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Monday, June 23, 2008

Obama Pledges to Close Enron Loophole; McCain Opposed

Obama pledged Sunday to close the so-called Enron Loophole. As a bit of background, the Enron Loophole is a provision that was slipped into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted energy trading on electronic platforms from regulation and oversight.

Guess who slipped the loophole into the law? That's right, McCain's chief economic advisor Phil Gramm, who was at the time a powerful Texas senator.

Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that "as president he would strengthen government oversight of energy traders he blames in large part for the skyrocketing price of oil." Obama "singled out the so-called 'Enron loophole' for allowing speculators to run up the cost of fuel by operating outside federal regulation."

The Obama campaign "blamed the loophole on former Sen. Phil Gramm," who serves as Sen. John McCain's campaign "co-chairman and economic adviser."

The reason why the loophole got dubbed the "Enron Loophole" is because soon after its passage, the lack of regulation/oversight over Enron's electronic energy trading market led to Enron (on whose board Phil Gramm's wife sat) bilking California out of $40 billion and causing a summer full of rolling blackouts.

Guess what McCain's position on the Enron Loophole is? Yep, he's all for keeping it, on the advice of Phil Gramm.
[A McCain] aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee also opposes the farm bill because Gramm advised McCain that he should resist its regulatory language on the energy futures market.

Someone tell me again why most of the MSM refuses to give McCain a fraction of the scrutiny devoted to Barack Obama's flag pins and Michelle Obama's patriotism?

Here we have the chief architect of a horrific loophole in a regulatory scheme specifically advising John McCain to keep it and McCain then dutifully going along with it.

Think we'll get 24x7 coverage on CNN on this?

Read More: Obama Vows To Close "Enron Loophole" For Oil Speculators; McCain Defends 'Enron Loophole'

1 comments:

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