Winners and Losers (BREAKING NEWS!)

In breaking news, the House has rejected the bill!

The 110 page revised bill issuing a 700 billion dollar bill bail out in three installments will come out with winners, and of course, losers,

Wall Street, financial institutions, CEO’s, Bernakne and Paulson could all benefit from this massive bailout. CEO's of failing companies will be allowed to keep their jobs. If the bailout works as intended, it will enable Americans to get loans for cars, student loans, and the opportunity to open a credit card account. However the confidence that the bill work as hoped is very slim from those on Main Street.

The losers, unfortunately, include those that are facing foreclosure, loosing their homes, or whose homes are less than what they owe. This bill will do little, if anything at all to assist them. According to an article I read on Yahoo, it will also do little to halt the slide in home values. This is said to be one of the root causes of the economic slow down.

This bill will also affect tax payers that will foot the bill. The congress made it clear during their discussions of this bail out those tax payers MUST be protected. The bill will add 700 billion to the national debt. One of the tax payer protections includes that if the bailout fails, tax payers will be compensated in full.

Proponents of the bill claim that the bill could even make the tax payers money. The reality is that very few people believe that the provisions will fix the market. The main criticism is that the bill still does not address or even solve the fundamental problems of why the financial crisis came about in the first place.

The bailout, as mentioned previously, will include 3 installments. The government will be allowed to buy billion of dollars of devalued assets. 250 billion will be available immediately once the bill is passed. The next installment will be released at the authority of the president, and the last installment may be requested by the president if the congress does not act against it.

My thoughts: I hope this bill does not pass because all it does is protect Wall Street and the Bush Administration. If our Founding Fathers were to see the mess we were in, they would be ashamed of us, and all their efforts would have gone in vain. As many protesters have been shouting on Wall Street: "You broke it, you bought it!" It's time these irresponsible companies take responsibility for their actions. Let us hope this bill does NOT pass.

readmore »»

R.I.P. checks and balances

R.I.P. checks and balances

If you're unsure whether or not checks and balances are still alive, say your prayers. It seems as if the system which prevents branches of government from taking unprecented powers has finally been put to rest. The approximately 2-3 page bailout bill grants unlimited power to our Ol’ King Henry

In a recent posting I posted uncertainties about the 700 dollar billion bail out, but the more I read about this bill, the more uneasy and skeptical that a bailout will change anything. I am convinced that this is simply trickery and robbery of my hard earned tax dollars. It is infuriating to see the government hand over a blank check to these companies (mind you, that’s OUR money on that blank check) and then not give its tax payers squat in return. Paulsen voices sympathy towards tax payers, but that simply isn't enough, not after asking us to give up money we need so the fat cats of Wall Street can feed their wallets. Where was the bailout when over a million of us got laid off? Where was the bailout for parents who lost their health insurance and couldn't take their kids to the doctor? Where was the bailout when millions of Americans slipped from the middle class into the slums of poverty? Why on earth didn't Paulsen run to congress asking for a blank bail out check to save us? Apparently the American people aren't worth saving, but companies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG deserve unwarranted money. I have read and reread through the draft, and I see nothing about compensating tax payers.

So let me get this straight Paulsen, you are asking me, an average person, sinking in this economy, to give up approx 2,000 – 3,000 of my money so that irresponsible companies can continue on with their business. I don’t think so. If its one thing I was taught, its taking responsibility for actions. If you f’d up, then YOU pay the price, not somebody else. It is insulting to sit in front of congress, ask for a huge sum of money, and then have a poor bill to back it up. If these companies fail, let them fail. As Sen. Bernie Sanders stated in his excellent speech to congress, “If companies are too big to fail, then they are too big to exist.”

What is even more frustrating for an average American is the unlimited powers this bill grants to Paulsen. View text draft of the bill. If this were a college paper, I would give it an F for poor preparation and complete lack of plan. The bill is vague, fuzzy, and has no indications how tax payers will get compensated for this Armageddon of a bill. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html

The bill states that courts or other agencies will NOT be allowed to review this act. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." So that basically means if the government wants to use that money in a fraudulent way, it can go ahead and do that. Checks and balances cannot bother to interfere with the fat cats of Washington and the actions of this faulty administration. First it was called a bailout, now they are referring it to a rescue plan. Perhaps the word bail was unsettling to Americans. However, renaming it something else is no different. A wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf.

By asking congress (ultimately THE PEOPLE) to have courts NOT review the bill, the administration looses their credibility to the American People. Their supposed claims are that they want to fix the economy, and the only way to do that is to pass the bill. If that is the case, why keep everything hush hush? What possibly could Paulsen do that would allow him execute this bill behind closed doors. If he wants to fix this mess, at least have the decency to do it in the open. Doing the opposite only proves you have something to hide.

Case in point, the administration is openly stealing money. As I said before, you fuk up, then you pay up. Perhaps we need to go through a quick recap in the Great Depression, because that is exactly where we will end up of our careless government is not careful.

Sen. Ron Paul said it best when he wrote “The only thing we learned from history, I am afraid, is that we don’t learn from history.”

It’s time Bush and his hazardous buddies get knocked off their high horse. Contact your state reps and say no, no, no, a million times no to this bill!

readmore »»