Are we there yet?

Posted Wed, 10/01/2008 - 16:56 by luaptifer
Quite to the point... thanks, luaptifer! - cho

They came to office riding the Energy Policy shock treatement, embedded lobbyists throughout government, deregulated their cronies, politicized Justice, politicized prosecution, politicized Federal technology networks, chased the wrong terrorist to the wrong country and there created thousands of new terrorists, let the right terrorist go, reinstated national debt as an institution, serialized crisis, and now they want taxpayers to mortgage the future by offloading billions of dollars worth of 'toxic' mortgage debt which may in fact be perfectly safe, then leave the Treasury with zero percent savings but expatriate Haliburton with no-bid billions for years. So, having zero'd American trust in government, stripped it bare, and leaving it biased and the world's pariah, I wonder if Grover is smiling?

Is our voters learning yet?


Source=http://www.campusprogress.org/images/632.jpg

Comments

Don't know...

by cho - 10/01/2008 - 17:38
But just read Michael Moore's ideas for the bailout... they are priceless, starting with:
The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

Why on earth would we even think of giving...

by luaptifer - 10/01/2008 - 19:38
Extortion caused by producing the perception of "no other choice, only massive risk". The "Shock Doctrine". I get the same gut feeling when I think about it, more so after you provided those details. I don't have a sufficiently nuanced understanding of all the issues so maybe my response,"Yeah, but if we let the banks go down, then what?" should be more like that of others who claim no larger systemic danger exists. I just learned that there may actually be no risk to holding the mortgages of those instruments, they may be perfectly safe. As I understand it, then, 700 billion bucks would be a massive gift. For nothing. Make the executives and owners who benefitted so richly own a good chunk of the costs. I like that idea :-)

"So your party is the only party that can save the country from the mess that your party created?" - attrib. Jon Stewart

Remember you asked about what bills led to this crisis?

by cho - 10/01/2008 - 19:46
Clinton's repeal of the Glass Steagall act, of course, but in Michael Moore's piece... #5. he alludes to the Gramm bill that Clinton signed into law:
5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:
"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.
"We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.
"I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."
This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they're done with that, they can restore the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.

Good for Michael Moore ...

by roxy - 10/01/2008 - 23:40
Makes a lot of sense to me. I think #7 pretty well sums up why the American people are so angry ...
7. [snip] In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times!
And then Bloomberg reports:
The Senate also sweetened the measure for Republicans by authorizing the government's purchase of troubled assets with a $149 billion package of tax breaks. They would spare 24 million households from a $62 billion alternative minimum tax and extend $17 billion in benefits to companies that produce alternative energy.
That's a break for 24 million people at the top of the food chain (including many of those that brought us this disaster) and the 150 million at the bottom of the food chain get to pick up the tab for this PLUS the 700 Billion. Trickle down economics has become a debt downpour. ----- ePMedia ... get the scoop with us!
If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little. ~ George Carlin
ePMedia ... get the scoop with us!
If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little. ~ George Carlin<

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