Originally Posted By Sport Goofy <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2008/09/now_we_see_it_the_white_house.html#more" target="_blank">http://www.npr.org/blogs/money...tml#more</a> When the Bush Administration announced its plan for rescuing the mortgage industry on Friday, it portrayed the government as a knight in shining armor riding in to save the economy. I've read a number of more detailed discussions of this bailout proposal now, including the link posted here, and I am absolutely appalled by the language in the legislation that represent more of the same Bush tactics to dodge Congressional oversight and grab more executive power. We have seen this movie before, and we all know how it ends. We've seen it in the resolution to authorize force in Iraq, bills that authorize the executive branch to conduct domestic spying, and legislation that allows torture and denial of basic legal rights in Guantanamo Bay. Now, the administration wants to be the sole purveyor of a $700B slush fund to "save" the economy with hardly any rules applied on how that money is spent. After all we've seen in the past 7 and a half years, I don't think it's cynical at all to suggest that the beneficiaries of this $700B bailout fund will not be the average Americans on Main Street. It looks to me like we're setting ourselves up for one final transfer of wealth from the government to the privileged class -- just like we've seen with the criminal administration of funds to the likes of Halliburton in Iraq and the massive shift of oversight in funds when the Department of Homeland Security was created. Of course, any resistance to passing this legislation will be met with sharp criticism from the administration. Anyone who points out the flaws in this plan will be against the economy and for the terrorists, I'm sure. The Bush playbook is alive and well here. We get to see one final effort to destroy our institutions of government that has been the hallmark of his time in office. I am hopeful that more reasoned heads will prevail this time and the lame duck status of Bush and his cabinet will win out to save the American people from having to suffer from more power grabbing from the executive branch.
Originally Posted By Mr X Here's the thing about that slush fund that nobody's talking about... Read the wording carefully. It doesn't just say 700 billion period. It says 700 billion AT A TIME. So the Fed has the ability to buy 700 billion dollars worth of toxic loans, sell them off for pennies on the dollar passing the losses onto the taxpayers, and then do it ALL OVER AGAIN ad nauseum. It's a blank check. And it also turns the banks into government agencies if I read it correctly..kinda like the IRS. Read it carefully, folks.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***this is a de-facto nationalization of the entire banking, insurance, and related financial system. Specifically: "(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;" That's right - every bank and other financial institution in the United States has just become a de-facto organ of the United States Government, if Hank Paulson thinks they should be, and he may order them to do virtually anything that he claims is in furtherance of this act. This might include things like demanding that a bank or other financial institution sell him its paper, even if it forces that firm to collapse and be assumed by the FDIC!*** <a href="http://market-ticker.denninger.net" target="_blank">http://market-ticker.denninger.net</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X ***"The Secretarys authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time" This is clever and nobody in the mainstream media has figured it out. If you think the cost of this bill is $700 billion, you're wrong. The cost is actually infinite and the entire bill constitutes a giant money-laundering scheme. Paulson can (and presumably will) buy up to $700 billion of these "assets", then sell them. Let's say he decides to buy them at 60 cents on the dollar and sell them for 10. You, the taxpayer, will eat the fifty cents, for an immediate cost of $350 billion dollars. Having done so, he is then authorized to do so again, since the $700 billion is no longer on the government's balance sheet. In fact, he can do this without limit, other than possibly due to the federal debt ceiling, which of course Congress will raise any time we get close to it. Oh yeah, this bill does that right up front too. No need to bother with it the first time around. Folks, $700 billion isn't even close to the total cost of this monster.*** SAME LINK
Originally Posted By Mr X By the way, feel free to discount my thoughts and the opinions of that blogger (heck, I find him to be quite the chicken little myself)... BUT please do read carefully these provided sections of the legislation and decide for yourselves what it really means. Thoughts?
Originally Posted By Mr X The Secretarys authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time
Originally Posted By Mr X The Secretarys authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time
Originally Posted By Mr X The Secretarys authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy It's really sickening when you think about it. Our economy is on the brink of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. We DO need government intervention, but all the Bush cronies can come up with is a scheme to fatten the pockets of their fat cat bankers on Wall Street without regard to the impact on the taxpayer and our government institutions. I really hope there is strong pushpack on this. And here's the rub -- there is really no plan that can be executed at this point that will "save" the economy. We can mitigate some aspects of the pain, but there is going to be some pain felt throughout our country and it will probably endure for several years. There is no reshaping that fact. Why don't we allocate $700B (or more, as Mr X points out) to mitigating the hardship that is coming for Main Street instead of heaping all of the bailout assets towards Wall Street?
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13690.html" target="_blank">http://www.politico.com/news/s...690.html</a> >>House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday that is likely to focus on the proposal. Under what congressional officials called a likely scenario, the measure could go to the House floor on Thursday, with passage expected the same day. The Senate could take the package up as soon as Friday and send it to President Bush for his signature, although the Senate schedule is less predictable and had not been determined. Officials expect passage by huge margins in both chambers, since Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have told congressional leaders the country’s financial stability depends on it. House Democrats plan to insist on adding protections for homeowners facing foreclosure, and want to add measure to help homeowners facing bankruptcy, and an executive compensation restriction designed to prevent golden parachutes for the heads of troubled institutions. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was supportive of the bailout concept in a statement released Friday, thinks that “whatever gets done in Congress has to protect Main Street,” senior adviser Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC on Saturday.<<
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Great! Darkbeer comes in to cheerlead the destruction of our government and economy.
Originally Posted By hopemax Daily Kos is all worked up about... "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." and " (b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation ... (1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties ... (2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts ..."
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Every American should be getting worked up about this! If we haven't learned this lesson before with every previous executive action under GWB, then we have no capability to learn anything at all.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Officials expect passage by huge margins in both chambers, since Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have told congressional leaders the country’s financial stability depends on it.*** Perhaps they should be researching the facts themselves instead of relying on just two guys (guys who have been trying to plug the dike for well over a year now with no success).
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I don't like the panic aspect of all this. This could be the patriot act all over again, when Congress votes for something ill conceived because of the fear that if they don't "do something," they'll be vulnerable to blame being assigned to them if something goes wrong, i.e. "hey, we gave you a chance to 'save' things, but you passed on it." It's not QUITE as rushed as the patriot act, and they might insert a few good things in there, but it still seems like an awful rush: one week to get their heads around this large, complex problem, and approve measures to mitigate it. It's "Crisis Mode" and doesn't allow for really thinking things through. Yet we saw on these very boards that when Harry Reid (rather refreshingly) admitted that they weren't sure what to do, people jumped all over that. "Do something, anything," seems to be the cry. But sometimes doing something that isn't thought through is worse than doing nothing. Particularly if that something redefines powers, as this seems to. You guys are quite right that no one in the media that I've seen is talking about the power grab to the executive branch aspect of all this. Perhaps something does have to be done quickly to avert a further meltdown, but at the very least Congress should strike those provisions that give more power to the executive, actually prohibit oversight (see first paragraph of #13), and provide essentially a blank check. If they want another 700 billion (!), they should have to ask Congress again, who supposedly, according to the Constitution, is the body that controls the purse strings.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.<< I don't think the Supreme Court is going to stand for that - not even this court. But by the time they strike it down, the damage will be done. I'd like to think that congresspeople on both sides of the aisle will have the sense to realize that they aren't powerless here. This is not a take-it-or-leave-it deal, even though GWB and his cartoon pals made it sound like it. This is about BOTH Wall Street and Main Street. The pressure is on BOTH sides. The filthy rich are almost as hosed as we are if it doesn't pass, so if Congress says "nope, try again," they're going to darn well try again. But Congress sucks at games of chicken, especially in an election year. About all we can do now is hope that while Paulson and his frat brothers are laughing all the way to the bank, they throw enough crumbs at the rest of us so we don't starve to death. I don't think they're planning to. Remember why the terrorists chose the World Trade center? They wanted to disrupt Western economies. Game, set and match: Terrorists. Nice job, W.
Originally Posted By Elderp I want a $180,000 bailout. Compared to the 700B they are dishing out I figure I am chump change.
