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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
November 20, 2008
Our Money
I have $350 billion and it's burning a hole in my pocket. The remainder of the
Wall Street financial bailout money was supposed to be geared towards saving the
US financial industry. More importantly, it was passed to make sure those tens
of thousands of jobs stay put.
The Bush administration, through the likes of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson,
would like us to believe that the best use the balance of these middle-class
taxpayer dollars is to just give it to the huge financial concerns who allowed
this economy - the Bush Economy - to ruin many an American's life.
But that's just not so. The real reason that most of us bit our lower lip and
said "Okay" to the Wall Street bailout was to save jobs. This nation couldn't
afford to allow the tens of thousands of jobs which would have been lost had we
let Wall Street go bankrupt. So we held our collective noses and gave Paulson
permission to create the largest deficit this nation has ever seen.
What did Wall Street do to begin the cleanup process? They started shedding
middle class American jobs and they refused to use what the $700 billion was
earmarked for (loans to get the economy going again). In short, they betrayed
us.
Did anybody expect anything different? We all hoped.
It was so bad that even Paulson, himself a servant of Big Finance, changed the
rules of the money's use from the original proposed outlay (bringing credit
lending back into the market) to what the Democrats and most fore-sighted
persons thought was a better plan: To buy shares in these finance companies.
There was no renegotiating of loans; there was no concern about homes left
vacant; and there is no concern over the US people as a whole.
There was, however, concern over CEO and Board members' bonuses.
It's obvious to anyone paying attention today that had we given Paulson the
ability to give $700 billion to the financial industry without checks and
oversight, he would have done just that. It's also obvious that Paulson, knowing
that those checks are present, had to change his philosophy of just giving our
hard-earned tax dollars away.
We don't want to bail out anyone. We don't want to take our already hefty
trillion dollar debt and make it a multi-trillion dollar debt. However, on the
other hand, we don't want our neighbors to lose their jobs, and we don't want to
lose our jobs as well.
The argument I used myself that there will be tens of thousands of jobs lost if
the financial industry goes under still holds, even as they shed many of those
jobs under the outgoing administration's blind eye. The loss of jobs the US auto
industry, and those industries which rely on the US auto industry, will be
perhaps hundreds of times worse. Some have estimated that it could reach nearly
ten million jobs lost.
absorb that.
There is a valid argument that we can't save all industries. But I believe we
can, just not right now. Smart economic policies that look at the nation as a
whole rather than from a top-down, Trickle-Down philosophy must be instituted.
The realization that the middle class shouldn't be looked at as an endless
source of rescue income must be brought forth and recognized as well.
If the US Auto industry were to have asked for $25 billion before the financial
industry collapse, their bailout would have been easier to swallow. But that's
not the case. The financial industry is still bleeding jobs and, as a result, we
are not gaining a thing from their rescue.
The US Auto industry, due to the work of labor unions, have been making sure
that the US auto worker has been receiving health care and retirement benefits.
Now that same auto industry is pointing to those benefits as the reason they are
going out of business unless they get the help, unconditionally. As they take
private jets unabashedly from around the country to make their points to
Congress, they're looking at the same route to saving their multi-million dollar
salaries and bonuses: having us bail them out while forcing labor to cut jobs
and benefits.
If the choice is only between their way of the highway (an unconditional bailout
of the US auto industry, written by their CEO's and officers) or allowing them
to close their doors, we'll have no choice but to allow them to do the latter. I
say call their bluff.
As far as the balance of the $350 billion financial industry goes, the balance
shouldn't be allocated until after President Obama is sworn in, and the $25
billion the auto manufacturers are requesting should come from there.
There are other ways the US auto makers could raise some money. They have cars,
built and ready to go and could sell those cars at deep discounts. Additionally,
they could offer up zero percent financing for extended periods of time to allow
people the option of owning a new car a time when we really need someone to put
their money back into the market.
In the end, the conditions placed upon the US auto industry have to be tight and
regulatory in nature if the want our help. They have to use some of the money
which they will no doubt receive from the American taxpayer and get ready to
make cars that get better fuel mileage and that don't break down.
And they can't expect their workforce to be the only ones who have to make a
sacrifice. Those who made the bad decisions at the top need to pay as well.
-Noah Greenberg
In response to the ol' GOP, Lew Warden writes:
Well, you’ve got this right – I tried to work with the stupid ideologues for 30
years – but so what? Who cares? They are history. Been dead from the neck up for
generations. It just takes time for the body to decay and disappear. Bush was
just a rank weed which took root in the rot. Use your forum for something
constructive, if you really have anything to offer. If you don’t, I can
recommend a number of excellent books which may stimulate your imagination, as
well as engage your readers.
In response to, "George W. Bush helped do to the GOP what he did to the rest of
the United States of America," Pat Thompson writes:
It is ironic that when George H. W Bush moved to Texas to be an "oilman" after
World War II, he practically founded the Republican Party in Texas -- there just
wasn't one. He worked very hard, doing the grassroots ground work door to door
for many years. He of course was a Connecticut Yankee, Rockefeller Republican
type. He believed in Planned Parenthood! And now his son has helped destroy that
party. Interesting, the changes that can occur in one lifetime.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg