Rich people get richer while poor ones get poorer. This is the fact that though it’s hard to accept, we must still do. The new administration of the government, which is President Obama’s administration, is now taking an action. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan economic stimulus package is going to the House for a vote. And in order to get it approved as quickly as possible, bipartisan support is being sought by President Obama so that the economy can get that payday loan that it needs. Critics have been saying that the stimulus measures won't be effective as quickly as it needs to be, absolutely not like the way President Obama wants to happen.

Silly me...by virtue of his title and position in life, I have made the presumptive assumption that Dr. Dean Baker is someone that others pay attention to and take heed of his wisdom. If not, why not? Why is no one listening to this man? Given his position and stature, can we not assume that he speaks on the behalf of the little man...US? I don't get it. If this prominent man can ask these questions and make his statements in public, why are there not more people alarmed or sharing his opinions? I do but, my voice cannot possibly be heard until November 4th.

While I'm on the subject of why no one raises the hard questions, why has no one yet asked John McCain or Barack Obama about the "allowances" and other "exceptions" made in the BBBB ("Big Billion-Dollar Bailout Bill)? As in, all the millions that are being allowed or excepted to the winemakers and all those other really outlandish, outrageous dollar amounts that were being given to those pork-y places??? Why is no one asking McCain, Obama and every other member of Congress about those gawd-awful dollar amounts in that bill that have absolutely nothing to do with the so-called bailout? I can't think of a better time in which to demand that Congress cease and desist with the practice of bartering their votes to get something they want in order for a handful to get their part of the bill passed? Why is no one telling them that that behavior is just not acceptable?

Silly me! And, here I sit...thinking my voice somehow matters. Sorry for me and sorry for Us!

Just an aside about race. Some have tried to link the mortgage crisis with community groups' efforts to help first-time homeowners, particularly African-Americans. My experience is that community groups are generally responsible about helping potential homeowners plan, save, clean up credit, choose a house they can afford etc.

It turns out that in Brooklyn a group of Russian crimesters has been running a fraudulent mortgage ring and defaulting on payments. They would be more likely to induce the naive to take mortgages they cannot afford. They were indicted yesterday, presumably because they don't know how to play the game as well as the legitimate institutions.

The main source of the problem has been banks, who have not had to break laws. The regulations have been eliminated.

I want to see facts and figures about who lent what to whom and who paid back what to whom.

Joe

Instructive: William M. Isaac, former FDIC chairman, in his 9-27-08 Washington Post article "A Better Way to Aid Banks" speaks of government solutions to S&L problems of the 80s and to the recent Washington Mutual problem.

The federal government already has the history, the organizations, the procedures, and the laws to handle this situation.

Why do we have to put $700 billion in a plain brown bag and give it to the Secretary of the Treasury to dispense as he (or his bosses, GWBush and RCheney) see fit?

Why did the Senate need to pass a $700 billion "bailout" bill that has an additional $150 billion in gifts to executives, NASCAR racetracks, etc. The answer is either that (a) the lobbyists have their hooks in almost Everyone in Congress or (b) the NSA wiretapping has pulled up fearsome info on almost Everyone in Congress.

Another Bush/Cheney project. A last little October surprise by the GWBush administration to cripple the government for years while it pays back the trillions of dollars in principal and interest.

Or, the people who have not known how to govern now face this situation and don't know the federal government is set up to deal with such situations. Have GWB and RC so filled the executive branch with "Brownies" that it no longer works?

An 10/1/08 John Nichols' article , "The No BAILOUTS Act", from The Beat, The Nation spoke of Representatives Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio ("among others") working on a plan along the lines indicated in Isaac's article. The plan was called BAILOUTS (Bringing Accountability, Increased Liquidity, Oversight, and Upholding Taxpayer Security); it is on DeFazio's website at http://www.defazio.house.gov/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=441.

It is shocking (but then not unexpected) that Isaac's 9-27 Washington Post article DID NOT prompt the Senate and the House to work out such a plan. They appear to prefer sticking generations of US taxpayers with the debt of trillions of dollars rather than disappointing their campaign contributors.

Peace

It is amazing that so many in Congress feel they are in a bind, either way they vote may be 'wrong'. There is so much hand wringing. So much sweating. What were they thinking of these past 30 years.

Here I go racing down the interstate in my Silver Penis, a smile on my face, a wad (of cash) in my hand. Kicked in the four barrel. Ah, life is so grand.
Oh shit! Is that a flashing blue light in the rear view mirror. Can I outrun him. Not his radio. Should I stop and face the heat. No way to escape. Maybe he'll believe I racing to the next exit to find a bathroom. Who's going to bail me out. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want...

The reporting on "Democracy Now" indicates that the basic obscenely flawed premises of the legislation remain intact-- the "new, improved" version is simply loaded with pork chops-- prizes to seduce a sufficient number of opponents to jump on board. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz admitted that the bill was a disaster, and that the way it was being sold really "smelled"; he dutifully tacked on the tinsel lining that its considerable defects could or would be "fixed" after the election.

And they're pushing the blatant spin that it's not a "bailout" this time around-- no, no; it's a "rescue". These craven and venal charlatans are counting on Amerikans being just stoopit enough to swallow such transparently mendacious drivel. It's all sickeningly appalling.

We'll soon see just how "principled" the opponents are. As I wrote the other day: one refusal to swallow does not a summer make.

Rep. Brad Sherman D CA, was just on C-SPAN. He said that half the 700 billion would be going to foreign investors, like China and Saudi Arabia.

He also said that stock brokers have their people flooding the offices with messages to pass the bill, trying to make it look like all of us who've been sending the message that we don't want it to pass have changed our minds.

,
NO to BAILOUT..............Don't give Bush another 700 Billion Dollars.

Bush and his Administration wants "Blank Check" for 700 Billion Dollars.

NO to taxpayers dollars for Wall Street Brokers and Mortage Bankers.

BUSH AND CHENEY must be IMPEACHED.............ASAP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

,

Economist Dean Baker is a good man, and I agree with everything he says in this clip --so far as it goes.
He believes markets and financial institutions must be regulated through democratic political processes which are answerable to and reflect the interests of small investors and debt holders.

No surprise, then, that he sees the likely provisions of the financial sector bailout as "an insult to the intelligence of the American people" -- a phrase he keeps repeating so often throughout the film clip that I can only take it as a sign of his surprise that the 'American people' obviously ARE NOT sufficiently insulted.

What surprises ME is Baker's expectation of the public's civic intelligence. Even if he's, underneath, just feigning surprise; just politely goading the average person to feel insulted by the manipulative ripoff, he must know that his need to do so denotes something much more fundamentally wrong with the average American's personal instincts and public consciousness than a financial crisis could alone explain or rectify.

Baker needs to remember that most of the US electorate long ago abandoned its interest and participation in civic consciousness, nay, even in basic moral sanity, when it allowed its government to lie the nation into an obviously fradulent war and then, on top of that do a hundred other vile and unconstitutional things -- without its (the electorate's) objection, though in perfectly adequate view of such vileness and unconstitutionality.

Baker might consider coming to grips with the fact that, in a cognitively and morally unhealthy society, nothing can or will be fixed until mass-cognitive, moral, and democratic health is reasonably restored.
I hope Baker will stop wasting his time on economic analysis; see the handwriting on the wall, and use his smarts to address the mechanix of building a new political movement that fosters such principles as something sine qua non.

Let the trigger be pulled, the bankers and Wall Street ought to commit sepuku. Contact the politicians who represent you. However, those of you who are still whining third party are still just wasting your breath. Vote for whomever you wish, it is your absolute right, but I am voting Obama and I know the shortcomings there, but the alternative is totally insane and for my part I won't let that happen. Even if you imagine there are three, we have two choices, not three! Let Obama know what you think, email his website unendingly. He will get the message.

I am chiming in with mary lou. Dean Baker should say what ordinary people ought to do. His criticism ought to be posted everywhere.

The bailout is deeply flawed, and addresses none of the questions we as members of the American public have for the government and for Congress. This is not surprising, however, given how badly disappointed we have been in Nancy Pelosi since she becme Speaker. She talks tough, and votes very differently - so I expect this nonsensical legislation will pass and once again the taxpayers will take a hit in the wallet.

.

don't just say the bailout is bad--say what you would do.

for peace and sustainability

I see that Bush and our Senate kicked in another $150 billion in bribes.

This reminds me of feeding a reluctant python by tying a cute baby chick
to a big ugly slab of horse meat...

I will support the bail out if:

There is a five years freeze on bonuses for executives

All the bonuses paid to executives are to be returned as they were obtained fradulently.

Halliburton, oil companies to chip in at least 15% of their profit as a reconstruction tax. One of them made 40 billion last year

Let the Banksters pull the trigger. I can live with that.

Been here done that. Now its "Mortgages of Mass-distruction" and "Fiscal Mushroom clouds". I have been in the real estate biz for the past 35 years. This nothing new, Big investors (fannie, freddie, wall street) bundel all the crap properties up and dump them on a buyers (the tax payers) with more money than sence (Congrees). This is just a hard "Market ajustment". No need for bailout! All you Obama or MCcain fans, how do you like your change? Real economist (Off the hill) have said this bailout is un-nessassary and will cost each American $6,900. They are right!

Oh reptilians, they will try and try and try again, to get this "Bailout" and the shiny empty people on tv are spinning it all perfectly to make all the people who played it straight to follow the leader.

The scary thing is that these people are the ones who's 401k's are going to vanish, these beleivers are the worst kind of suckers that instead of RADICALIZING, they entrench FURTHER in believing the narrative and press for the experts that are fleecing us to pay themselves out... oy vey.

How did we become so embedded into this magic theater? It's as if our whole material world is controlled by screenwriter magicians who spin us with their words, strange days indeed.

Thanks for posting my Congress Staffer Email site.

http://OutsourceCongress.org

Please use it to pound Congress about the Wall Street welfare/bailout

It really works, in 3 clicks you'll be writing your email to the staff of any Senator or Representative. It's that easy, free and requires no registration.

http://OutsourceCongress.org

Tell your Congressperson that the bill they will vote on Friday is MUCH WORSE than the bill they voted on on Monday. Tell him/her to line up with Oregon Democrat Pete DiFazio's plan to approach this issue in a problem-solving mode, rather than the problem worsening mode that the Senate bill represents.

I am reminded of the famous National Lampoon cover from days gone by: "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot the dog."

If there's a credit crisis, it's due less to the bursting of the housing bubble than it is to the bankers trying to force the government's hand by threatening harm to the American people (hey, isn't that the definition of terrorism?). Buy this bailout or we'll shoot the economy.

Call your Congressman. No negotiations with economic terrorists, and no bailout for Wall Street con artists whose scam imploded.

Anyone else get the email from Common Dreams? I hope that they realize that , making peole get in line behind Obama, is not a good way to win support.

This video expresses exactly how I feel about the Dem. Party, now. The bailout is deplorable. They wouldnt even allow decent amendments.

Obama chose Wall St. He did NOT chose you.

Obama is a fraud. McCain is a Bushie. The only way to express your outrage is to vote third party. The disdain for the people by both the Republicans and Democrats must be repaid in kind.

This is the kind of information we need. Thanks for shoring up our instinctive common sense, gained from years of observation, with the opinion of an honest professional who has the academic cred.

BTW - Common Dreams is in need of funds to keep up this work. That is a bailout I am supporting with a donation. Hope that others here who depend on Common Dreams for progressive news and comment will send some $$$$ too.

Joe

This not about being a conservative versus being a progressive or being a Republican versus being a Democrat; this issue is about the ordinary citizens of our nation standing up to an arrogant condescending elite that wants to steal from us. This is about us slapping down both Barack Obama and John McCain.

After last nights Senate vote last night I would encourage you all to contact the presidential candidates of both major political parties and let them know you will be voting for a third party candidate. Vote for anyone, Ralph Nader if that is what it takes. But for god’s sake don’t vote for either Barack Obama or John McCain!

Now here are two links. The first link is the recorded roll call vote on Monday. The second link is to the congressional staffers. Some the email addresses are not valid and you will return notifying you of the error. But many of those addresses are valid.

Don’t vent on a stupid Message Board.

SPAM the CONGRESS INSTEAD!

Let them receive so much negative email that their SERVERS CRASH!

SPAM the CONGRESS, CRASH the SERVERS!

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml

http://www.outsourcecongress.org/outsource/congress/schstaffers.html