Democrat Alan Grayson Praises the Creation of Stealth Socialism in America

Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) — who once said in an elaborate presentation that the Republican healthcare plan is for the sick to “die quickly” — praised the creation of “stealth socialism” in America in a recent interview with David Dayen at Salon.

Speaking about the Federal Reserve’s rapidly-growing balance sheet, Grayson remarked:

We’ve had a government takeover of the bond market. Stealth socialism’s been created. Government simply ends up owning more and more and more. If government had taken over the steel industry, maybe it would have been more noticeable. They’ve taken over the financing of housing industry as well, with a desired result.

The “desired result” of said “stealth socialism,” the congressman said, is “housing ticking up again” and “setting a foundation for recovery for the U.S. economy.”

The Harvard-educated economist also spoke about the broader policies of the Federal Reserve and quantitative easing.

“Conceivably, we might be in a situation where the Fed has to buy $70 billion in assets in perpetuity,” he said. “It’s puzzling why there’s been no market reaction to that. But it has had its apparent intended purpose. It leaves you scratching your head a bit about how it worked and why it worked. You would think more than tripling the balance sheet would have some effect on the value of money, but so far no. There’s been no effect on inflation; in fact, it appears to have prevented deflation, an economic spiral and rounds of bankruptcy.” 

Grayson concluded the interview with a story of how he negotiated a 50 percent increase for bilingual HUD housing counseling, saying he did so by telling the Republicans to “put up or shut up” if they really want to improve their image among Hispanics.

“When push came to shove, they accepted the amendment, they wouldn’t allow a roll call vote on it. They didn’t want to have their people vote against Spanish-language housing counseling,” he said.  “They didn’t do it because I made pals with them. I scared the crap out of them!”

Jorge Bonilla (R), a U.S. Navy veteran whose parents immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico, is running against Grayson in 2014.  He ridiculed Grayson’s remarks, noting that while Grayson claims to be able to “[scare] the crap” out of Republicans, he has so far refused Bonilla’s offer to debate.

“Mr. Grayson touts current monetary policy as providing a baseline for recovery, yet fails to notice that current job creation does not keep up with population growth, and that labor participation continues to crater (312,000 alone dropped out of the labor force last month),” a statement on Bonilla’s website reads.  

“The fact is that with his votes for Obamacare, the stimulus and anti-business Dodd-Frank legislation, Mr. Grayson is jointly responsible for this administration’s abysmal failure to create jobs or improve the economy.”

Bonilla suggested Grayson explain the benefits of “stealth socialism” to all those whose hours have been cut, who have lost their jobs, or “who have been dropped from their health care coverage due to the onerous mandates that he voted for.”

Thank You: The Blaze

INTERVIEW: Senator Mike Lee, Rush Limbaugh and Defunding ObamaCare

 

RUSH: We're happy to welcome to our program Senator Mike Lee from Utah. He's gonna bring us up-to-date on his effort here to lead the Republican Party in the Senate to attempting to defund Obamacare.  Senator, welcome.  Great to have you here.

LEE:  Thank you, Rush.  It's a pleasure to be with you.

RUSH:  Tell me and everybody else what you're trying to do because there are now people saying what you want to do can't be done because so much of the spending is locked in.  I've read no, that's not true.  And then, second question, I remain perplexed.  I mean, you got a majority of the American people that oppose this, and I don't see the Republican Party trying to connect with them, outside of you and a couple others.  So a lot of this doesn't make any sense to a whole lot of people.


LEE:  That's right, it doesn't make any sense to a whole lot of people outside the Washington Beltway.  You see, inside the Washington Beltway, this discussion is controversial.  Outside the Beltway, Obamacare is universally despised.  This is an issue, Rush, that is no longer just about Republican versus Democrat.  It's no longer about liberal versus conservative.  This is about Washington, DC, versus everyone else.  This law is despised because it's gonna make our health care unaffordable.  It's also going to make health care unfair, because the president has said he's gonna hold hardworking Americans to the line and punish them if they don't comply with the law's exacting demands, but he's gonna give a big carve-out for Big Business.  Big Business doesn't have to comply.  The American people shouldn't have to put up with it. The president said he's not ready to implement the law. We shouldn't fund it.

RUSH:  When you say Big Business doesn't have to comply, you're talking about the one-year waiver on the employer mandate?

LEE:  That's correct.  The president's selectively enforcing the law in a way that he doesn't have the authority to do.
RUSH:  Isn't that a tantamount admission that the law's punitive and he doesn't want it to be punitive going into an election?

LEE:  Yes.  It's punitive, so he looked at that aspect of the law that is the most unpopular with those who can afford lobbyists, the most unpopular with those who have contacts that can get into the White House and get an audience, and so that's what he's doing, is he's throwing this bone out there so that he doesn't get attacked as much within the business community and the lobbyist community.  Meanwhile, he's throwing the rest of us out into this wasteland that is the world of Obamacare.

RUSH:  Well, maybe you can help some of us understand.  Even if the Republican Party does not want to be identified or known as a conservative party, they still are an opposition party.  I don't understand why they're not, even if they believe that what you want to do can't be done, why not make a stand?  Why not stand up and say, "This is who we are. This is what we're for.  This is why this is bad.  This is why we want to repeal it for you." There's a majority of the American people waiting to be connected with.  Why this capitulation with the Democrats, Senator?

LEE:  The fact that that question is so difficult to answer is itself a great source of frustration to me, because, look, we have a majority of the representatives in the House and a sizeable plurality of the senators who are against Obamacare, have been since day one.  In the House they voted 39, 40, 41 times to repeal it.  So those of us who say we're against it, those of you who recognize this law's going to be bad for the American people, ought to be willing to stand up and say, "You know, one of the few powers that we still guard jealously within Congress is the power of the purse."  We should simply refuse to fund Obamacare.  We want to fund the rest of government, just not Obamacare.

The Rest of the Interview: RushLimbaugh.com