me.

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Here's something you don't see every day. One of these talking heads stopped in their tracks for lying on the air. MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan calls out The Family Research Council's Cathy Ruse (what a name for a spokesperson, huh?) for lying about what affect the Stupak amendment would have on private insurance if passed.

After noting that The Family Research Council called the Stupak amendment a “huge victory for women", Ratigan asked her this:

Ratigan: Cathy, what was the victory?

Ruse: Well the victory is that the question is elective abortion and who should be forced to pay for those, the individual or the government. Before the Stupak amendment passed, Americans would be forced to pay for other people’s elective abortions.

Ratigan: That’s not true.

Ruse: It is true, under both the public option plan and…

Ratigan: No, that’s not true…

Ruse: …and under the federal subsidies…absolutely true. That’s why…

Ratigan: The objection was to the use of the exchange. I’ll have this debate but you have to operate in the factual reality which is you’re saying that all the private insurance being sold on a publicly established exchange cannot fund elective abortion, and that is not federal dollars paying for abortion—that federal dollars paying for an exchange upon which private insurance is sold where elective abortions are provided.

Ruse: The Stupak amendment did two things. It prohibits federal funding for covering elective abortions, but it allows private insurance to carry coverage of elective abortions so long as no federal tax dollars are involved. And let me just…

Ratigan: Cathy, you’re not dealing with—you can’t—just coming on television and lying is not journalism, nor is it actually beneficial to the country. Let’s talk about what we’re discussing which is the establishment of an exchange upon which private insurance that we bought and sold establishes federal dollars. Nancy you were going to say?

Keenan: Yeah listen, we know that about 80-85% of private insurance companies today privately cover abortion care, and what the Stupak amendment does, is basically means that women will not be able to purchase insurance coverage that covers abortions with their own money, with their own money in this new healthcare system. That’s the reality of the Stupak amendment and it is outrageous that they are saying that this is good for women or that this is somehow the status quo. This goes far beyond the status quo.

Maybe Tony Perkins should get himself someone else go to up against Dylan Ratigan if his group wants to continue to try to spread misinformation about what the Stupak amendment does, although I don’t think Perkins himself would have faired much better against Ratigan. Both Ratigan and Keenan go on to point out what the real purpose of the amendment is, which is to prevent private insurance from paying for any abortions, get Roe v Wade overturned and to derail health care reform.

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From MSNBC's Morning Meeting, Dylan Ratigan talks to author and former managing director for Goldman Sachs Nomi Prins about this week's article in the UK Times I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs.

Think Progress has more--Goldman Sachs CEO says he’s ‘doing God’s work,’ rejects the idea that Goldman profits from gov’t support:

Last quarter, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs made a $3.19 billion profit, and according to some estimates, the firm will set aside $21.9 billion for compensation this year. In an interview with London’s Sunday Times, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein said that the firm is serving an important “social purpose” by helping companies grow, and denied the idea that Goldman is only able to make record profits thanks to government support.

Blankfein dismisses any suggestion that Goldman needed to be bailed out, and, by extension, rejects any notion that the firm is now profiting from public support. Sure, he took $10 billion from Washington’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp). But the bank has since repaid the cash, with healthy interest — 23%. Goldman also benefited from the federal bail-out of the huge US insurance firm AIG. Goldman had bought $20 billion worth of insurance from AIG and received billions of dollars — perhaps as much as $13 billion — when Washington pumped $90 billion into the stricken giant. But Blankfein insists Goldman was “hedged” against any AIG losses, in the best possible way — with cash.

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While I definitely do not agree with Dylan Ratigan on a host of issues, the one thing I've found refreshing about his show is that the guests had better not come on there and start spouting mindless talking points without expecting to be challenged on them--because they will be if they do, and forcefully as Betsy McCaughey found out the hard way about a month ago. Rep. Pete King was no exception today. With some help from Chrystia Freeland, Ratigan calls out Rep. Pete King for distorting what's in the House health care bill.

King asked for everyone to come join the Tea Baggers "press conference" on Capitol hill today and trotted out the tired old line about being able to buy insurance across state lines as a cost saving measure and allowing people "the freedom to choose" their health insurance provider. He also said that 85% of people are happy with their insurance companies and that Pelosi's plan would "cancel every policy".

Ratigan pointed out that it is not true that people are happy with their insurance companies and that the GOP bill would not assure more choices. Freeland noted that allowing people to cross state lines to buy insurance would just mean a race to the bottom and companies going to the states with the least regulations and make it even harder with people with pre-existing conditions to get coverage.

King and the rest of the GOP have nothing but the same tired rhetoric to offer on what their idea of “reform” is. They’re more worried about getting the Tea Baggers whipped into a frenzy than anything that resembles legislating.

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Investigative journalist Gerald Posner told MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan that the Taliban is using heroin as a tactical weapon against US soldiers. "They understand this is an additional weapon and getting their money, as you said, from the heroin and opium crop and looking at the possibility of hooking Americans not only on the cheap heroin but according to the U.S. intelligence report and picking up conversations, they developed the ability now for smokeable heroin," explained Posner.

The Daily Beast has more details here.

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From the Today Show Oct. 15, 2009. Dylan Ratigan and Michael Moore slam Wall Street for the latest round of bonuses being paid to their executives after being rescued by our tax dollars.

Lauer: Dylan, let me start with you. There are going to be a lot of confused people out here. The Dow is over 10,000 again. The bonuses are back, but on Main Street you’ve got money still tight, spending is tough, people can’t get mortgages, and unemployment is still a problem. Is it just the reality now that Wall Street and Main Street are completely disconnected?

Ratigan: Largely they were. Unfortunately the government has changed the rules on behalf of Wall St. to allow them access to trillions of our dollars as you and I have discussed, as Michael Moore has documented. When you have access to trillions of dollars of taxpayer money with no strings attached, it's very easy to make a few billion dollars. A billion is only 1/1000 of a trillion and because our government is allowing the indulgence of the risk taking of the trillions of our own money not only is it allowing Wall Street to make the billions, but it is also depriving the rest of our economy out of the use of those funds which is why you see the heart wrenching antidotes that Michael Moore is so good at portraying.

There is a direct connection between those who you see suffering in films that Michael documents and the abdication of duty by our government to allow all the taxpayer money we all work so hard to create to be the plaything, the gambling toy, of the financial industry as opposed to forcing the financial industry to get back to the business of being investors and becoming the next Warren Buffet, actually putting money into the economy as opposed to taking it out.

Lauer: Michael, let me make sure people understand this. The Wall Street Journal report says that firms are going to pay out about a $140 billion dollars in bonuses this year. The year before the economic meltdown, 2007, they paid out about $130 billion, so it’s gone up. How is this news going to go over with people like the ones in your home state Michigan that just found out unemployment is 15.3% in that state?

Moore: Well eventually people aren’t going to take it and I don’t know how many gated communities these people who are taking this $140 billion in bonuses, I don’t know how many castles with moats around them they can build, but I’ll tell you something—there’s an anger that’s building out there and I mean Matt, these people, they burned down our economy. They completely crashed it. And now they're getting rewarded for it. It would be like I burned down your house today and then tomorrow you send me a check for it thanking me. It's absolutely insane that we allow this to happen but not surprising because that’s our capitalist system. They can get away with it because it’s legal. They can get away with it because they can make whatever they want to make. They can take whatever they want to take. There’s no such thing as enough.

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From MSNBC's Morning Meeting Oct. 16, 2009. Dylan Ratigan explains how Goldman Sachs managed to make $3 billion in three months investing our tax dollars sent to keep them afloat with no strings attached.

For more you can read his entry at the Huffington Post Goldman Sachs' Black Magic, Here's How They Did It.

Goldman at the apex of the crisis is delivered this money -- which they then use to borrow against at $20 or $30 for every $1. Which at 30x equals $2.1 trillion in available capital.

As one of the only banks in the world with money at the time, Goldman Sachs was able to buy billions in distressed assets around the world at record low prices -- only to watch $23.7 trillion in US taxpayer money be deployed during the past year to re-inflate the asset's values that Goldman had purchased with our tax money.

The question is not why did we bail out the banks.

The question is why did we give the banks billions of our money so they could then buy assets by the trillions with our money and they keep the profits?

The answer is Henry Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO who ran the US Treasury, and Tim Geithner, current Treasury Secretary who at the time ran the New York Federal Reserve, willingly delivered Goldman Sachs the $70 Billion -- with no strings attached.

So what can we do?

1. We must demand the return of those investment gains made with America's money - it was stolen from us and we can get it back. Demand Claw Backs - and not from the future but from the past - That is where our money is.
2. We must have an exchange for all credit derivatives -- the current version is riddled with loopholes that let banks avoid transparency by mobbing offshore and prohibiting government regulators from being able to force the use of the exchange by the banks.

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MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan and author of Bailout Nation Barry Ritholtz discuss JP Morgan's record $3.6 billion third quarter profits. Ratigan came out swinging and didn't let up from there.

Ratigan: There’s too many people in this country that are afraid to compete, wouldn’t you say? Particularly those banks and it’s time by the way for the opening bell on Wall Street. Stocks opening sharply higher—those better than expected earnings from JP Morgan—a few billion dollars on the take—thanks to your taxpayer subsidies. The Dow making its way towards 10,000.

That’s not a bad thing but you do have to wonder why it is that the taxpayer takes all the downside as the markets march higher. Curious isn’t it?

Heads Banks Win, Tails Taxpayers Lose: JPMorgan Cashing In:

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) — the beneficiary of a $25 billion taxpayer bailout and Trillions in indirect subsidies — reported soaring third quarter profits of $3.6 billion (a seven-fold jump) on an 81% increase in revenues. Moreover, The Wall Street Journal reports JPMorgan is projected to pay $25.9 billion to the bank’s workers. Seems as though socialism is a windfall for private banks.

In this case, taxpayers took all the risk and received none of the upside when lending money to banks such as JPM. Rather than our public servants negotiating on our behalf to get a genuine capitalist deal like Warren Buffett did with Goldman Sachs (GS) and General Electric (GE), we now get to watch JPM et al swim in their profits while our broken system could have benefited from a savvy deal.

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Dylan Ratigan offered up some meaning for his new catch phrase he's been using this week, describing it as

a system that takes resources from the citizenry and redistributes it to a tiny elite....a handful of weak, uncompetitive and outdated corporations and industries are purchasing control of the American political process in order to stay in business using their cronyism. It is coming at the direct expense of the rest of us, and is a total betrayal of everything that represents America.

The former host of the business channel CNBC spares no punches either in this article at the Huffington Post.

It is an interesting idea, somewhat reminiscent of the idea in economist James K. Galbraith's book The Predator State, which developed on more ideological lines. Galbraith related to Thomas Frank in the Wall Street Journal:

"The 'predator state' describes what happens when chicken coops are given over to foxes," Mr. Galbraith continued. "When consumer protection, worker protection, environmental protection, and policing against fraud are handed over to lobbyists. And when health care is run for the benefit of private insurance companies, whose business model . . . is to target coverage on the healthy and delay payments to the sick."

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Contessa Brewer takes the NRCC to task for their remarks about putting Nancy Pelosi "in her place". I don't think I've ever seen her quite this pissed off. Give 'em hell gal.