After spending a couple days in Congressional hearings, in which the financial leadership in Washington relied on using scare tactics in an attempt to persuade Congress to grant unlimited powers and unlimited taxpayers dollars — the figure requested was $700 Billion, but when all is said and done it could easily end up being over a Trillion dollars, despite the fact that a U.S. Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes that ‘we just wanted to choose a really large number,’ meaning that much of this ‘financial crisis’ may well be anything but that and that this is actually just another attempt by the Bush administration to gain more Unconstitutional, illegal powers — and it took until Wednesday night for President Bush to address the American people about the financial crisis.
A comparison by Jon Stewart of the Economic fearmongering speech given by President Bush and the extremely similar fearmongering speech given over 5 years ago to lie the country to war with Iraq is available from Crooks and Liars. Some may not be aware of the fact that almost 3 years ago the Bush administration also tried to give Wall Street $700 Billion when the ‘crisis’ was Social Security. More information on the fearmongering speech delivered by President Bush can be found from AlterNet, Think Progress, Crooks and Liars, After Downing Street and Media With Conscience.
Who exactly does this bailout help? A lot of signs point to the fact that this bailout would benefit the richest members of the ruling elite who have deceived and screwed the people of this country for years. An interesting article called “U.S. Titanic” by Jim Quinn from LewRockwell.com details how we have been lied to repeatedly by our Federal Government. President Bush, Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and numerous others — including many in Congress — have repeatedly perpetrated fraud against the American public. More information can also be found from this MSN Money Blog article. The director of the Congressional Budget Office reportedly said that the proposed Wall Street bailout could actually worsen a financial crisis.
With Bush’s past history of using secrecy and terror to scare the American public into submission — and for that matter, the Congressional history of caving in and refusing to do anything to impeach Bush or Cheney — how do we know their financial crisis is real and not fabricated? Bush’s 12 minute speech on the dire conditions of the U.S. economy was another example of offering nothing but fear itself, reminiscent of the boy who cried wolf too many times. It’s time for journalists to ask tough questions.
Market Watch reported that the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 — the latest figures that are currently available from the IRS’s income-statistics division — garnered the highest shares of the nation’s adjusted gross income for two decades. The average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years due to Bush-era tax cuts. Bush-era tax cuts are playing a major role in falling tax rates for the very wealthy.
The Absence Of Any Real Leadership
There was no acknowledgement of the shocking failure of government regulation, or that the country cannot afford more tax cuts for the very wealthy and budget-busting wars, or that spending at least $700 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out Wall Street and the banks should be done carefully, transparently and with oversight by Congress and the courts.
We understand why he may have been reluctant to address the nation, since his contempt for regulation is a significant cause of the current mess. But he could have offered a great deal more than an eerily dispassionate primer on the credit markets in which he took no responsibility at all for the financial debacle.
He promised to protect taxpayers with his proposed bailout, but he did not explain how he would do that other than a superficial assurance that in sweeping up troubled assets, government would buy low and sell high. And he warned that “our entire economy is in danger” unless Congress passes his bailout plan immediately.
More information can be found in the New York Times article.
Corruption, Greed and Political Charades
This past Tuesday, during an interview with a Cleveland TV station, McCain revealed he hadn’t yet read the Bush administration’s three-page bailout proposal, but he’s worried about the economic meltdown. On Wednesday, McCain announced that he was suspending his Presidential campaigning again — he did it in 1999 a week before he was going to officially announce that he was running — to head back to Washington to see about getting the financial crisis fixed. Actually, McCain said he was suspending his campaign, although he never did, because he’s taking a beating in the election polls. He still can’t stop lying about anything. His latest political charade with President Bush will probably do him more harm than good.
McCain is so worried about what happens in Washington that he hasn’t been in the Senate to vote for anything since April. McCain is so worried about getting the crisis solved that he didn’t bother going back to Washington after the Presidential debate to help reach a solution to the financial crisis as he said he would. The constant deception of the McCain Campaign for political posturing is growing more pathetic with each passing day. Don’t forget about the McCain Keating Five Scandal either.
Is there an actual Financial crisis, or was this something staged in an attempt to make Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain’s poll numbers go up? If it was, it failed miserably. If you watched the Presidential debate and witnessed McCain’s non-stop blinking eyes while answering questions, the nervousness and untruthfulness appeared painfully evident much of the time.
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner submitted a letter (PDF) to House Speaker Pelosi from a House Republican working group suggesting that Wall Street – not taxpayers – should fund the recovery, that private capital – not tax dollars – should be injected into financial markets and calling for immediate transparency, oversight and market reform. I’m not an economic expert, but it definitely sounds A LOT better than the Bush administration’s proposal and it wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything. Contacting Congress to support the Wall Street-funded rescue plan or to voice your worries/displeasures wouldn’t hurt.
We Need To Know The Truth
NPSD-51/HSPD-20 – one of many illicit Executive Signing Orders issued by President George W. Bush — could easily be construed by Bush as an excuse to declare Marshall Law due to the Economic crisis. With the Bush administration’s problematic delusions of being above the law, nothing would be surprising. The Bush administration is famous for creating crises and terrorizing the American public to sway public opinion and gain public support. We need to know whether the crisis is real or fabricated and we need to know the truth. Truth is not in the Bush administration’s dialogue or actions. The illicit Executive Signing Order coupled with the fact that a U.S. Army Brigade is being assigned to patrol the “homeland” beginning October 1, 2008 effectively — most likely Unconstitutionally and illegally — destroying the Posse Comitatus Act makes one wonder exactly what Bush’s intentions actually are.
It’s become increasingly more difficult to believe anything that comes from the White House. Congress hasn’t proven to be much better. Too many members of Congress have been bought off by large corporations, including many on Wall Street. Greed, corruption and secrecy, both in Washington and on Wall Street has produced what we are witnessing today, along with little or no regulation or oversight. It’s time for we the people to have a voice in government again, and it’s time to replace the corrupted, unethical Government Officials.
In keeping with Bush administration policies and traditions, CEOs of the large, multi-billion dollar corporations that have been run into the ground continue being rewarded with golden parachutes while being absolved of all wrongdoing. It’s long past time for people to take a long hard look at their representatives in Washington and hold them accountable and it’s time for Speaker Pelosi to put Impeachment back on the table.
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