Frank: Pot, Online Gambling Better Than Wall Street Gambling

There's freedom, and then there's "total freedom," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told a right-wing news service, CNSNews.com, on Friday, engaging the outlet in a debate about personal responsibility.

For Frank, the free exercise of individual choice is legitimate, and should be made legal, as long as those decisions don't harm the broader population. "I would let people gamble on the Internet," Frank said. "I would let adults smoke marijuana. I would let adults do a lot of things, if they choose."

That freedom ends when individual liberty imperils the global economic structure, he said. "But allowing them total freedom to take on economic obligations that spill over into the broader society? The individual is not the only one impacted here, when bad decisions get made in the economic sphere, it causes problems."

Frank's formulation echos the libertarian credo that one person's freedom to swing a fist ends where another's nose begins.

Frank raised the issue of online gambling, he told CNS, because his Republican counterpart on the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), is a fierce opponent of online gambling while being okay with loose regulation on Wall Street.

CNSNews.com had asked Frank about comments Bachus had made at a committee hearing Thursday on mortgage reform. "You're substituting the government's decision for the individual's decision in whether they can afford it," Bachus had complained of the legislation. "If you can't afford it, don't buy it."

Frank pressed the difference. "We're not just talking individual responsibility," he said. "We have a world-wide economic crisis now, because of this. If it were purely individual responsibility, OK, that's why I disagree with the ranking member."

Ryan Grim is the author of the forthcoming book This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Comments

[Steve Blake]

One of the few sane individuals in politcs.

[stargazer13]

they are thief's greedy little thieves

and the Gop wants to blame the victims

Why is that

was it the individual home owner that lobbied congress NO!!

was it the home owner that changed the laws NO!!

so why blame the home owner !!!!

[Nicon]

Because were the ones that paid in to the system. With out millions of stupid people signing up for homes they could never hope to pay for (not a new trend, i like to call it the American Dream).

Getting scammed sucks, even if its the bank that does it, but its still about 1/2 your own fault.

[PhilipTaylor]

The only way to stop Wall Street from distorting our government is to stop Lobbyists and Corporations from buying votes with campaign contributions!

PROTECT OUR Congress Members Votes:

Funnel all Political Contributions through a Government Contribution Cleansing and Funds Distribution Agency that uses strict formulas for allocating funds blindly to Politicians so their votes are NOT purchased! Fairness for New potential Members (No incumbent advantages for voting record)!
__________­__________­________

The facts are in Wall Street Buys Votes:

Wall Street-Washington Scam: Just FACTS!

$5 Billion Wall Street gave to Congress over Ten Year:

1. Average $7.5 Million to each Senator/4 years!
2. Average $1.86 Million to each House Member/4 years!
3. Early Campaign Obama took Lead in Wall Street Funds: $479,209 with GS/UBS Biggest!

1980 WS Executives made 20 times average Worker
2008 WS Executives made 400 times average Worker
NOW Canada Executive made 20 times average Worker
NOW Britain Executives made 22 times average Worker
NOW Japan Executives made 11 times average Worker

300% Increase in Pay for Top 1% from 1980-2008!
20% Decrease in Pay for Other 99% from 1980-2008!

1980 Banking was around 10% of US Profits
2007 Banking was 40% of US Profits
Shrink Banking 75% to 1980 SUPPORT ROLE in Our Society!

[TheBlackCat]

Freedom is NORML

[TJCole]

Barney; is right, many still do not realize that to do what these banksters were doing with credit default swaps etc. they required to be immune from not only the SEC but also the Gaming Commission...!

These so called conservatives based the foundations of our economic system on Gambling...

Greenspan was in fact America's number one degenerate gambler along Rubin and America's number one loan shark, as Bernanke is today just glorified loan sharks, lending to even meaner more predatory loan sharks..and they want people's respect isn't that just disgusting...?

[Actongue]

Legalazing pot would not only Create alot of revenue thru taxes but it would Save a ton of money spent in enforcement of the current pot laws we have in place.

[hrholmes]

And that's just the beginning of all the good things it can be made into and taxed as well as creating lots of jobs, huge burden of the lost war on Drug enforcement and local agencies too. I continue to see that it would be way too smart a thing to legalize. Geez just think of all the poor drug dealers that would be stuck with $150 per ounce of pot that would then be worth $15 tax and all! Just like happened to our homes this year. How would those poor dealers be able to pay their dues to local and federal law enforcement personnel? How would they get by on salaries alone? It just would be too huge a blow to the currently illegal dark side of the economy.

[MsLiz]

Alabama (that red X is the state flag) is a non-lottery state. We recognize the addictive nature of our personalities here!

Governor Siegelman tried to get a lottery approved and this was an element in his downfall.

We still have many dry counties. You can't buy beer with a high alcohol level here (actually, the established distributors don't want the competition).

Rep. Bachus' son got busted for pot years ago.

Think what legalization of marijuana would do for the Black Belt! All that fertile soil and scorching hot summer weather would turn it into a green belt.

[ignorantwillyharper]

Not to mention the sales of farm tractors skyrocketing, as I would buy a new tractor today! And how about plows, tillers and water systems. It would send agriculture income through the ceiling! We can't do this though, it would make to much sense and we know government doesn't have any use for common sense.

[Cunningham]

Jail the economic terrorists, free the stoners.

[The Ghost]

10.0

[iblogleft]

Amen.

[stargazer13]

I would go for that

[jsgaetano]

Everyone knows real libertarians are no different than NeoCons. Just look at how steadfastly they supported GWB over the past eight years.

Everything they claim to believe in... is a lie.

[NevadaPatriot]

Libertarians Conservative positions are more sound. NeoCons are fascist big spending freedom restricting lunatics.

[joebhed]

Sorry, this is not true.
Switch over to Antiwar.com .

[Rojellio]

I don't know how you figure that all Libertarians {or any for that matter} support George W Bush???

As for lies, I believe in a 'lie' called the Constitution. Smaller Government. Less Government interference in my life. And most importantly NO. The REAL party of NO. Every law should get a shotgun rejection NO vote, on principle that there are enough laws already and that one of those likely covers everything the "new" law does.

[Mikeeee]

I agree. There should be NO gov involved in the bailout. NO gov involved in roads, bridges, hospitals or schools. NO gov involved in R&D of any kind, the private sector has show repeatedly that they know better what pills we need and how much to charge us. NO gov involved in aiding and abetting banks, corporations or people who run them.
Most of all, No gov involved in policing except at the municipal level, (no fbi, no state, no nsa, they are all an infringement on my rights and privacy) I'm tired of them interfering with my ability to get to work in a timely fashion and enforcing all those stupid traffic laws.

[walk0nwalls]

Ever done both? (pop + gambling?) THAT is a good weekend.

[walk0nwalls]

*pot gdi

[tomasedison]

we need a national usury law
cap bank interest rates at 15% same as the credit unions
stop the bankers dead in their cheating and lying tracks

[Rayme]

We had a national usury law, the big banks lobbied until they got congress to drop it. We need to bring it back.

[joebhed]

make that 2 percent OVER whatever interest rate the FED uses to lend, or the treasury uses to provide to banks.
That's OUR money.
We pay at both ends.

[Coinyer101]

We dont have room for tor turers cuz all my stoner friends are hoggin' all the prison space, man.

[booboo111]

You know what it's called when people throw their roaches away? ..........­..........­..........­.......dru­g abuse.

[Coinyer101]

I TOLD YOU THAT 3 DECADES AGO, MAN!

[Cunningham]

Is Sister Mary Elephant still kickin'?

[filo]

Dave's not here man !

[Randy Treibel]

Hopefully frank will get the online gambling and pot legalization going.

[AmbientDiscord]

he has house bills going but congress is afraid to touch it.

[iblogleft]

They should be afraid not to touch it.

[Yves Papa]

This is not about individual decision making and its effects on society. That's not what has caused this crisis. It's not the individual lenders whom entrusted their finances to the bankers and didn't know much about what a mortgage is. What has caused this crisis is greed, the greed of mortgage and loan brokers who were pushing loans to people they knew full well were not able to afford them.
Freedom comes with responsibility. The irresponsible were the bankers. They have shown their recklessness and they are not going to change. Hence regulation is needed.
And I would take my freedom to punch them in the nose as well.

[beatbox32]

...not to forget the greed of the people who knew full well they couldn't afford balloon payments on their homes.

[jsgaetano]

And especially don't forget the greed of people who were selling fraudulent loans, as well as lying about the terms to the purchasers.

But hey, conservatives are all about blaming the victims. Love the criminal, not the victim- that's the conservative way.

[Irmanator]

Can you explain their motive? Why would someone deliberately take a mortgage they intended to default on? I am not mocking you, I just can't think up a plausible reason.
Maybe because they planned to sell it before the balloon came due, and were hoping housing prices would rise until then? That's all I could come up with.

[Horus45]

Yup, plain old GREED, that is the only cause of this crises!