Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement announcing a plan for a new Ownership Society:
"The Wall Street financial disaster is an opportunity to create a genuine ownership society. If Congress invests $700 billion in the market, then the American people must get something of real value for their investment.
"Simply purchasing bad debt, "cash for trash" and not receiving anything of value or giving $700 billion and not having a commensurate equity interest in Wall Street firms is unacceptable. No "cash for trash".
"Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, tomorrow I will offer legislation to create a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, at market value and not higher, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American."
Kucinich arrived at the $2,300 figure by dividing the cost of the bailout ($700 billion) by the US population (over 300 million).
Dennis Kucinich is a congressman from Ohio and a 2008 presidential primary candidate.
http://kucinich.us/
The best way to reach congressman Kucinich is through the information on his congressional website
- Demand immediate debt forgiveness for all households making less than $250K annually (for without debt relief, the system will fail no matter how many times Congress bails out Wall Street crooks).
AND
- Promise to joina NATIONWIDE GENERAL STRIKE that will shut down the entire nation until the taxpayers and especially the Middle Class & Poor are protected!
CALL CONGRESS NOW!
by
Gryphon Danu (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 4 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 11:12:33 AM
There are no quid pro quos in this deal. It's a take-it-or leave-it proposition. I say leave it! Do you really think there will be any safety nets passed AFTER a bailout? The Government has set the table for this with low interest rates, deregulation, reduction of capital gains taxes and tax reductions for the rich, and extensive war spending. Wall Street has manipulated the values of its paper for its own advantage. This is NOT the last bubble to pop.
by
Matoska (15 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 30 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 11:28:58 AM
I wish that Rep. Kucinich would put together a petition in support of his ideas regarding this bail-out which we all could sign. Just like his impeachment of Bush petition.
by
Karen Boyette (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 1:52:51 PM
This is how the free market is suppose to work. This is what Republicans wanted (in theory). When companies do stupid things they are suppose to fail, and a company that does things right is left standing. Of course the Republicans don't even buy into their own economic theory, more evidence that the rich own this country.
by
Joe Bechtold (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 18 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 2:06:04 PM
There should have been more information about this bill. I had to call Kucinich's Washington office to get a bill number (It's HR 5830), and the staff member was unable to tell me if there are any cosponsors.
Yes John Eldon, this does not go to the root cause, but that is no reason not to support an effort that, if enacted (or even widely discussed) could lead to greater efforts to change the banking system in a radical way. The difference between a dead givaway of 700 billion dollars as opposed to a distribution of whatever the value is to 300 million citizens is an immense change in direction and philosophy.
by
Bill Willers (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 48 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 2:54:52 PM
There should have been more information about this bill. I had to call Kucinich's Washington office to get a bill number (It's HR 5830), and the staff member was unable to tell me if there are any cosponsors.
Yes John Eldon, this does not go to the root cause, but that is no reason not to support an effort that, if enacted (or even widely discussed) could lead to greater efforts to change the banking system in a radical way. The difference between a dead givaway of 700 billion dollars as opposed to a distribution of whatever the value is to 300 million citizens is an immense change in direction and philosophy.
by
Bill Willers (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 48 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 2:54:59 PM
Why do we calculate the debt on a per person, as DK does. In this country, we have 2 types of citizens, corporate and individuals. Since corporartions benefit from infrastructure, security etc, too, it seems we should calculate the debt load by asset ownership. For example, if corporations own 70% of the countries assets, they own 70% of it's debt. On an individual basis, if the top 0.1% own 20% of the countries wealth, then they also own 20% of the nations debt. The rest of us might own the other 10%.
by
pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 499 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 4:41:13 PM
Pelosi took impeachment "off the table" and Reid won't even talk about it. Conyers has specialized in hemming and hawing. Early on these rascals took the easy road while in control, "playing along to get along".
Their way of not doing anything about what they should be doing seemed to spread to most of the rest of the 110th Democratic Congress, except for you, Kucinich, with your handful of supporters, who stood up when it did matter the most. Thank you and bravo Dennis Kucinich! You left the American people with an official record of Bushco misdeeds for their posterity at least.
So a bailout bill will be drafted and it will be modified to please Bushco.
Bushco will certainly get everything ($700 billion) and even more than asked for ($1 trillion, 400 billion?). Its easy to play this game. All Pelosi & Reid have to do is "roll over", and they know how to do it.
by
Gene Cappa (35 articles, 0 quicklinks, 58 diaries, 258 comments)
on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 9:14:36 PM
Why should we, the American people, pay for the crimes of the banks? They are all crooks and if they go under, so what? They have already ruined the country. It might be easier for us to recover if the banks weren't a fixture in the country. They have been allowed to run roughshod over the rights of the American people for so long. They should find out what it feels like to be in trouble for a change.
The idea that Dennis submits sounds better than throwing money down the bank rat hole. For certainly we would be paying for their crimes for generations if congress again caves in to the Bush crime family about this. ISn't everybody getting very sick of hearing the rhetoric and then Congress falls right in line and gives Bush what he wants? Wake Up America!!
by
Caronome (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 238 comments)
on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 12:13:19 AM
In all, since 1987, the U.S. has faced an increasing set of bubbles and crashes—mostly propelled by casino-like speculation:
1987 Post-Stock Market Drive Rescue,
1989-1992 S & L Bailout,
1990-1992 Citibank & Bank of New England Bailout,
1994-1995 Mexican Peso Rescue,
1997 Asia Currency Bailout,
1998 Long-Term Capital Management Bailout,
1999-2000 Y2K Fears and .com Bubble Crash
2001-2005 Post-Stock-Market Crash Federal Rate Cuts Bubble
2006-2008 Real Estate Crash and Finance/Investment Sector Bubble Collapse
In short, as the former wizards of Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and many financial firms’ supporting George W. Bush’s presidency cry that the sky is falling and America must cough up 800 billion dollars (and Now), Americans have to decide whether the proposed medicine for this FIRE—and America’s dependence on finance, insurance and real estate—will only continue to make more-and-more bubbles as the recent federal reserve chairmen have engineered so often over the past 20 years.
by
ALONE (145 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 318 comments)
on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 11:54:27 AM
Instead of bailing out the gamblers in Wall Street and bankrupting ourselves, how about mandating the transformation of ALL mortgages that are not already fixed to a FIXED 30-YEAR 6% mortgage?
This would immediately stabilize our housing market and rescue our economy without putting the entire nation into the gambling Wall Street debt!
NO BAILOUT FOR WALL STREET!
by
Pat (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 18 comments)
on Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 11:00:02 AM
Regarding Dennis' progressive Ownership Society proposal and other synergetic combinations of necessary changes, the following is respectfully presented.
This is to announce the avilability of a Democratic Socioeconomic Platform, in search of a Democratic Political Party.
This Democratic Socioeconomic Platform (DSeP) is available on the website of the Center for the Study of Democratic Societies at:
by
Rob George (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, October 3, 2008 at 5:31:59 PM
15 comments
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