Barney Frank is a Wimp, Part 2

Congressman Barney Frank continued to provide more obvious evidence that he is wimping out in performing his duty as Chair of the Financial Services Committee today on ABC’s “This Week.” He continued his campaign of setting expectations at a low level with his metaphorical discussion of “collateral benefit;” i.e., how we’re all going to have to get accustomed to the notion of some people becoming unjustly enriched by the policies that Washington will put in place to the solve the financial crisis. Furthermore, he ranted about how he wants to protect the jobs of public servants in his own district, and how he wants to cure society’s ills (e.g., the unfair distribution of income) with the economic stimulus plan.

Barney Frank is quite simply an irresponsible buffoon, and his attitudes and positions are inexcusable. When you accept a committee chair position, as he has done, that position should be your primary area of focus, especially when that area is in crisis. Instead of furthering his social agenda, he needs to worry about fixing the banking crisis and restoring credit.

Banking is the foundation upon which our economy is built. Trying to build a “great new society” on top of the shambles of our current economy would be like trying to build a skyscraper on top of Jello. Problems must be prioritized and addressed in their proper order. We need to reliquefy the banks by auctioning off their toxic assets AND by providing them with some new form of debt relief that would eliminate their many billions of dollars in exposure to derivatives losses. Without doing both of these things, the banking crisis cannot be solved, nor the broader economic crisis. There’s no point entertaining the notion of curing society's ills (as the Democrats seem compelled to want to do) without a healthy economy. We need to prioritize.

Frank’s “performance” on "This Week" can be seen here:
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