![]() |
| Home | Hot News | Economic Crisis | Barack Obama | Impeachment | Election Integrity | LGBT Gay | Media | Business - Economics | Edges | Government | Religions |
| Life Arts Science | Security WMDs Terror | Rights Justice Democracy | Obama transition | Veterans Military | Torture Guantanamo | Barack Obama Family, et | Iraq Afghanistan Pakista | MiddleEast |
|
Tags for This Article:
Bailout (1466) Republicans-GOP (1349) Pelosi-Nancy (469) Democrat Hypocrisy (236) Democratic Legislation (87) Dodd-Chris (51) Republican Legislation (42) Main Street (29) Harry Reid (11)
|
Add to My Group
As expected, as has become customary, the Democratic leaders of congress, after making a lot of noise and protest, are selling out Main Street, handing the real plums of the bailout to Republicans, giving George Bush and Henry Paulson what they wanted most. Forget about the "unsupervised control" part of Paulson's request. They never expected to get that. It was a negotiating ploy they expected to give up, one designed to make them appear reasonable asking for what they are going to be gifted by the Democrats. What's particularly egregious is that the Dems are giving even more than Paulson asked. Most of the modifications from what Paulson requested, after the obvious extras, never expected to be included were stripped out, have been packaging-- changing the timing of the release of the money, things that have a minimal effect on the deal.- First, there's that wild story about imposing a tax if the bailout doesn't return profits-- in five years, if the president elected in 2012 asks for it. What a cowardly, disingenuous way to avoid doing what should be done-- impose a tax immediately on stock transactions and loans that are going to be enabled because of the bailout. Thom Hartmann has described a plan that employs a tiny 1/4% tax on stock transactions (How Wall Street Can Bail Itself out without Destroying the Dollar). I say put it on loans too, since they are the beneficiaries of this project. Mortgage borrowers pay a similar PTI interest rate if they have less equity. Waiting five years and putting the responsibility on a president two elections away is pretty much saying "a tax would be nice but WE're not going to do it." I liked Chris Dodd as a presidential candidate. But now, he's trying to put lipstick on this bailout pig, providing cover for another Pelosi failure to do her job. Yes. Pelosi's the worst. She has a solid majority in the house. Even her supposedly economic conservative, balanced budget bluedog dems should be working with her on this pig, allowing a tax to pay for the bailout. But no, Pelosi sold out the majority of Americans again.- Of course, the Republicans, asking for elimination of the capital gains tax, and other breaks for the rich and corporations, are just as offensive, no more, no, equal for trying to use the crisis as an opportunity to push their standard policies-- the ones that led up to the failure.- The plan the congress has put together is still highly risky, still endangers the dolar, still encourages risky behavior by businesses and the people and institutions that profitted.- Both Obama and McCain have an opportunity here. They should reject the proposed "solution."- Americans are ready to help with the bailout, but a tiny tax bite- a quarter of percent-- is a fair, reasonable way to save an industry while- cutting risks.
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people: Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com and is a columnist with Northstarwriters.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here. and there are Rob's quotes, here. To Watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn't you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video My radio show, The Rob Kall Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived on www.whiterosesociety.org Or listen to it streaming, live at either www.wnjc1360.com or here. Or check the archived interviews at: whiterosesociety.org Follow me on Twitter A few declarations. -While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans. -My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website. Recent press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table
|