The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved the payout of the insured deposits of MagnetBank, Salt Lake City, Utah. The bank was closed today by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the FDIC was named receiver.
After an extensive marketing process, the FDIC was unable to find another financial institution to take over the banking operations of MagnetBank. As a result, checks to the retail depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday morning. Brokered deposits will be wired once brokers provide the FDIC with the necessary documents to determine if any of their clients exceed the insurance limits. Customers who placed money with brokers should contact them directly for more information about the status of their funds.
MagnetBank, as of December 2, 2008, had total assets of $292.9 million and total deposits of $282.8 million. It is estimated that the bank did not have any uninsured funds. Customers who have questions about today’s transaction can call the FDIC toll free at 1-800-822-0412. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. MST; and on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m. MST; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. MST. Interested parties can also visit the FDIC’s Web site at www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/magnet.html.
MagnetBank is the fourth FDIC-insured institution to fail this year and the first in Utah since Bank of Ephraim, was closed on June 25, 2004.
The folks at Top Conservatives on Twitter have been live-tweeting the RNC election for chairman, calling out the ballot results and announcing each departure and endorsement.
(Saul Anuzis was the only candidate to drop out without endorsing one of the remaining candidates. Poor form?)
And the winner is: Michael Steele.*
Now quit congratulating yourself, Mike, and figure out what you want to get done.
* Okay: I have to leave before the final ballot is counted. This is just a projection.
House Republicans retreated to Virginia feeling good about themselves after snubbing President Obama’s effort to buy cover for the borrow-and-spend free-for-all Generational Theft Act of 2009.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitch Romney addressed the assembly. Here is the text, as distributed by Mitt Romney’s Free & Strong America PAC :
Thank you for the warm welcome. And thank you for the vote you took this week. You stood strong. You stood for principle. You put the best interests of the American people ahead of politics. I got some calls yesterday, after the news. They said what I feel. We want you to know that we’re proud of you.
It sure feels good to be in a room full of Republicans who came out ahead on Election Day. You can be proud of your success. And don’t be afraid to remind the President of this: you, too, won your election.
After my own campaign was over, Ann and I just wanted to get away from it all. We ended up in Beijing, about as far away as you can get. We went to the Olympic Games, and one of the events we attended was women’s beach volleyball. I noticed a lot of people looking in our direction, pointing toward us and taking pictures. It’s always nice to be recognized, and I told Ann, let’s be sure to smile and look our best. Ann said, they might like us even more if we got out of the way-Kobe Bryant is standing right behind you.
A few months have passed since the election. It’s enough time to consider the outcome and take stock of our party’s future. I want to make clear that I’m optimistic: our ideas are good, our agenda will make America stronger, and your action this week showed that we have the kind of leaders who will stand up for what they believe in.
I have often been asked what I think the Republican Party must do to recover. What I’ve said is this: My first concern isn’t about our party-it’s about our country.
In fact, the two are closely related. The best way for us to advance the prospects of our party is to do what we know is right for the country. This is what the American people expect of us. And that’s what we should expect of ourselves.
This is a time of hardship and uncertainty for millions of Americans. The question is: whose leadership and ideas will turn things around. And in such a moment, it’s our job to offer the clear answers, the proven solutions, and resolute leadership that will make this country strong again.
The new President and the Congressional majority are having a difficult time doing that. After all, they have a lot of campaign rhetoric to make good on. And they’ve got plenty of special interests to pay back. As the opposition party, we’re entirely free to do what is right for the country. There are certain advantages to that kind of freedom, and I suggest we make the most of them.
That begins with a clear analysis of what’s needed to get the economy moving again. Predictions that we are almost out of the woods, based on the length of prior recessions, are wishful thinking. Americans have lost some 11 trillion dollars in net worth. That translates into about 400 billion dollars less annual consumer spending in the economy.
There’s something else people don’t talk much about: The pool of investment capital-all the money available for new investments, business start-ups, business expansions, capital expenditures, and new hiring. The size of that pool has shrunk by trillions of dollars. This was a huge loss in value, and the effect could be felt for years-in businesses that don’t start up or grow, in jobs that don’t get created.
Given these extraordinary conditions, I am convinced that a stimulus is needed.
So why not just spend and borrow with reckless abandon? Because we’re in a very delicate situation that could easily get worse if Washington does the wrong thing. The package which passed the House is a huge increase in the amount of government borrowing. And we’ve borrowed so much already, that if we add too much more debt, or spend foolishly, we could invite an even bigger crisis. We could precipitate a worldwide crisis of confidence in America, leading to a run on the dollar … or hyper-inflation that wipes out family savings and devastates the middle class.
We’re on an economic tightrope. That’s why it is so important to exercise extreme care and good judgment.
So far, the Democratic leadership hasn’t shown a great deal of that. They’ve passed 355 billion in infrastructure spending, 60% of which won’t be spent by the end of 2010. Billions for electronic medical health records-it’s a fine idea, but it won’t produce jobs for years and years.
Even worse are the liberal payoffs-50 million dollars for the National Endowment for the Arts, hundreds of millions of dollars to the states for STD prevention and education. Until your loud protests got it dropped from the bill, there even was 200 million dollars for the DC Mall. That might have grown some grass, but it wouldn’t have grown the economy. And they’re doing this when the economy is on a tightrope.
It’s still early in the administration of President Obama. Like everyone who loves this country, I want him to adopt correct principles and then to succeed. He still has a chance to step in and insist on spending discipline among the members of his own party. It’s his job to set priorities. I hope for America’s sake that he knows that a Chief Executive can’t vote “present.” He can’t let others run the show. He has to say yes to some things and no to a lot of others.
We need to stimulate the economy, not the government. A true stimulus package, one that respects the productivity and genius of the American people, could lift this country out of recession. And experience shows us what it should look like.
One vote, like a single skirmish, does not mean the battle is won.
Congressional conservatives do not have the votes to block passage of the so-called stimulus bill. Unless citizens rise up with a mighty shout, the misbegotten piece of legislative thievery will be approved by the Senate, get cosmetic changes in committee, receive a nod from both houses of Congress and land on the president’s desk in time for Obama to sign it by President’s Day.
TRANSITIONS — JOSH DuBOIS TO FAITH-BASED — AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven: “President Barack Obama has chosen Joshua DuBois to lead his White House-based effort to steer federal social service dollars to religious charities and get them more involved in government anti-poverty efforts. DuBois, a political strategist who was religious affairs director in the Obama campaign, will head the President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.”
My opposition has less to do with an establishment of religion than with government co-opting religion.
If you take money from Caesar, you are owned by Caesar.
Do not allow Caesar to become your owner in faith-related areas of your life.
(I oppose school vouchers for the same reason. Church-based schools should not become dependent on government funds.)
Many conservatives have muttered that John McCain (R-AZ) ran on the wrong ticket in last November’s election. Every time ol’ Maverick reaches across the aisle in another bipartisan stab at his own party, conservatives both Republican and independent respond, “We would like to thank John McCain for his service to our great nation…” while wishing that they were toasting his retirement.
One of Ol’ Maverick’s more notorious bipartisan stabs was the “Gang of 14” deal brokered among a handful of Republicans who joined with Democrats to foist an ineffective solution to the impasse over judicial nominations — ineffective because most of the nominations languished through the end of the Bush Administration.
Now that Senate is considering the Generational Theft Act of 2009, a new “Gang of 14” threatens to provide a less-than-perfect score of zero Republican votes in support of the Democrats’ borrow-and-spend free-for-all. From a Fox News story:
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who was a member of the original “Gang” and a close friend of Nelson’s from their time on the Senate Armed Services Committee, got an invite, as has Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Nelson’s energy compromise group colleague. On the Democratic side, Nelson has reached out to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a strong ally of President Obama, as well as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and freshman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
(Emphasis added.)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should have a talk with Collins and Corker.
Such shenanigans will not help to rebuild the GOP or win future elections.
After all, Democrats think John McCain is spiffy as a conservative role model.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (64%), however, say the Republican Party has been too conservative, and 42% think it should look to McCain for the future. Twelve percent (12%) of Democratic voters see Palin as a future role model, and 40% aren’t sure what’s best for their rivals.
However, to rebuild the party, the GOP needs to appeal to independents, not to avowed liberal Democrats.
That same Rasmussen survey asked unaffiliated voters about who would make a good standard-bearer of the GOP going forward:
Regarding the future of the party, 46% of unaffiliated voters say follow Sarah Palin, while 26% like McCain. Just five percent (5%) give the nod to Bush, and 22% are not sure which way the party should go.
It is personally pleasing to me to see such a big hunk of independents approving Sarah Palin, but the 22% unsure which way to go interest me more. Those are the people that the GOP should be talking to, identifying appealing conservative issues that these voters may not label as conservative. Helping such independents recognize that their self-interest lies even partially with the Republican Party would be a big step towards regaining seats in the Senate and House in the midterm elections of 2010.
