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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich |
We Had Alternatives
In God We Trust, Wall Street Gets Cash
WASHINGTON - October 3 - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement after voting against the Wall Street bail out plan, H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:
"The public is being led to believe that Congress has reconsidered its position because we have before us a better bill than we had a few days ago. It is the same bill plus hundreds of new pages for hundreds of millions of tax breaks. What does this have to do with the troubles of Wall Street?
"Driven by fear we are moving quickly to pass a bill, which may produce a temporary uptick for the market, but nothing for millions of homeowners whose misfortunes are at the center of our economic woes. People do not have money to pay their mortgages. After this passes, they will still not have money to pay their mortgages. People will still lose their homes while Wall Street is bailed out.
"The central flaw of this bill is that there are NO stronger protections for homeowners and NO changes in the language to ensure that the secretary has the authority to compel mortgage servicers to modify the terms of mortgages. And there are NO stronger regulatory changes to fix the circumstances that allowed this to happen.
"We should have created a mechanism for our government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and use our power to work out a new deal for the homeowners. We could have done this. We should have done this. But we didn't.
"Now millions of Americans will face the threat of foreclosure without any help. And the numbers will soon rise for a number of reasons. Not only because of the Alt-A, jumbo mortgages which will soon be reset at higher interest rates, but because the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is pushing up rates on adjustable mortgages and more than half of the US adjustable mortgage rates are tied to LIBOR. Homeowner defaults will grow in significant numbers. Let's see if Congress will be as quick to help homeowners on Main Street as they were to help speculators on Wall Street.
"Now the government will have to borrow $700 billion from banks, with interest, to give banks a $700 billion bailout, and in return the taxpayers get $700 billion in toxic debt. The Senate "improved" the bailout by giving tax breaks to people in foreclosure. People in foreclosure need help paying their mortgage, they do not seek tax breaks.
"Across our Nation, foreclosures continue to devastate our communities, people are losing their jobs, and the prices of necessities are skyrocketing. This legislation, just like the one we defeated last week, will do nothing to solve the problems plaguing American families or help them to get out from underneath the oppressive debt they have been forced to take on.
"Unfortunately, there has been no discussion of the underlying debt-based economy and the role of our monetary system in facilitating the redistribution of wealth upwards.
"It is not as though we had no choice but to pass the bill before us. We could have done this differently. We could have demanded language in the legislation that would have empowered the Treasury to compel mortgage servicers to rework the terms of mortgage loans so homeowners could avoid foreclosure. We could have put regulatory structures in place to protect investors. We could have stopped the speculators.
"This bill represents an utter failure of the Democratic process. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability of government to defend the public interest in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests.
"Years ago, in a Cleveland neighborhood, I saw a hand-scrawled sign above a cash register in a delicatessen. The sign said: "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash." The sign above the Speaker's rostrum reads "In God We Trust," but we are paying the cash to Wall Street.
"It is not as if we had no other choice but to pass this bill."
8 Comments so far
Show AllIn my (humble European) view Dennis Kucinich is the best politician in the US Congress. I saw and heard him several times on DEMOCRACY NOW! and I think he is the only one who deserves to be called a "representative" of the people.
He is honest, authentic, fighting for social justice and a true believer in democracy (which is why I find it surprising that he is still a member of the Democratic Party....)
On top of that he seems to be the only congressmember who has grasped the fact that US unbridled capitalism (a society run by business and profit interests, here in the shape of Wall Street) is incompatible with real democracy - a point he also made very well in the article above:
"Unfortunately, there has been no discussion of the underlying debt-based economy and the ROLE OF OUR MONETARY SYSTEM in facilitating the REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH UPWARDS."
"This bill represents an UTTER FAILURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability (my comment: I would say unwillingness) of government to DEFEND THE PUBLIC INTEREST in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests."
Absolutely. This is outrageous, a kind of re-feudalisation of society. For years they have told us (also here in Europe) that their is no money for social security, health care (in the US, we still have that here but they are pushing for privatization)and free education for all, and that the greatest priority is to reduce the budget deficit through "fiscal austerity".
Now all of a sudden this no longer applies: Trillions of US-Dollars are raised within days in the form of even more astronomical debt (the US would have ended up like Argentina already if the dollar was not the reserve / oil currency of the world - by the way: Iran has begun to trade oil at its own burse in other currencies .... and Saddam had similar ideas..)
For more interesting perspectives pls see this:
http://video.google.de/videosearch?q=money+as+debt&emb=0&aq=f#
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/17/us_seizes_control_of_aig_with
(all DN-shows about the "financial crisis" are excellent...)
If you are very patient and want to dig deeper into the fundamentals of managing the risk of debt watch this:
http://video.google.de/videosearch?q=structured+finance&emb=0&aq=f#
I think these guys (arrogant megalomaniacs called "financial innovators") should be taken away in straightjackets and their private property confiscated and redistributed to the public....
The politicians who enabled all this criminal energy by "regulatory relief" should be tried for treason, for the reasons Dennis Kucinich mentioned above...
Perhaps we should not waste so much time on blogging and posting in forums but try some civil disobedience (in the sense Gandhi did in India)..?
I love the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (it´s a kind of therapy to bear the hypocrisy of politics) but seriously, this is no laughing matter....
Always presume the 'unthinkable'. All this smells fishy in the first place. It is the result of a restless effort on behalf of the republicons to confuse Mr. and Mrs. Jones to strip them of their possessions. We will see people loosing their house, their credit and their shirts. Since eight years a policy of clandestine financial reshuffling has weakened the middle class and the low income fraction is starving of hunger and fading away in sickness due to a lack of health insurance. Does anybody realize that we could have removed tax liability for incomes up to 36,000 Dollar altogether? Which in turn would lead to spend the surplus money and keep the economy from tanking. Now there is a different version in the making. Gov and MSM were able to convince weaker minded lawmakers to give in into this shameful 'redistribution-bail-away'. Watch how everything collapses, Asia and Europe are already choking and grasping for air. Yet there is no solution to this 'crisis' other than the complete abandonment of the whole 'credit-scam'. Why would somebody ever be able to spend money he/she does not possess in the first place? My grandpa always told us to never borrow any money. 'To Borrow Brings Sorrow'. Yet the 'smart' 'bankers' with their lawmaking enablers told the people exactly that fairy tale of being able to take a credit for virtually everything. I can see people paying their groceries with plastic. Now if You have been attentive about the laws the republicons have pressed through pertaining the credit industry and their shameless exploitation of debtors in case those should be late with their payments, You know that 4o% APR as a penalty for delinquent payers is possible. Figure what that means for somebody with only 10,000 Dollar debt. On top of it, You go and try to bail out of Your credit card debt by filing for #11. Good luck on that one. When I took the time to read all the fine print that comes with Your misa or vaster card, I paid my card of, canceled and cut the card in strips. I urge You to do the same if You can. If not, I wish You good luck. Honestly.
Forget about elections - the only vote You have is at the register
One of the biggest targets for politicians, as far as economics are concerned, is becoming the payday loan industry. Governors across the country are trying to rid their states of the industry altogether, and so far, Georgia, North Carolina, and Oregon have succeeded. The result was that bankruptcies, foreclosures, and also the number of overdraft fees due to bouncing checks went through the roof, which doesn’t do anything for the citizens afflicted in these turbulent times, and only is really good for the banking industry. Despite these negative effects, other states are looking to follow the example and do the same. Even at the national level, presidential candidate Barack Obama, is weighing in his own agenda on the issue, and advancing his own intentions on getting rid of the industry in the United States completely. If these measures, both on state levels and nationally, are successful, the results are going to be increased unemployment, more debt, more foreclosures, and an even worse economy.
Evil has only one tool - that is the disruption of peace - it is applied in infinite ways but it is always the same tool - JC
Fact is, the majority once again has spoken. With smiles, the majority pridefully enjoys their latest accomplishment. I'm not surprized, [bonher] also points to the motto "In God We Trust" as they have vote yes or no.
I'm glad these separate themselves with a simple vote yes or no.
Every division, decision, and motivation may break this government, and so be it! With this government, they have mentioned panic & fear as they did last week, last year, last decade, etc. I don't expect that to change. I support a completely different approach, I vote Nader/Gonzalez.
wild ;)
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Bush played '' GOTCHA" again...
What say you America ?????
VOTE NADER/GONZALEZ 2008… You’ll be glad you did and so will I…
http://www.votenader.org/index.html
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One of our other choices is simply to stop voting for your thieving party, Dennis! When the American public gets angry and fed up with both political parties in the same and equal amounts, that's when we can begin to flush the shit out of the stables at long last!
Thank you, Dennis, for all your hard work. You've worked so hard for us for so many years. But I'm not sure there is any hope left for this country. Maybe I will feel differently after I curl up in a ball and cry for a while.....