Showing posts with label bailout plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bailout plan. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Hero in Congress Speaks Out Against Immoral Bailout Plan
Finally, Kucinich gets a chance to voice some sane alternatives to the bailout plan. I notice the corporate media is not putting the alternative approaches on TV. I'm still waiting for those 200 economists (including the three nobel prize winners) to be featured on TV so they can explain why the current plan will NOT work and will make our economic crisis worse. Instead the corporate media and our "alleged leaders" are trying to scare the American people into accepting an "immoral bill...that protects the few at the expense of the many."
What our "alleged leaders" do not understand....economic hardship isn't scaring us. We've been dealing with economic hardship for years...and yes it has been getting worse while they spend our tax dollars to "benefit the wealthy corporate elite's profits" and leave us footing the bills. For example the oil corporations, Haliburton, Blackwater, etc etc have gotten filthy rich off of that unnecessary Iraq War while the people have been put into debt.
So finally some of the pain has trickled up. Now many of our Senators and Representatives, along with their corporate lobbyists, will also feel some pain. "ouch" their retirement plans may lose some percentage points.
It's time to SHRED the Paulson Bailout Plan and put it in the compost pile (where it belongs). Then roll up your sleeves in the Senate and use Bernie Sanders plan as a starting point. In the house, start with Dennis Kucinich's plan and reach a bipartisan agreement that will help our country and rescue what's left of our economy.
Will someone take the time to explain to Senator Obama that we need a "bottom up" plan not this "top down" elitist plan that he currently endorses? Now is the time for all of us to unite and tell all our "alleged leaders" of all parties that we refuse to let them sell us and our country out. Call your Senators and Representatives....let them know that they cannot scare us into this atrocious, immoral Wall Street Bailout. The propaganda is not going to work on this one.
I may vote for the "lesser of the two evils" once again....but Dennis Kucinich is the preferred Presidential Candidate.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
McCain is Phoning It In for a Republican Win
Republican Senator John McCain is reportedly "holed up" in his Arlington apartment and sometimes exits to visit his nearby campaign headquarters. When questioned about McCain's "absence" on Capital Hill, McCain advisor "Mr. Salter replied that “he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone."McCain is pulling rabbits out of a hat in order to distract the voters from the latest outrage that surfaces. It appears that "Me First" McCain will pretend to suspend his campaign and insert himself into the bailout negotiations (with no preparation and no role to play) in order to get his butt into the White House. McCain is being accused of putting his country last.
Unfortunately, it appears that we only have one big party in D.C. A Corporatist Party that has two subbranches--Democrats and Republicans--who put corporations and their needs above all else. This is the reason the Democrats are frantically giving up everything (repealing the bankruptcy bill, no relief for homeowners) and not looking at any options (letting the corporations and the wealthy elite taxpayer foot the bill. The end result is that Bush's policies and goals will continue for a decade or more....
How else to explain the Democrats rush to pass this bailout plan?
According to George Lakeoff, the Republicans are playing politics and setting a trap with this Wall Street Bailout issue and the Democrats are falling for it. It is becoming very possible for the Republicans to keep the White House and maybe even re-take the House of Representatives by claiming the populist issue of NOT voting for handouts to Wall Street. Meanwhile, the Democrats are not insisting on anything to protect the taxpayers....they giving up bankruptcy protections, they are giving up on protecting homeowners. No one except Independent Senator Bernie Sanders is insisting that the wealthy elite and the Wall Street gang pay for this bailout.
McCain may end up pulling the rabbit out of the hat and this country will be doomed to four more years of Bush's plan. This Bailout will guarantee increased pressure over the next four years to gut social security, we will have no money for fixing health care or infrastructure in our country, etc....
Maybe Americans will rise up and Throw Them All Out!! (based on their support of the Wall Street BailOut and regardless of the party affiliation. Any Democrat or Republican that supports this bailout should be fired.)
Friday, September 26, 2008
Sanders Rescue Plan...Dump the Bailout
Dear Secretary Paulson:
As a representative of the Bush Administration, you have proposed a financial bailout program of $700 billion – over $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. We are appalled that your proposal puts the cost of this bailout on average Americans; that it contains no provisions reversing failed deregulatory policies; that it allows executives at these failed institutions to continue to make exorbitant salaries and bonuses, and that your proposal contains no help for average Americans who themselves are facing severe economic hardships.
While the Administration has quickly rallied to help Wall Street, it has ignored the needs of the declining middle class. Since President Bush has been in office the wealthiest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of one percent now earn more income than the bottom 50 percent of Americans and the top one percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Incredibly, the richest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion during the Bush presidency.
Having mismanaged the economy for 8 years while continually insisting that, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong,” the Bush Administration, six weeks before an election, wants the middle class of this country to bail out Wall Street to the tune of one trillion dollars. Meanwhile the wealthiest people, those who have benefited most from Bush’s policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd.
Any plan to clean up the mess on Wall Street must:
1. Ensure that middle income and working families are not the ones who are paying for this bailout by
* Imposing 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 over five years;
* Ensuring 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
* Requiring that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the taxpayers’ assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.
Taken together these three provisions will substantially reduce the likelihood that this bailout will end up on the backs of average American taxpayers.
2. Include 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 our must vulnerable families from the very difficult times they are experiencing.
3. Repeal the disastrous de-regulatory legislation that facilitated this crisis.
4. End the danger posed by companies that are “too big to 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.
In closing, we believe it is appropriate to act quickly to address any systemic danger to our economy. But that does not mean that we need to give a blank check to the financial sector.
Sincerely,
Senator Bernie Sanders
Citizen Co-Signers YOU CAN SIGN ONTO SANDERS PLAN HERE
As a representative of the Bush Administration, you have proposed a financial bailout program of $700 billion – over $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. We are appalled that your proposal puts the cost of this bailout on average Americans; that it contains no provisions reversing failed deregulatory policies; that it allows executives at these failed institutions to continue to make exorbitant salaries and bonuses, and that your proposal contains no help for average Americans who themselves are facing severe economic hardships.
While the Administration has quickly rallied to help Wall Street, it has ignored the needs of the declining middle class. Since President Bush has been in office the wealthiest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of one percent now earn more income than the bottom 50 percent of Americans and the top one percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Incredibly, the richest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion during the Bush presidency.
Having mismanaged the economy for 8 years while continually insisting that, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong,” the Bush Administration, six weeks before an election, wants the middle class of this country to bail out Wall Street to the tune of one trillion dollars. Meanwhile the wealthiest people, those who have benefited most from Bush’s policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd.
Any plan to clean up the mess on Wall Street must:
1. Ensure that middle income and working families are not the ones who are paying for this bailout by
* Imposing 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 over five years;
* Ensuring 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
* Requiring that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the taxpayers’ assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.
Taken together these three provisions will substantially reduce the likelihood that this bailout will end up on the backs of average American taxpayers.
2. Include 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 our must vulnerable families from the very difficult times they are experiencing.
3. Repeal the disastrous de-regulatory legislation that facilitated this crisis.
4. End the danger posed by companies that are “too big to 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.
In closing, we believe it is appropriate to act quickly to address any systemic danger to our economy. But that does not mean that we need to give a blank check to the financial sector.
Sincerely,
Senator Bernie Sanders
Citizen Co-Signers YOU CAN SIGN ONTO SANDERS PLAN HERE
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