Three slimy uses of the $700 billion bailout
Remember how urgent the need for the bailout was only six weeks ago? “Experts”, errr, a-holes, like Henry Paulson told us that if a bailout wasn’t passed the world as we knew it would cease to exist.
Well, it passed. And, low and behold, things have gotten worse. Why? Well, one, bankrupt firms are like Uncle Bernie – dead. And try as you might to make them wave and sunbathe and appear alive, they are still dead. Two, the Treasury is full of bumbling idiots whose primary goal is to keep their pockets, and those of their friends, nicely lined with freshly minted Benjamins. Put those together and you’ve got a recipe for cooking up large amounts of trouble. But don’t take my word for it. In an interview with NPR, Vincent Reinhart, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said “The Treasury is just drifting. It didn’t have a set of principles by which to guide its decision. What that means is they’ve had a very hard time drawing lines, and therefore, it has sort of invited firms to encroach.” So, apparently, the lesson is when you let greedy people who lack principle make decisions they only mess things up more. This is doubly true when the people asked to fix a problem are the same ones who created it. In light of the growing turmoil, while people are beginning to ask the truly deplorable question of “will $700 billion be enough?“, we take a quick look at three slimy ways the bailout is currently being abused.
1. Bailout money being used to defend the CEOs that are being prosecuted.
Yep, that’s right. Not only are we footing the bill to prosecute CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other criminally run firms, we are also paying for the fancy defense attorneys hired to defend them. I say we give them the greenest, cheapest, fresh-out-of-law school public defender we can find. If it’s good enough for most of us, why isn’t it good enough for them?
2. Bailout money being used for compensation and bonuses
Props go to sometimes quirky (ok, always quirky) Dennis Kucinich for reportedly working to stop this from happening. We can only hope his team’s effort are successful. If you’ve got a minute, drop him a quick note encouraging him to stick with it. Analysts agree that total compensation and bonuses paid from the bailout money could potentially be in the tens of BILLIONS of dollars with some estimates as high as $50 billion. Disgusting.
3. Bailout money paying for vacations and junkets
We’ve, no doubt, all heard about the half-million dollar bender AIG’s execs went on at an exclusive resort in California, followed by a eighty-six-thousand dollar hunting trip in England. Too bad Dick Cheney didn’t tag along for the latter. Makes me wonder, if the executives are so busy having fun, who blew through the $123 billion in October?
Another bailout on the horizon?
Even with those three abuses taking place, we are hearing chatter about another bailout, this time for the auto industries and credit card companies. While Kucinich gets points for his aforementioned efforts to stop compensation and bonuses, and, for twice voting against the first bailout, he fumbles some of them back for supporting said bailout of the auto-industry. All of this begs the question, if the first bailout isn’t working and has opened the doors for unprecedented abuse of tax payer money, why THE HELL is a second one being considered? Apparently the answer is this gem: “Taxpayers are being asked to step up (again) because, given the high level of risk involved, nobody else will.” Thanks for nothing. How does the old saying go? Measure twice and cut once? Well, it’s obvious that Congress didn’t even measure once and is cutting (read: scrambling to cover their backsides) far more than they ever thought they would. If you remember correctly, we didn’t want to step up in the first place. As a result, every Congressman, Congresswoman and Senator that voted for the bailout should be fired. That includes our newly elected President.
Moving forward
How do you fire a Congressman, Congresswoman, Senator or President? You can start by taking your head out of your you-know-where the next time you vote. But you can only do that if you continue to educate yourself on the issues. Bottom line is that while you may love your particular brand of Presidential candidate or political party, both candidates and scores from both parties voted for the monstrosity, and are therefore culpable in it’s abuse. Please remember that when you go to the polls again in two years. Finally, we know that party and personality flavored kool-aid is tasty, but if we keep drinking it, not only will we ensure continued abuse, we will also make it harder to change the system as its rigor mortise stiffens even further.
Nov 12, 2008