On March 9, 2007, Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy introduced HR 1424. At the time it was to be known as the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. The bill contained five small sections intending to ensure equal coverage and treatment for mental health issues under insurance claims.
It passed the House but then gained an enormous Senate amendment. Since Congress was attempting to mess with health insurance mandates, several Senators wanted to expand the messing to include the prohibition of genetic discrimination. No person, the bill reasoned, should be charged more for coverage once the results of any genetic testing became known.
HR 1424 was stripped of this amendment in early 2008, with this other bill becoming a standalone HR 493. It eventually became law and is known today as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008.
This left 1424 sitting around. In late September, Congress would be rushed into an emergency bailout of the financial system. After hearing over and over from all the “experts” that everything was safe, suddenly those same experts were as panicked as markets.
On July 15, 2008, everything turned – again. There was a modest rebound, a slight sigh of relief after the world seemed to have processed the near failure of Bear Stearns. A slight breeze of reflation even blew, to which officials began their track of cautious optimism.
They had no cause for it, though, only a biased and emotional appeal to how, again, the worst just wasn’t possible. Not with Bernanke, the man who wrote the book on the Great Depression, in charge.
Congress was in session on July 15, with Ben Bernanke testifying as did Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Senator Chris Dodd would open the sham by shamming big time:
CHAIRMAN DODD. In considering the state of our economy and, in particular, the turmoil in recent days, it is important to distinguish between fear and facts. In our markets today, far too many actions are being driven by fear and ignoring crucial facts. One such fact is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have core strengths that are helping them weather the stormy seas of today’s financial markets. They are adequately capitalized. They are able to access the debt markets. They have solid portfolios with relatively few risky subprime mortgages.
