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The Wall Street Bail Out Plan: We Had Alternatives
The following statement was presented on the floor of The House of Representatives after Congressman Kucinich voted 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.
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120 Comments so far
Show AllAnd to think that this man was banned from any chance to run a visible and viable campaign for president!
My new name for Congress is Gangsta Government.
I read your post on Zinn's piece. It gave this old brain a headache! No, actually a very informative piece of writing. I'll be sure and pick an argument with you!:)
Not me. But I always like to learn.
At this point, I will be happy with a "temporary uptick in the market", so I can unload these almost worthless stocks I am stuck with, that used to represent my retirement fund.
I guess I get to work until I drop dead now..oh goody.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
"I guess I get to work until I drop dead now..oh goody."
I hope I outlive you so I can have your job in addition to mine - I'll need it.
(Just kidding, but this reminds me of the dark humor of the Soviet era. The similarities abound.)
here's the link to the senate vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213
for pensioners, the IRS is tightening rules on early withdrawals from retirement funds -- with employers having to certify that your "hardship" is really a hardship. you'll have to prove your case. it's about locking you into the stock market that is predicted to drop to 5000 within the next 2 years. got to lock in the slaves while the masters suck the last drop from their corpse. also, expect new rules in 2009 restricting flight of capital (just for us slaves), keeping the average joe in dollars. gold bullion may be confiscated to shore up the now privatized US Treasury, as it has been at 4 other times in US history
US debt will be re-montetized under the Amero currency. Don't worry, the bankers are coming to our rescue. Big government is good. Trust the Fed.
Did you hear about a new Blackwater presence in several areas of the US bordering Canada? It's not for keeping the Canadians out...
A lot of frogs are going to be boiled here.
***
911 was an inside job. Cheney suspended the Constitution via the imposition of Continuity of Government on 911. Congress has been denied access to the COG details. COG is martial law. http://prisonplanet.tv/alex_jones_live.html
Until people realize that conservatives are the bad guys and their enablers, good liberals will be tilting at windmills.
It was mostly conservatives were voting against this. I'd suggest there are plenty of bad guys to go around, liberals, leftists, Democrats, Republicans, you name it.
If anyone needs proof that the democrats are in cahoots with the republicans, check out this website:
http://benbittrolff.blogspot.com/
scroll down past a picture of Bill Clinton to the insert just below. Click and read. The present bubble, which is deflating, was started in 1999, under a democratic administration. Of course the rabid republican mantra of deregulation, still going strong since the 80's, is equally to blame. Remember Enron? What safeguards/regulations were put in place after, what was then the biggest bankruptcy in US history? Or after several other, new biggest bankruptcies? And, of course, this giveaway, I mean bailout, doesn't do squat to reign in the free-for-all speculation that develops bubbles and drives them forward until they collapse. Also, there is no mention about how we, the People, are going to pay back the loans that form the basis for these bailouts. Certainly, you can't expect them to cut the over bloated military budget. Both Obama and McCain want to expand the military, to spend even more on imperialism and conquest. So who is going to suffer? That's right anyone that depends on entitlements to survive: people on Social Security: retirees, disabled people. Also, we can look forward to cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, so that we can have even more people unable to get any healthcare. Some budget has to be cut and the programs that help poor people all have targets on them now. All thanks to the U$ government: a group of people, of which there are very few capable of critical thinking.
No. We're WAY, WAY beyond liberal/conservative/left/right. We need a no-wedge progressive populist party. No war but the class war.
Yeah I like the idea of a progressive populist party, focusing on the elites' class war aggression, and the simple framing that there is the ideology of the people representing maximum justice, versus the ideology of the elites representing minimum justice, and that you can't have it both ways. You have to choose whether you're with the people or with the elites.
YES!
The "missing Party" in the United States is a "big tent" Party formed by an alliance of social progressives and fiscal conservatives, united by a commitment to adhere to the Constitution.
The Constitutional Progress Party of America!
All true progressives and all true conservatives should unite NOW in agitation for the foundation of this Party.
This is a necessary step in the Restoration of the Republic!
Don't Panic,
-matti.
.
Nader can win....... The voters will decide.
Nader will change things.
Nader is our only hope.
Nader is the only choice.
Fight the Two-party system.
VOTE NADER 2008… You’ll be glad you did and so will I…
http://www.votenader.org/index.html
.
Thank you, again, Mr. Kucinich. This administration has no business whatsoever acting on such an important matter in its final days in office. This all feels like a last minute stage robbery with no real purpose other than to assist those with Hampton homes. The LIBOR rate jumped from 3 to 6 and triggered a huge panic just days ago. We all know that will happen again shortly and, clearly, Bush & Co. are simply trying to get out of Dodge by then and simply forget the whole sick rodeo they themselves created. Bush will chop wood and Cheney will be picking out wallpaper in his new office in Dubai dodging the taxes to pay for this very bailout. How on earth have we arrived at such a place? Tom Paine must be rolling over in his grave.
Dr. Wales,
We got here because America has forgotten several rules that the Founding Fathers put in place: We no longer impeach, we put it off the table. We no longer water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and traitors, we watch opiates on TV and pray for enlightenment in the one place you'll never find it, a place of fantasy and childhood wishes called 'church'...
I'm going to hold my nose and vote for Obama, but it will be with the sincere hope that he places Dennis Kucinich in his cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the newly formed Department of Peace. With Marcy Kaptur as Secretary of damn near everything else...
I wonder how many guillotines 700 billion would buy?
Our 'representatives' from the fake president on down, will only start to do what's right when they have to start worrying that their necks are quite literally on the line. Obviously, pleading to their better natures or just plain common sense hasn't worked.
And to everyone who might be reading this, beware of Palin. She's another sociopath like Cheney and Bush and even more dangerous, because she hides behind that perky smile. Have you noticed? When she's not lying through her teeth and smiling vacuously to hide it, you can see the moral-less shark living there.
I wouldn't mind the situation the US is in so much if I felt I could get out and avoid it. But they've truly screwed up the whole world. My apologies to everyone on the planet for what my country has become.
Now, what would Tom Paine do?
Signalfire
He would be writing pieces for Nader and posting them on every tree...
The voices of reason are the last thing "they" want to be heard. Those like Representatives Kucinich, Defasio, and a few others continue to give hope to those of us who are listening. We need to let them know just how much their voices matter at times like these so they won't get discouraged and stop speaking out on our behalf.
Kucinich will never do that.
He is a Dem. ,and I disagree with some things he supports. But, once you meet him, you relize that he is a man of conscience, that genuinely knows what it is like to hurt and want.
And, he's from OHIO, people! And so is Kaptur! Too bad my district is covered by Voinovich and Turner
Wilmoor: We The People did "let them know" by flooding DC with the greatest number of phone calls and emails saying No Bailout. But the Senate and Congress did not listen.
Sioux Rose
ROBERT WALES: I see it the way you do. It was like a last chance for all the neocon friends, fans and flimflams to reach in and grab what wasn't nailed down, as if Bush was a teen throwing a weekend party and opening the estate (in this case US treasury) up to whatever his callous friends felt like doing to it. Unitary executive means never having to say you're sorry, or justify any action (that something as abstruse as a signing statement can't do away with).
This is why I supported, contributed to and campaigned for Dennis Kucinich's primary candidacy. He speaks so clear to the truth and circumstances with knowledge and clarity. So many of my Dem family and friends thought that we needed this Bush bailout because all they heard was doom and gloom from the chimp on TV. As Dennis said, we did have alternatives. Now we're just getting screwed one more time.
Since this democracy just shot itself in the head:
I'll write Dennis in for President.
I mean, WTF, it won't matter now.
Nader isn't on your state's ballot?
Maybe we can all vote 'present' just like the Senate.
Christians can vote for the 'nun' of the above.
He was the last two, and I voted for him. Honestly, I haven't checked. I did not receive a primary ballot. I'm registered Independent.
Whats done can be undone in other ways. Hold that shot.
Toooo late! I already drank it.
Think I'll go take a few shots at em myself. Thanks for showing me the way!
It is too bad Dennis isn't the presidential candidate, he had the experience standing up to the banks as Mayor of Cleveland. The banks and wall street held a gun to our head to get this deal. Too many in Washington drank the Kool-Aid.
A suggestion to President Obama (assuming there isn't a stolen election again) make Dennis Secratary of the Treasury, put him in charge of the remaining bailout money. He will make sure the $$$ go to main street.
I would vote for President-in-exile Al Gore and D.K. in a heartbeat.
But then votes don't count (or they are pre-counted) in Fascist Dictatorships.
"It seems apparent that the populism we see today is a populism that is distinctively similar to that found in the German Weimar Republic."
This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have transitioned from a "Democratic Republic Nation" to a "Facist Propaganda Nation".
Fear was used to completely ignore the sickness in our financial system.
Fear was used to blackmail us into a 700B Prozac pill to a bunch of immature speculators who don't give a tinkers damn about the people's lives they play with.
It is obvious that too many of our elected representatives hoodwinked us - they don't work for us, they work for their moneyed masters.
So, will the financial elite start lending again, but with more caution, or will they now feel free to try another hair brained scheme to regain their manhood.
I'm really worried it will be the latter.
Ending America’s Republican Party’s 28 year rule
In America, it is easier for a voter to vote for a third party candidate that will not win than to compromise and vote for a Democratic candidate that will win and then be required to work daily to make sure that, that candidate works towards ones goals and objectives. Americans seems to always take the easy way out.
With all due respect, I think you have it backwards. In America it is easier to vote for the lesser evil because the MSM has said he's "electable", then turn around and complain that he's the schmuck we kept telling them he was than to vote for a third party candidate of character and fight like hell to convince others we all deserve better than the schmuck.
But you're right about one thing - "Americans seems to always take the easy way out."
Renegotiating the foreclosures should have been Step One. Elimination of golden parachutes (not a ten percent surtax on them) should have been no. 2. Surtax on millionaires and up should have been step 3. What was the hurry? Why not wait another week and come up with something decent? Answer: Wall Street impatience to make money and tool in its political stooges to get going. Plus the entire fiasco was bi-partisan, apart from a few loyal hearts like Dennis and DeFazio. Eighty percent of us "angry"--and completely ignored? What are we gonna do now, people?
This is going to be a bleak Christmas for everyone but George W. and Ebenezer Scrooge.
Tiny Tim wants a new Tin Drum but all poor Bob Cratchit can afford after this is second hand.
http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/Bulgarian_75rd_Steel_7.62x39_Drum_Magazine.html
That $700 billion will be on its way to offshore bank accounts as soon as it is released.
exactly. 60+ million to the CEO of Morgan Stanley, John Mack. What's he going to do with it? That's the value of his shares. Good luck! Have a nice life.
Bring in the troops!
compare to Addie Polk:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html
And just where did that $700 billion figure come from? Well, according to one member of Congress, it was pulled out of a hat. No one knew how much money it would take, but they knew it had to be really big, so $700 billions it was.
Will $700 billion do the job? Not when there are more hats.
I would usually expect mainly liberals to vote against this but this time, hardline conservatives and hardline liberals actually did the right thing together. While I would like to think that more Republicans are learning from Ron Paul, I still have a suspicion that this is an election trick to keep their seats in desperation. Who on this forum really believes that they would be the same after the election is over?
Well here it is Friday afternoon. Thanks for the $700 billion. Sorry the uptick thing didn't work out.
"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".
Well... with clever accounting, perhaps they van benefit from tax breaks.
Or to see it another way, if they CAN benefit from tax breaks, they are
making a profit despite the foreclosure, or because of the foreclosure.
If the place that you work at closes, and you are put out of work, be
happy - at least your boss gets a TAX BREAK - and if he needs one it means
he is doing well.
The really amazing thing is that the sweetener that allowed this to pass
is TAX BREAKS. War, and TAX BREAKS for the rich, have helped drive the national debt to
9.5 trillion. This debt, in turn, has eaten into peoples disposable
incomes and put people out of work. And caused a problem in the housing
market. 700 billion will push the national debt to 10.2 trillion. But
what they want is more TAX BREAKS.
Whats the opposite of PROgress?
CONgress
(except for a few like Kucinich...)
“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.”
The purpose of government has always been conceived to be to coordinate and meet the public interests … in fact its purpose has always been to protect the market from its victims. When the market parasites feed from others, the public doesn’t mind, but when it demands transfusions from the public, suddenly the farce becomes perceived as what it always really was: a bloodbath.
.The elction is upcoming folks, and, short of armed insurrection which I do not recommend, it is the real way to send your message to these thieving bastards. I, for one, will cast no ballot for any politician in support of this bailout.
If you know another way to take a stand Im open to suggestion. Until then I will , once again, vote for Ralph Nader for President and support his call for a taxpayer revolt.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Frankly I've been giving this deep thought and I keep coming up with the same answer..............GGGggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr#@#$(*&^%$}):{&#@&^! and then...I will cast no ballot for any politician that supported of this bailout.
Ditto that !
Yes.
Support for this Uncostitutional abomination must result in the political equivelent of the death penalty.
This is simply the DUTY of any true Citizen of this Republic.
All others are traitors, only ignorance can excuse them.
.
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
.
And if you're 'successful', with your Nader canvassing, he will get his $$$ for getting 5% of the vote and the country will get McCain/Palin/Rove.
And Nader won't do bugger-all about building a real 3rd party move in between elections, and we will just keep having to deal with the Bush/Rove fascist machine.
.I wish you would, get real that is....This talk of spoilers is so ill conceieved, so basically wrong, so pigheaded, frankly, as to be more than a bit annoying. It only reflects upon you and not upon any political reality wherein your vote is freely cast for the candidate you support. Why you believe that one should vote against someone, or vote for a politician with whom you have basic and serious problems is a mystery to me.
Ralph Nader has a right to run, I have a right to vote for whomsoever I please. you have a right to be basically wrong...
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin