This Federal Bailout Proposal is a Disaster
I’m completely against this massive bailout. Seven hundred billion dollars to bail out an entire industry? This is completely unheard of! How the democrats could approve of this last minute irresponsible spending of the taxpayers money is just shocking. This is going to inflate the national debt to over 11 Trillion dollars. Just remember that when Bill Clinton left office, it was only 4 Trillion. Bush has almost tripled the debt since coming into office… and bailouts like this is something that the taxpayers shouldn’t be burdened with. The whole point of a free market is that business men are free to succeed but also free to fail. This bailout smacks the face of capitalism and the last time I checked these firms wouldn’t think twice before forclosing on someone’s home, so why should the same citizens use their tax money to bail their asses out for making bad business decisions.
Speaking about forclosed houses, what about the average citizen and their rough times? When are they going to get a bail out? Why are the rich fat cats on Wall Street the only people getting free money to bail their asses out of trouble? People are losing their homes right left and center and Republicans couldn’t give a rats ass, but the rich start losing money on Wall Street and Bush pulls a Trillion Dollars out of his ass to save them. Where is the rage? This is absurd and the democrats should be against this, 100% If I was Obama, I wouldn’t support this at all and I would be telling the Democrats in the house (As the new head of the party) to not vote for it. I’m not the only one who things this bail out is a bad idea, here is a piece written by an angry American who thinks that bail outs are not the solution…
Peter
This Federal Bailout Proposal is a Disaster
Written by Cenk Uygur
I am so mad about this proposed federal bailout of Wall Street, I can’t see straight. Do you understand what they’re going to do? They are about to steal ONE TRILLION dollars from us and just hand it over to the guys on Wall Street who screwed everything up. They are going to take all of their bad loans and dump it on us. We’re going to have pay for their mistakes!
But they already made the money. They keep the profits and we keep the debts. It is absolutely, positively outrageous. The only thing more outrageous is that both of the presidential candidates are going along with it. Obama seems to be supporting it almost more enthusiastically than McCain. That is a terrible idea.
Here are two important things you must know about the impact of the financial bailout.
First, when the American people find out what’s been done here, they are going to be livid. Conservatives, liberals, moderates, everyone. Why should we have to pay a trillion dollars of our own money to save the asses of bankers who already made a killing from these loans? Now, they get to unload all of their “toxic assets,” as Paulson is calling it, on us. Who in their right mind would support that?
Wall Street is ecstatic. The market is through the roof right now because they can’t believe they got such a good deal. Understand this is not an isolated bailout here and there. The Treasury Secretary just said he is going to take ALL of their bad loans off their hands. Why wouldn’t they be elated?
The Bush administration and the Republicans (especially Phil Gramm) pushed for deregulation that allowed for, and almost encouraged, these mistakes. Now, the guys who told us they didn’t believe in big government are going to send in big government to pick up the tab. Privatize the profits, socialize the debts. We have been robbed!
Even Jim Bunning (R-KY) said that when Hugo Chavez nationalized industries in his country at least the Venezuelan people get the profits as well. We only get the losses.
Secondly, this is likely to be the biggest issue of this campaign. How the candidates handle this could easily determine the outcome of this election. Whoever taps into this anger the best will win. Elections are about marketing. It doesn’t matter that John McCain has been pushing for deregulation his whole career if he seems like he is going to be tougher on Wall Street in the next 45 days. He can be wrong as long as he likes as long as he wins the PR war over the next month and a half.
Obama is well on his way to blowing this already. Today he issued a terribly professorial statement about this bailout plan. He promised to be non-partisan and fully backed the plan. I couldn’t imagine a worse response.
Non-partisan? Are you kidding me?! The Republicans are nearly completely responsible for this debacle (Bill Clinton should have never signed those laws Phil Gramm pushed through Congress, so the Democrats get blame, too). On the most important issue of the election, you’re going to be non-partisan? Especially when you have the facts on your side? How badly do you want to lose this election?
For the love of God, tell the people what they need to hear – this meltdown is completely the fault of the George Bush, Phil Gramm, the Republican Party, the conservative movement and yes, most importantly, John McCain! John McCain with his reckless deregulation caused this to happen. If you don’t tell the American people this, who will?
And why are you supporting Paulson’s plan? The plan is a total overreaction, has no accountability, no checks built in so this mess won’t happen again and leaves all of the “toxic assets” on the American taxpayer’s lap. It will be judged very poorly by the history books. It is an amnesty plan for Wall Street. You should be tapping in to people’s anger over this, not siding with the guys who are blowing it.
Do these guys know anything about politics? Blame it on Bush. Blame it on the Republican Party. Blame it on John McCain. They earned it. It is their fault. Now, you’re going to bail them out by agreeing with their stupid bailout program (I understand the need for limited bailouts, even though I can’t stand them, but this general amnesty is a terrible precedent — it’s like pardoning Nixon) and treating this as a non-partisan issue. This is a terrible mistake. And one that could cost Obama the election.
McCain has already done a much better job of sounding populist on this issue. If he plays the politics better, the people who are really going to get burned are us. He is going to put the same deregulators who caused this mess back in charge. He might even select Phil Gramm as his Treasury Secretary and put the fox back in charge of the henhouse. I’m asking Obama to be better at politics because the most important policy consequences are at stake here.
If Obama allows the Republicans to deceive the American people into thinking it wasn’t their fault and they are put back in charge, this is all going to happen again. What message do you think Wall Street just got from Paulson’s bailout plan? Take all the risks you want, the government will always take your bad loans off your hands. You are too big to fail. You will always be bailed out. If McCain gets elected, we’ll have to pay for this round of mistakes and the next.
Obama better not blow this and he’s in the middle of doing just that right now. I have one important piece of advice for him right now: Get mad. Get mad like it’s your money they just took from you. They came to your house in the middle of the night and took your daughters’ education fund. They robbed you! Now, are you going to go get the sons of bitches who did this or are you going to let them get away with it?
i completely agree with you.
Warning Comment
RYN: yeah, I watched the first episode of the new series of Dexter a couple of weeks ago and the end of the episode left me stunned. That’s really going to shake things up.
Warning Comment
I agree with the bailout plan because, when it comes down to it, the financial industry/insurance industry/etc. tanking has a direct impact on my life. Any intelligent American has a 401K and money in the stock market no matter what their income level is. My 401K dropped significantly this week and if the market turns around everything else in this country will.
Warning Comment
“Seven hundred billion dollars to bail out an entire industry? This is completely unheard of!” No. We’ve given almost that much to the “defense” industry just for Iraq alone.
Warning Comment
Popeye: Tossing whatever money into the military is not a bail out. Unlike this pay out Bush is purposing… the people actually do get a return from the army: Defense. So your comparison is apples and oranges cause the people get something for their money when the invest in the military, they get an army that defends them from something. Not perfect but at least it works for them most of the time. From this bail out, the people get nothing but left out in the cold to foot the bill for someone else’s mistakes… and that is just flat out wrong.
Warning Comment
Bin Laden’s plan of bankrupting the US economy appears to be working, and I am not sure if he needs to lift a finger.
Warning Comment
I originally thought it was horrible but that they had no choice but to do it…the more I read on it, the more I’m siding with your opinion. It seems like they’re ultimately forcing charity on us–since Mr. Brown in Iowa has horrible credit, the bill for his house will be footed by Mr. Jones in Boston….
Warning Comment
And yet it’s not really the people who got the bad loans and are losing their houses that are benefiting from this, is it? It’s the people who lost the money giving loans out to people they knew couldn’t pay it back. I suppose it would be easy to squander money if you know you’ll get it back one way or another. I can only assume that the people still supporting McCain after all this…
Warning Comment
…are people who don’t have a clue about the economy. I only have a slight clue and I can already tell this is a bad idea. Heaven help us if we get stuck with another Republican administration…
Warning Comment
i agree. the sum is so huge, i can’t even fathom. it makes my brain hurt to think about it.
Warning Comment
RYN: I wasn’t referring to all “defense” spending, only the amount wasted on Iraq alone. No, it’s not exactly apples to oranges. But both represent corporate welfare. The purpose of the Iraq invasion and the “war on terror” is to serve as a massive subsidy to the military-industrial complex, which had been in decline since the end of the Cold War.
Warning Comment
The bailout is a disaster, but from what I understand NOT doing the bailout would be even worse.
Warning Comment