Rick Lazio's Links to Wall Street

Wall Street is the chief force for the expansion of government. Wall Street sells the bonds that finance government, so its stake in the expansion of the state is enormous.  To cloak this relationship the media depicts the debate between advocates of small and big government as one between business and the poor.  That is nonsense.

The big government party in America has always been the pro-big business party.  That started with the Federalists and Alexander Hamilton, continued through the Whigs and Henry Clay, continued further through the Republicans of Abraham Lincoln and then Jay Gould, and was then reinvented by Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressives.  The Democrats learned from the Republicans and became the bigger government and the bigger big business party under Franklin D. Roosevelt, a wealthy New Yorker.

Hence, when Republicans claim to favor small government, voters need to look under the hoods of their lie-mobiles.  When chronically lying Whigs like George Pataki, George W. Bush or Alfonse D'Amato claim to be for small government, it is better to pass on the clunker. Rick Lazio appears to be offering New York a used, big government Whig-mobile, complete with bailout tires and big business subsidy spares.

According to Emily Lenihan of WIVB in Buffalo, Carl Paladino, who publicly states he will cut government by 20% if elected, has made the following statement:

"Rick Lazio is a nice fellow and we have developed a cordial relationship and I think he is a man of his word- but he took a $1.2million dollar bonus as a lobbyist for Wall Street Bank handed $25 Billion in the Federal bail out. That's our tax money Rick put in his pocket," Paladino said.

"While in Congress, Lazio served as the chair of the Banking Committee's subcommittee on housing and community opportunity and was a cheerleader for and supporter of Andrew Cuomo's Federal Housing Goals which forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $2.4 BILLION in sub-prime mortgages while lowering underwriting standards and lowed down payments on 105% financing," Paladino said. "As chair of the relevant House sub-committee with oversight Lazio said....nothing."

Rick Lazio is a supporter of big government, despite the engine sounds of his lie-mobile.