Mountain Sage

No Responses to “The cost of the earmarks in the bailout bill”

1. James Knight Says:
   October 3rd, 2008 at 8:31 pm

   Politics was, once upon a time, a means by which the few may benefit the many. It is now just what the legal and medical professions are, a good way to make a very good living, with no real concern for the general population. It is the public interest that is important, it is the desire to achieve and to have. It would not take many good politicians to make a difference.

2. diogenes Says:
   October 4th, 2008 at 12:39 am

   Just a quick question: where has St. Hillary been in this whole mess? We haven’t seen her ANYWHERE in any of these congressional negotiations. Where was she in our moment of crisis?

3. Mountain Sage Says:
   October 4th, 2008 at 1:19 am

   Actually she gave a couple of speeches but the press was too busy covering Obama’s posturing to make note of them.

   Here is the transcript of one along with a link to the audio:

   Senator Clinton Calls for Renewed Bipartisan Action on Economic Crisis
   A transcript of Senator Clinton’s comments today follows and audio is available here: http://www.clinton.senate.gov/audio/09_30_08_economic.mp3.

   Senator Clinton: “Good morning everybody. Thanks for joining this call today. Obviously there’s a tremendous amount of concern and even anxiety in the country about what we need to be doing and whether we will be able to reach an agreement about the action we should take.
   I think it’s very important to stress, first of all, that if nothing is done, we will see small businesses that cannot continue to keep their doors open because they cannot get the loans that they need for inventory and other important business expenses. Even larger businesses I’m hearing from are stretched to near the breaking point. A lot of our businesses depend on credit every single day, and they’re finding that credit very difficult if not impossible to find and afford.
   But on the personal level, students are going to have increasing trouble finding college loans. Families are having difficulty with the daily expenses and certainly with their housing costs as home values drop. And we know that this credit crisis that we are in the midst of cannot on its own correct.
   It sounds dire, but there is a risk that commerce could grind to a halt. Banks are already unwilling or unable to lend to each other. We’ve got investors parking money into Treasury bills that are yielding next to nothing because they think it’s the only safe investment right now.
   With the domino effect of banks failing, people are taking money out of their banks, looking for a safe place, like Treasuries, or frankly, you know, under their mattress, which then compounds the problem.
   I understand the deep skepticism surrounding the proposal, and clearly I was against the original plan sent over from the Treasury because it was a blank check giving Treasury virtually unlimited powers to do whatever they saw fit.
   But we have negotiated through the Congress on a bipartisan basis a better alternative that installed taxpayer protections, asserted oversight and accountability, and came up with the checks and balances we should have had rather than the blank check.
   This bill that was voted on yesterday is a compromise among the Bush Administration, the Democratic and Republican leadership. You’re not going to find anyone who believes that this bill is perfect. Many of us regret deeply and very much resist having to bail out those who we believe contributed mightily to the problems we’re in. But there is no choice.
   I believe that the companies benefiting from the taxpayer dollars should be asked to repay their debts to the Treasury or give taxpayers more of a share of any future profits. I continue to advocate for a plan to rewrite unworkable mortgages to stop the inevitable cascading of defaults and foreclosures that will come as interest rates reset. For two years I’ve proposed steps to freeze adjustable mortgage rates and temporarily halt foreclosures and reset mortgages at risk of default and foreclosure. That’s why I continue to propose a mechanism to do that, and it is modeled on the one we used during the Great Depression.
   Obviously people are deeply concerned about how we’re going to take action that will be effective. I think it’s important that we go at the root of the problem, which is the continuing loss of home values and mortgages that are unaffordable for homeowners. Now there are other steps we should take. The housing market is caught in a vicious cycle of too much supply, too little demand, sinking housing prices, rising defaults and foreclosures. There are other steps we can and should take to try to get demand up again in an affordable way.
   But the American people need to understand the benefits of this unprecedented market intervention versus the cost of inaction. There are ways we can continue to try to improve the tools available to the government so that Americans are reassured that this is not either a blank check to the Bush Administration or a blank check to Wall Street, but in fact it is not only necessary for us to do but that the economy will benefit and taxpayers will be protected.
   But we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good, or in this case the enemy of what’s necessary. We certainly won’t be able to spur the housing market if our financial institutions are unwilling to lend to homeowners, and if banks stop lending to businesses, and banks refuse to lend even to each other, which we are seeing.
   So we have to go back and in a bipartisan fashion, face up to the difficult decisions ahead of us.
   We have to take action and I know that New York is particularly affected by our failure to act, which is why I told the Long Island association yesterday morning that although I despise the position that we find ourselves in as a country, I would have voted for the package.
   We have tens of thousands of people in New York dependent on the financial services industry. We have thousands of people I’m hearing from around our state who cannot get the credit they need to stay in business. We’ve got tens of thousands more who are in businesses that are dependent directly and indirectly on financial services. Our city and state revenues will be adversely affected, which will have a ripple effect in terms of the services that people need. We’ll see the unemployment rate go up and I am deeply concerned that this package be passed this week in order to put the brakes on what is not just a market and a credit crisis, but a mounting economic crisis.
   I believe, too, that the Senate would be ready to act. I know Senator Reid has said on numerous occasions that he believes the Senate has the votes to pass the bill and is prepared for the Senate to go first, and I certainly am prepared to stand up and be counted if we do. But I hope that everyone will take a deep breath. The Congress is not in session because of the Jewish New Year, so everyone has a chance to think hard and maybe cool off a little from the emotion and the pressure of the last two weeks. And we get back to Washington starting tomorrow and do what we have to do to try to stabilize not only our nation, but the entire world for the benefit of everyone.”
   http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=303890&&

4. reallymadvoter Says:
   October 5th, 2008 at 2:20 am

   I took the pledge – Have you?

   Well the congress has done it.

   As of the morning of the bail out vote in the House of Representatives, polls showed that the American people were 74% against any bail out for the Wall Street fat cats. We wanted a fix from the bottom up and not from the top down. Fix ‘Main Street’ not Wall Street we told them. They didn’t do it.

   However they did agree with the bloated $700 billion the Senate passed for their greedy Wall Street friends with another $150 Billion of Pork. So now our children are on the hook for at least $850 billion and no one can tell us if it will work or will be the last.

   Meanwhile, ‘We The People’ continue to lose our jobs and homes.

   Our elected representatives have chosen to ignore us, ‘We The People’ whom they swore to represent.

   They think we are stupid. They think we don’t have the guts to clean house. They think ‘they know better’ than we on ‘Main Street’ do.

   So…

   I have taken the Pledge:

   I, (put your name here), will NOT vote for any incumbent in the upcoming election regardless of party or who the opposition may be. I intend to do my part in ‘throwing the bums out’ in Washington that continue spending my money on those that have wrecked our economy rather than the people who sent them there. This is my solemn pledge.

   Mail this to your Representative and Senators, to all your friends and all news media, both local and national. Email this to all the talking heads on the cable outlets, Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and with every blog and talk show host you know of.

   Urge everyone you meet to take the Pledge.

   This the only way we, the American People, will ever take back our own government.

   They keep telling us that the only power we have is the vote. So… For once let’s use it!!!!!

   Believe me… if we turn them all out THERE WILL BE CHANGE!!!!

   Do we have the guts? Do you???

   If not, then you don’t have any right to complain if they continue to screw us over.