The proposed bailout plan from the Bush administration failed in The House of Representatives because people are sick and tired of being terrorized, cheated and lied to and because some in the House of Representatives want to keep their jobs. The bailout/rescue bill is being voted on again by the House on Thursday. The Senate, possibly in violation of the Constitution, passed a ‘revised bill’ — some revisions include more tax breaks in attempts to sway Republican approval, along with a bunch of other legislation — tonight. If the bill needs to be passed so badly, why is so much other garbage being added to it? Once again we’re being lied to and deceived by many in Washington.
Some Republicans and Democrats were smart enough to realize just how immoral and dangerous the plan is so they voted against it. Then you have some, such as speaker Nancy Pelosi who had the gumption to say that the party was over on Wall Street and that Democrats fought for a better bill. Not exactly. The version of the bill Pelosi was pushing and voted for doesn’t even come close to stopping the party on Wall Street. If it weren’t for the fact that Americans are about to get royally screwed by Washington again, Pelosi’s comments would be funny.
An interesting article from USA Today explains how politics and fear have created a backlash in Washington and videos explaining that the bailout is for foreign investors can be found from YouTube. More on why the FED is in such a rush to pass this extremely flawed legislation can be found from Rumor Mill News. America is being expected to pay for a Wall Street Crisis. With Bush, Paulson and Bernanke using dire warnings and threats — committing the equivalent of financial terrorism — the question arises as to how much truth there is in the stock market crashing tomorrow if this bailout/rescue plan doesn’t pass. If it does pass, who’s to say it would work?
Once again President Bush is chastising Congress and the American public, reportedly saying that the economic damage to the nation will be “painful and lasting” if Congress fails to pass a $700 Billion bailout/rescue bill. Mr. President, why not have one of the 400 richest Americans — whose wealth increased by nearly $700 billion during your two terms in office and whose combined net worth is $1.6 trillion — pay for your bailout? You’ve cost America too much lasting pain already and we’re sick and tired of it.
I have some questions for Congress too: Why does the proposed bill have a provision giving $100 Billion to Bush for use at his discretion? Also, why did Bush ship 800 Billion “Ameros” to China? Why is Congress letting Bush de-monetize the U.S. Dollar? With the Federal Reserve pushing nearly $188 Billion a day last week to help prop up the failing investment banks while loaning more than one and a half trillion dollars in sweetheart deals to Wall Street, why is $700 Billion — in all probability, more — of taxpayer money needed? Pushing that much money from the Federal Reserve increases inflation. What happened to the 2.3 trillion missing from the Pentagon? Why should we save all these financial institutions holding more than one quadrillion dollars worth of derivatives that your love of deregulation is responsible for? Has there ever been a major class action suit by the people against Congress? Last but not least, why are Bush and Cheney still walking around as free men?
Congress Has Been Bought and Paid For
Not that this will come as any surprise, but House members who voted yes on the proposed bailout package reportedly received 54 percent more money from banks and securities firms than members who voted no. Over the past five years, banks and securities firms gave an average of $231,877 in campaign contributions to each Representative voting in favor of the bailout compared with an average of $150,982 to each Representative who voted against the bailout. That may end up costing many in Congress their seats after the next election. Of course, the banks and securities firms aren’t the only ones who have bought and paid for Congress. Telecoms, Oil Companies, and many other large corporations all have partial ownership of Congress.
An article from — of all places — CNN argues that instead of bailing out or rescuing the financial firms on Wall Street responsible for this mess, the government should let the firms go bankrupt. The bailout is a terrible idea and the President’s rhetoric is nothing more than scare mongering. An article from Understanding Tax does a good job of explaining the financial crisis and what went wrong.
Because of her repeated participation in Bush’s crimes against America plans, Speaker Pelosi has repeatedly ramrodded rotten, illegal and unconstitutional bills through Congress, twisting arms and using threats to get them passed. If Pelosi were smart, she would have “allowed” impeachment a long time ago. But she won’t because it would implicate her and other leadership in Congress. A nice break down of the 10 normal principles for how our government functions — at least in the George W. Bush era since he was illicitly appointed to the Presidency — by Glenn Greenwald can be found at Salon News.
Pelosi has shoved many illicit, unconstitutional bills down the public’s throat, including the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendment a couple months ago. Pelosi has been deceiving the public and cheerleading for President Bush for too long now. It’s time for her tenure in Congress to come to an end, and she, along with many others in Congress should be behind bars. Disturbing information about the Treasury’s Conference Call on the bailout bill that proves the public is being deceived can be found at NakedCapitalism.com.
Bailing Out Foreign Investors
The reason for the bill is to bailout foreign investors, not save our banking system. According to a letter (PDF) from Branch Banking & Trust Co., Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are the primary cause of the mortgage crisis — there are many points made and these are just a few of them: this is a housing value crisis, a significant and immediate tax credit for purchasing homes would be far less expensive and more effective, the proposed bankruptcy “cram down” will severely negatively impact mortgage markets and will damage well run institutions and the primary beneficiaries of the proposed rescue are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The Treasury is totally dominated by Wall Street investment bankers. A lot more information on why this bailout/rescue plan is a bad idea can be found in the letter from Branch Banking & Trust Co.
Bush’s latest fearmongering speech demanding that Congress give the treasury secretary $700 Billion to address “a serious financial crisis,” asking taxpayers to pay for corporate fraud, rewarding criminals while ignoring their crimes — albeit, his normal modus operandi — said nothing about the root cause of this disaster. Bush’s greed broke what he called “democratic capitalism, the best system the world has ever devised.” It’s the best all right, if you’re in the 1% class that has garnered much of the wealth at the cost of millions of Americans. Bankers have made a killing due to unleashed casino capitalism. No mention was made of the underlying fraud behind the crisis and the lack of regulatory oversight responsible for creating this mess.
The transfer of unimaginable wealth to the rich — the top 1% and corporate America — has been going on for over 30 years. Bush just put the finishing touches on bankrupting America through many of his criminal actions. Outsized speculation through excessive leverage, pyramid schemes, multiple bubbles through so-called Wall Street innovations and a lack of transparency and governmental oversight have all combined to create a crisis “so great that no one knows exactly the magnitude of the risk they face.”
As with the the coverage of our Presidential nominees, corporately controlled media exacerbates the problem in their coverage of the news. Instead of reporting the facts, they take what they’re told as gospel instead of asking questions and getting answers. A lot more information and some suggestions on how to fix the Grand Theft of America can be found from The Centre for Research on Globalization.
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has reportedly sponsored two more socialist bailout bills that would cost $920 billion — the Jubilee Act which would cancel as much as $75 billion worth of Third World debt and the Global Poverty Act which would cost an estimated $845 billion. A lot more about both proposed bailouts can be found in an article from Accuracy in Media. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain suggested that the treasury bypass Congress and use $1 Trillion at the Treasury’s disposal to start buying home loans without Congressional authority. So much for putting his country first. It’s not surprising when you consider McCain’s Make-Believe Maverick career.
Political And Financial Systems Need To Be Modernized
Putting the man responsible for this credit crisis mess in charge of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars with no judicial or administrative oversight is just as stupid as putting a bottle of whiskey in front of a recovering alcoholic. As noted by the New York Times, the people whose conduct got us into this catastrophe have not only taken our money, hopes and peace of mind, but they apparently also want a trillion or so more dollars to put into their Wall Street Buddy System Fund.
The $700 Billion bailout/rescue bill, in its ‘ bipartisan compromised’ state did nothing to regulate the mess responsible for allowing Wall Street to get us into this mess. But then again, Congress has proven repeatedly that it is incapable over overseeing itself. These constant hearings staged for the public they’re supposed to be serving are, in actuality, nothing more than circle jerks meant to appear as if something is being done to fix the problems when in reality, the opposite holds true — nothing is being done to fix the problems.
The oversight proposed is a massive joke. The Financial Stability Oversight Board would be staffed by the same people responsible for the meltdown to begin with and industry practices would remain as they have been — non-transparent, risky and under-regulated. The regulation of golden parachutes is also a massive joke.
But, as noted by Mother Jones, the greatest lie resides at the very top of the proposed plan: that the bailout will somehow assist American families in preserving home ownership, stabilizing financial markets, and protecting taxpayers. That’s impossible with no regulation. The provision to have government aid in renegotiating borrowers’ mortgages to better terms didn’t include any enforcement measure requiring lenders to comply. Several more reasons the bailout/rescue plan sells America short can be found in this Mother Jones article.
For decades now, having the same people in Congress — as noted by The New York Times, antiregulation disciples of the Reagan Revolution — has resulted in eliminating vital laws, blocking much-needed regulations, and in the case of the current Congress, members who have simply refused to exercise their legal authority, bending over backwards to do anything and everything demanded by the Bush administration. Like the system allowing lobbyists to buy members of Congress, the regulatory system for banks, securities, commodities and insurance is unwieldly and in need of modernization. The Bush administration, with the assistance of Congress, has run the financial system into the ground. The President can only serve two terms. Term limits are needed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Wall Street Looks For Ways To Profit From Bailout
Many questions remain about the proposed bailout/rescue demanded by the Bush administration. The bailout/rescue reportedly also bails out speculative oil and commodities traders in the process, fueling a sharp rise in energy prices.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main regulator of U.S. commodity markets, allowed Wall Street’s investment banks and trading companies to take control of massive positions in commodities markets called swaps held by Lehman Brothers and AIG, resulting in oil prices spiking $16 per barrel in one day. If Lehman Brothers or AIG went under, the price of everything from wheat to oil would have collapsed. If speculators were forced to liquidate their positions, oil would be $65 to $75 per barrel by the time the liquidation was complete according to Michael Masters, founder of Atlanta-based hedge fund Masters Capital Management. This bailout/rescue isn’t for Wall Street, which helps explain why Bush’s proposed plan had no oversight and no court involvement. More information can be found at Forbes.
Why does the bailout plan contain a provision giving $100 Billion for use at the President’s discretion? He hasn’t extorted enough already? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are under investigation for fraud. In 2004, Reps. Barney Frank and Bernie Sanders blocked proposed changes to Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations that probably would have prevented the sub-prime crisis. Our politicians in Washington have played the American public for fools — for many decades. An updated list of what our lawmakers in Washington have been paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is available from OpenSecrets.
The New York Times reported that even as policy makers worked on the details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street was looking for ways to profit from it. Of course, since most of Congress is in the pockets of lobbyists, Wall Street’s fingerprints were on drafts of the bailout legislation released over the weekend.
Major Flaws In Proposed Bailout
The bailout/rescue bill that failed in The House of Representatives was basically the same as the three-page proposal Wall Street give away first proposed by the Bush administration.
As noted by Michael Moore, missing from — and barely, if at all, reported on by the media — the proposal that failed the House vote were the facts that:
1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called oversight group that was going to monitor Wall Street’s spending of the $700 billion;
2. It had NO penalties, fines or imprisonment for any executive who might steal any of the people’s money;
3. It did NOTHING to force banks and lenders to rewrite people’s mortgages to avoid foreclosures — this bill would not have stopped ONE foreclosure!;
4. It had NO teeth anywhere in the entire piece of legislation, using words like “suggested” when referring to the government being paid back for the bailout;
5. Over 200 economists wrote to Congress and said this bill might actually WORSEN the “financial crisis” and cause even MORE of a meltdown.
Intentional Destruction Of America and Democracy
In typical fashion, the American public is being duped and taken advantage of. A lot more information regarding the deception of the bailout/rescue plan and the fraud being pushed on the American people can be found from Barrons, Blogging for Kucinich, Fire Dog Lake, Open Left, The Mises Institute, NewsLI, The Hill, All Spin Zone and OurFuture.org.
For any American who still thinks that Bush and his administration aren’t capable of pulling something as dastardly as the attacks of 9/11 off, you may want to sit back and take a long hard look at these past seven and a half plus years. You’ll be absolutely flabbergasted at what you find if you do. To our valiant soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting Bush’s illegal wars, ask yourself if doing Bush’s dirty work at the cost of your country and the support you’ve received from the Bush administration has been worth it. While you’re away fighting, your families are over here being bled dry by Bush and his administration. Study the slow, steady destruction of America and Democracy under the Bush administration and you’ll find a lot of disturbing information.
Everything done these past seven plus years by Bush was designed to make the rich richer, bankrupt America and to destroy the American people. Congress, especially the ‘leadership,’ has had a heavy hand in aiding and abetting the Bush administration. They should all be imprisoned. Unless the American people wake up, the world as you know it will never be the same again. Contact your elected officials in Washington and urge them to do the right thing and shoot Bush’s corrupted proposal down in flames. It’s time for the voice of the people to start acting like the voice of the people and doing the right thing instead of destroying America and all who live here, or it’s time for Americans to take their country back. If the bailout is really necessary, put the proper checks and balances in it and quit letting the rich make their own rules while screwing the rest of us.
To quote David Letterman’s words last week when McCain cancelled an appearance on his show, this stinks. Washington has done nothing but run this country into the ground, and if Bush’s last official act as President doesn’t destroy what’s left of this country and all who live here, many in Congress and in the U.S. Supreme Court who put Bush in office need to be held accountable for the damage they’re responsible for inflicting on us. Enough is enough.
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