Kerry To Create Top Position - Only Job Is To Look Out For The Little Guy

[DrFunkenstein]

We need to protect everyday investors and the financial security of all Americans. From Enron to WorldCom to the mutual fund scandals that have shaken the trust and savings of Americans, a widespread creed of greed on Wall Street has been met by a look-the-other-way attitude in the Bush White House.

President Bush's first SEC chairman was a Wall Street lobbyist who was forced to resign in a storm of public outrage over his lenient treatment of his former industry. And the Bush Administration has refused to fill more than half the securities enforcement positions charged with protecting investors. In effect, the message from the White House to the regulatory agencies, when it comes to protecting the small investor and consumers, is don't ask and don't tell.

Its time our government sent a different message. A clear warning to anyone who even attempts to line their own pockets by exploiting everyday investors. Today, mutual fund fraud lines the pockets of the few at the expense of the hard-earned savings of everyday American families. In a Kerry Administration, those days are over. We can't create jobs unless we restore investor confidence in the markets.

As President, I will create a new senior post in the White House - a Director of Family Economic Security - a Pocketbook Watchdog in the White House - as the focal point of tough action to guard working Americans' pensions and retirement, to protect their personal information from identify theft, to ensure fair lending and housing, and to help people to build wealth and savings over a lifetime. To fill this new position, I will appoint a powerful advocate whose job - morning, noon, and night - will be to look out for the everyday investors who are too often exploited to benefit a powerful few.

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0107.html

[hippiechick]

1. Looking out for the 'little guy' is sorta the President's job ....

... meet the new boss ... same as the old boss ...

:eyes:


:hippie:

[coloradodem2005]

5. One that Bush does very poorly.

THe new boss will not be the same as the old boss.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Everyday investors are very lucky to have money to invest

Kerry is to be commended for his candor in making clear who he considers "the little guy."

[Auntie Bush]

3. Now that's what I call a leader!

Hope he gets the nomination. Finally! A President who is FOR, not AGAINST, the American PEOPLE.

CLARKIE FOR KERRY

[lastknowngood]

4. Gimmick and nothing more who's running this joke of a

campaign?

[woofless]

6. You mean the "Joke campaign" which

has won 19 of the 21 contests it has entered? If you don't get it by now, the joke is on you. Sour grapes.

[Frances]

7. Excuse me, but doesn't a comment like yours

belong over on the Freeper board?

[cosmicdot]

13. not necessarily - don't we have Dept's. and agencies already

whose missions include these concepts, but are, for whatever reason, not doing the job as designed/created?

I know when I contacted the Dept of Labor in the '97-'98 period that they didn't know jack squat about one its jurisdictions: ERISA
A proactive DoL would have its employees skilled in the subject with focus of serving us citizens.

Now, if that's the sort of reform a new Dept. will bring on ... bring it on ...


perhaps the idea is to reduce the government down to 2 Departments:

Homeland Security
and
Economic Security

[DrFunkenstein]

14. Don't Forget Energy Security!

Energy security is American security. Our policy must reflect that we live in one world, not four or five separate ones and we need an energy policy of national purpose that confronts the hard realities and sets real priorities based on the needs of all Americans.

Obviously we all agree that reducing our dependence on foreign oil, especially oil from the politically toxic Middle East, is a necessity. But the American people want honesty about how you do it, not a false security blanket that promises something undeliverable in the short term and precious little amounting to real progress in the long term.

In recent months, I've talked to citizens across our country, to businesspeople, farmers and the energy industry; to academic experts and local officials; to the public health community and public interest organizations, and I have found that more and more Americans "get it."

They are dissatisfied with the fossil-fuel based energy policies that made sense fifty years ago, but which cannot sustain our nation in the future. They are frustrated because we don't pursue alternatives they know we could adopt. They want an economy where hardworking citizens can't automatically be held hostage to the whims of a handful of nations that rig the world oil market. They want leaders setting an agenda where protecting our environment, our land, our water, our air and our public health are national priorities, not after-thoughts.

They want a country where energy security is not just a slogan or an empty promise, but a growing reality. It is with all of their views and with their input, expertise and practical experience that I respectfully suggest it is time now to pursue a national Strategic Energy Initiative.

This is an initiative born out of necessity and its goal is quite simply to initiate a transition from our heavy dependence on polluting and sometimes insecure fossil fuels to more efficient, clean, and reliable energy. It maximizes private sector opportunities and avoids the mistake of command and control. It plays to our entrepenuerial skill as Americans but it commits us as a nation to move in a certain direction.

Today there is a compelling national interest to address the security and environmental threats of fossil fuels. Just as we did in the 1930s and many times since, we should nourish the marketplace, set goals and create incentives that will begin a transition.

We must provide a catalyst for the work that is already happening at the margins of the energy industry. Shell has invested in wind, solar and biomass; Chevron has invested in solar and fuel cells; and BP has heavily invested in solar and predicts more than $1 billion in sales by 2010. These efforts are smaller than they ought to be -- they stand today as Potemkin Villages on a landscape dominated by the old way of doing things, a landscape that reflects the $1.8 billion federal largesse lavished on oil and gas while alternative efforts compete for the scraps of a mere $24 million in federal venture capital. A technological revolution can change the energy landscape itself, and it's time we accelerate the technology - speed up the development process -- push the curve - and join the competition so that American ingenuity can again lead the world.

To accomplish that and excite even more entrepeneurial activity, I believe we should set a national goal of having 20% of our electricity come from domestic alternative and renewable sources by the year 2020. Twenty-twenty - I think it's a vision worthy of America; a goal I believe our citizens are ready to embrace.

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2002_0122.html

[elfin]

8. That's where he will park Edwards

instead of the VP slot where Edwards would outshine him in press attention. Hope not - they looked good side by side in the last "debate." Don't know how today's debate is going - blacked out in Milwaukee.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. This is a good idea!

I do hope Kerry follows through with this when he is elected. Will this post require Congressional approval? If not, it is more likely to be something he can do.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

10. The Class War Czar?

oy

[DrFunkenstein]

15. If Kerry Says The Sky Is Blue He'd Get Jumped On Around Here

It's like people who see the glass 1/10 empty instead of 9/10 full.

[blondeatlast]

11. "Morning, noon, and night?" So the cabinet gets shafted by the

new overtime laws, too???

At least now those in power are beginning to recognize that there are two economies in the US and they are worlds apart.

[Mairead]

21. It's not that they don't *know*, it's that they don't *care*

They're not stupid, simply uncaring. They've always known that their interests and ours are in conflict, and that's fine with them.

[Crachet2004]

12. Yeah, and I think the new "Little Guy Tzar"...

Should be given a lot of 'little guys' to help him in his enforcing duties-like maybe two armored infantry divisions, one aircraft carrier task force and at least two wings of F-15's! Oh yeah. He may need his own nuclear deterrent too. Because the people he will be going after are a far more capable adversary than ever the Soviets were at the height of the Cold War! Yeah! Give him Gitmo as a Gulag to keep all those sorry bastards in, too!

I don't even want them in this country.

Matter of fact, I might even trade them to Castro for some of the democratically inclined political prisoneres he keeps...give him a few bona fide capitalist PIGS to play around with!

Yeah!

Good thing I'm not president, cause I would. Yes I would!

And laugh about it. They deserve it.

[unfrigginreal]

16. LMFAO

How rich! Kerry's going to watch out for the investing "little guy". It's good to see he's ready to focus on the truly needy. :eyes:

[sistersofmercy]

17. OK, that's nice but when I read the title my first thought was...

why only people of small stature...us taller folks need to be looked out for. O8)

[sangh0]

18. It sounds better than a "Dept of Peace"

.

[revcarol]

19. For the little guy, might want to get out of the WTO and NAFTA, huh?

It's that pesky JOBS thing.

Can't invest without a job.

Just use up all the investments and pension money you have saved over the years to feed your family while you're unemployed.

But Kerry wouldn't DEIGN to listen to any unemployed workers caused by the policies he voted for. Nosiree!! He's firm and Presidential.

[sangh0]

20. Or, might not

IMO, this is just another case of a liberal thinking that the imaginary "base" agrees with them, complete with an imaginary refusal to speak to the unemployed.