It's time for the Democrats to show us now why they deserve our vote in November. Barack Obama should be leading the way and telling Senator Harry Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi to stop the Republican Bush push to force legislation through our Congress that will grant a Bush appointee--Paulson--unlimited powers and too much money and no oversight. This is the same recipe for disaster that got us into this mess. It's time to say ENOUGH to George Bush and his Republican Party. It has just become too outrageous.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders proposes the following alternative:
Specifically, to pay for the bailout, which is estimated to cost up to $1 trillion, the government should:
a) Impose a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue;
b) Ensure that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and
c) Require that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.
(2) There must be a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Further, we must protect working families from the difficult times they are experiencing. We must ensure that every child has health insurance and that every American has access to quality health and dental care, that families can send their children to college, that seniors are not allowed to go without heat in the winter, and that no American goes to bed hungry.
(3) Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999. That means re-regulating the energy markets so that we never again see the rampant speculation in oil that helped drive up prices. That means regulating or abolishing various financial instruments that have created the enormous shadow banking system that is at the heart of the collapse of AIG and the financial services meltdown.
(4) We must end the danger posed by companies that are “too big too fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We need to determine which companies fall in this category and then break them up. Right now, for example, the Bank of America, the nation’s largest depository institution, has absorbed Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, and Merrill Lynch, the nation’s largest brokerage house. We should not be trying to solve the current financial crisis by creating even larger, more powerful institutions. Their failure could cause even more harm to the entire economy. Link For More Info
The Democratic Party needs to protect middle income working Americans from being victimized by this mess that happened in spite of "our" best efforts. Our Democratic Senator Jim Webb ran on a platform of "economic fairness" and he was "born fighting" so he promised to fight for us.
It's time for Jim Webb to "honor" that promise. Our Senator has done a great job of positioning himself as a leader in the Senate. Jim Webb needs to reach across his own party, join with Senator Bernie Sanders, and work his magic to insure that the people who can afford to pay bear this cost.
We need to open our eyes and see if the Democratic Party is going to protect vulnerable Americans or are they going to sell out to the corporate lobbyists. I'm an Independent and I'm praying that Barack Obama, Jim Webb, and the Democratic Party will show me that they will represent the interests of the American people. Then they will be worthy of my vote.
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