As expected, the Democratic leaders of congress are selling out Main Street, handing the real plums of the bailout to Republicans, putting lipstick on this bailout pig. But that's the way Pelosi's 110th congress has always worked. This Democrat is not impressed.

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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."

Of course, the Republicans will oppose any tax. But the Democrats have a majority in both houses and the support of the American people. Oh well, that was never enough before to get Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to do the right thing, what the Majority of Americans want.

The deal gets worse. Now, there's a new insurance for banks, that the government pays for. That's a Republican demand-- remember, the people who hate government, except when it serves their special interests. Will the banks be paying for this, as they go? We'll see.

This "done deal" stinks. The public should tell congress to shove that tax that might be applied five- years from now up where the sun doesn't shine. We need to raise even more noise. Nancy Pelosi has done it again, totally selling out main street, the taxpayers and the middle class.

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.

Make the calls today and tomorrow. Tell your legislator, whatever party, that you see through the five year tax plan lie. Demand that a tax be part of the solution.

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

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