A meeting of mostly retired economists and finance executives at the New America Foundation. Reported by the American News Project.

***

There goes that plan.

AP/Yahoo News reports:

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.

Stocks started plummeting on Wall Street even before 228-205 to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.

Peter Welch opposed the bailout plan and said the following in a recent press release.

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Peter Welch issued the following statement in opposition to the Wall Street bailout.  Welch voted no on H.R. 3997, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:

“The economic crisis we face is real.  However, I voted against the bailout because it isn’t paid for and because I don’t believe it will work.

More below the fold.

First, the Paulsen plan does not offer a path to a strong economic future.  Quite simply, it is the biggest taxpayer bailout in American history.  It proposes to solve a problem caused by reckless borrowing and reckless lending by borrowing $700 billion more.

“Second, it is appalling that the plan is not funded.  It is yet another expense put on the taxpayers’ credit card.  Just as President Bush told us his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would pay for themselves, and Secretary Rumsfeld told us the Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the Iraq war, now Secretary Paulsen is telling us he can sell toxic debt securities that Wall Street can’t.

“Since the administration first proposed its Wall Street bailout, I have heard from thousands of Vermonters concerned about their hard earned tax dollars rewarding Wall Street’s reckless behavior.  Vermonters are furious about the financial crisis and they have every right to be.  They bitterly resent being asked to pay $10,000 each for a $700 billion Wall Street rescue.”

“Chairman Frank, Chairman Dodd, and House and Senate leadership did a good job making a bad proposal better, but it is still a bad plan.  I cannot in good conscience vote for a fundamentally flawed plan that puts so much financial risk on the backs of the already stretched middle class.

“There are responsible ways to accomplish stabilizing our markets without leaving the middle class holding the bag.  Many of us proposed to pay for an economic stability plan by establishing a financial stabilization escrow account paid for by a small transaction fee on security trades.  This would protect the taxpayer and give any plan the financial muscle required for success.

“Instead, total responsibility for this crisis is transferred to the middle class.  The risk of this proposal is simply too great.  The burden on Vermonters is simply too heavy.  Vermonters should not get caught in the undertow of greed on Wall Street.

“Resolving our economic problems will take more than a quick-fix, taxpayer funded bailout. It will take a return to the core truth Vermonters know: our economic policies must focus on building and preserving our middle class.  We must reward work and entrepreneurship, not speculation, market manipulation and corporate self dealing.”

There you have it.

( – promoted by JDRyan)

From CNN:

The fate of a controversial $700 billion financial bailout plan was in doubt Monday as a House vote turned against it.

The next steps were not immediately clear but supporters were scrambling to put it up for another vote.

What was supposed to be a 15-minute vote stretched past the half-hour mark as leadership scrambled for support. Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short of the necessary support, before rebounding slightly. The key stock reading was down more than 500 points.

The measure needs 218 votes for passage. Democrats voted 141 to 94 in favor of the plan, while Republicans voted 65 to 133 against. That left the measure with 206 votes for and 227 against.

US Representative Peter Welch is among those who have voted against the bill.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/2…

Geez. Get a load of the Times Argus editorial today. Wow. It coulda come off this site…

In fact, it appears that McCain now will do or say anything to get elected. Even conservative columnists such as George Will and David Brooks have expressed dismay at the lack of integrity displayed by McCain during the campaign, his willingness to lie and alter his persona as the need arises.

The lies from and about Sarah Palin, his running mate, are now well known, such as her statement that she opposed the so-called Bridge to Nowhere. But in the McCain camp lying is now an acceptable campaign tool…

…Anything can happen. Democrats should not be optimistic. Lies about Obama have permeated the Internet, and McCain’s smear machine is working overtime. But there was that poll result. That, too, is a fact.

Now if we could just get them to stop making excuses for Jim Douglas election cycle after election cycle…

If it's good enough for Baghdad Avenue, Iraq, will Congress consider it for Main Street, U.S.A., too?

ECONOMIC SURGE

Listening to Secretary Paulson and his merry band of socialist millionaire safety-netters, I keep thinking back to the Bush Administration's $Multi-$Billion Ca$h drop on Iraq.

Sitting on the precedent of using a surge of trickle up cash to revitalize a bombed out economy, Congress must consider recklessly dumping cash on Main Street rather than irresponsibly giving it to Wall Street.

How, why and what for after the flip . . .

With an economy freezing, recessing, depressing, deflating, nose-diving & tanking due to conservative Republican economic incompetence, Mister Bush and his administration are seeking approximately $700 Billion to throw at Wall Street bankers to “fix” the economy.

The first, of many, questions Congress must consider is whether an extremely small set of Wall Street Bankers are the most effective recipients of the equivalent of $5,400 per individual or joint U.S. taxpayer? (plus interest!).
 
Let's just say, if it is good Baghdad Avenue, maybe Congress should be willing to do it for Main Street too?

Mister Bush sent cargo jets of cash to jump start the distressed Iraqi economy.  Remember?

We then learned that another dozen or so $Billion were spread like Onan's seed, dispersed throughout Iraq without oversight, accountability or purpose. One more time, folks; THERE WERE F'ING JETS, MILITARY CARGO PLANES, FULLY LOADED WITH PALLETS OF CASH DROPPED ON IRAQ.

We can hardly say, at this point, that dumping cash on Main Street is a novel idea.

ECONOMIC SURGE

After seven years of Republican middle class to millionaire class wealth transfer, I propose a “Strike-All” bill. The amendment, posted below, to Mister Bush's proposed $700 billion giveaway. The alternative proposal sends the money instead to people who, at long last, deserve to receive some of what they've already paid.  It at least sends to working people the borrowed money Congress and Mister Bush intend to borrow from them and then squander. It's only fair, yes?

THE AMOUNT

Recall the U.S., in its exuberance to embrace the U.S. war on Iraq, sent pallets of cash to jump-start the Iraqi economy (even though it was clear that our war on Iraq was a disastrous mistake).

So what, it was only money, right?

So why $700Billion to Main Street, U.S.A.?  Why the same amount as the proposed Wall Street bailout?

Well, here's the great (sick?) part and really, who can argue with this (I mean seriously, who CAN argue with the logic of this?).

Consider the relevant demographic facts between Iraq and the U.S. in light of the alleged crises. This is all, purportedly, caused by mortgage defaults and the risk of Americans loosing their houses. It's about households:

IRAQ-U.S. COMPARISONS:  

Households: U.S. Approximately 105 Million — Iraq Approximately 4 Million.

AMOUNT of MONEY DROPPED PER HOUSEHOLD on IRAQ:** $27,000,000,000.00, ** which works out to approximately $6,750.00 per Iraqi household.   

By comparison, $6,750.00 dropped on every U.S. household ($6,750.00 x 105 million households) will cost $708.75 billion, which we'll just call $709 Billion.

$709 Billion? Hmmmm? I've heard a number just like that recently, yes?

I think you see where I'm going with this.

So, if Congress decides to drop the same amount of money, per household, on Main Street, U.S.A. that Mister Bush did on Main Street, Iraq, it would cost the exact same $700 billion they are now talking about dropping on Wall Street, New York.

I wish I were making this up.

Soooooooooo . . . . in the meantime . . . . . What's good enough for Iraq, as they say, is good enough for Main Street. After all, Mister Bush did not spend all that $27Billion in one Baghdad market, he spread it all over a country that he had just bombed into pieces. So why spend $700 billion on just one street, Wall Street, in the U.S. when he has economically bombed our entire country into a recession with conservative economic policies?

Seems the Fed & the Treasury already have the money presses rolling. Now all they need are the cargo planes.

—————————————

Addendum:

The original GOP proposal was a complete giveaway with no oversight, no accountablity, it changed banking/accounting regulations to make the system less stable and less transparent and basically added to the problem while ripping off the taxpayers. Our feckless Democratic leaders in Congress Paulson's original proposal, which was not hard to do, went to the drafting board and (sigh) came back with multiple drafts and “compromises” that do basically the same harm in a slightly different form.

No matter how much better a terrible bill Congress ultimately passes, if Congress must give $700 billion away for no meaningfully fair, just and effective purpose, then here is an equally and possibly more reasonable alternative for them to consider. It is far fairer and more likely to help the economy — not that it matters to the people in D.C. who are doing this to us — but for what it's worth. 

The Main Street $700 billion pallets of money Strike-All Amendment

STRIKE-ALL Amendment proposed by the “congressional.give.a.crap.coalition” to be inserted in lieu of S___ and H.R.____ relating to The Treasury Authority to Swallow Mortgage Backed Securities Act. 

 

It is hereby proposed that all language contained in of S.___ and all H.R.___, after the bill introduction, be stricken in its entirety.  In place of the language now under consideration, the following langue shall be inserted —

 

Sec. 1. TITLE:

 

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TRICKLE-UP AUTHORITY AND FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TO BOMB MAIN STREET AMERICA WITH CASH AND TO SECURE MIDDLE AMERICA'S DEFAULTING MORTGAGES ON WHICH WALL STREET DECEPTIVELY BET ITS OWN HOUSE (of cards)

 

Sec. 2.  FINDINGS:

 

WHEREAS: The economy is not “fundamentally sound” as has been repeatedly represented by Mister Bush and Mister McCain. We are in a recession. Hello! America can thank the Republican party and its regressive taxes, its billionaire give-a-ways, its deficits and its inability to run government, or an economy, or a war, or domestic policy, or foreign policy, or to plan for the future, or to understand history or to govern without resorting to extreme corruption and criminality for our current economic crises; and

 

WHEREAS: Whereas Mister Bush and his deficit-inflating, class-warrioring, fiscal demolition-derby Republican economic policy genius advisors did deliver C-5 cargo jets stuffed with pallets of money into Iraqi warzones; and

 

WHEREAS:  The pallets of money Mister Bush, the Federal Reserve and the Air Force delivered to the streets of Iraq just happened to go into neighborhoods experiencing a distressed and bombed out housing market; and  

 

WHEREAS: Republican-Americans in Congress voted in lock-step with Mister Bush for seven years to loot the treasury, rape the middle class, engage in vicious class warfare and sell our children's future to a lifetime of economic decline; and

 

WHEREAS: It is the intent of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the Bush administration and the criminals who have supported seven years of robbing working Americans blind to pull Just.One.Last.BIG-Time.Heist.Before.January.20^th before they sneak out of D.C; and

 

WHEREAS: Tens of thousands of criminally rich Wall Street bankers have, in just 7 short years, paid themselves far in excess of $700 Billion in the form of

 

extreme bonuses and exorbinate and frequently unearned executive pay, and

extreme compensation for fraudulent activity against stockholders; and

extreme compensation for fraudulent conduct against consumers; and

extreme compensation for fraudulent conduct against the IRS; and

extreme compensation for violating fiduciary duties to their own banking institutions; and

 

these same bankers retain billions of dollars of wealth and shall remain wealthy beyond Main Street's imagination regardless of whether they receive a $Trillion advance to cover their bad bets to be paid from our children's future toil and regressive payroll taxes; and

 

WHEREAS: Trickle Down economic theory has a proven track record of failure.  It is a guaranteed approach for transferring wealth generated by the hard work, sacrifice and toil of working Americans straight to the gated communities of monopolized wealth.  Republican “Trickle Down” economics is class warfare intended to transfer resources from working Americans to an insulated handful of billionaires, multi-millionaires and to government favored & subsidized corporations, all of whom are legally shielded from the burden of supporting the United State's fiscal and infrastructure commitments; and

 

WHEREAS: Every DNA fiber of the Wall Street bailout is another example of Republican and Bush Administration regressive fiscal class violence and Democratic capitulation —

 

BE IT NOW THEREFORE ENACTED by Congress to address the current economic crises caused by Wall Street gambling, Republican deregulation and corruption and unmasked predatory behavior against the dignity of working Americans that:

 

Section 3. Short Title.

This Act may be cited as “We Did it to Iraq So Let's Do It to Main Street Money Bomb Act of 2008.”

 

Sec. 4. Appropriations:

(a) Authority to $pend$.–The Secretary is authorized to summon the Air Force and load cargo jets to the gills with pallets of money.  The Secretary shall make sound and reasonable payments up to $6,750.00 to middle America with NO terms and conditions determined by the Secretary.

 

(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take the following actions, as the Secretary deems necessary, to carry out the expeditious delivery of unaccounted for cash, up to $700 billion, to Main St., U.S.A.:

 

(1) ordering pallets;

(2) commandeering jets;

(3) stacking the pallets full of money;

(4) Attaching parachutes to pallets of money;

(5) Commandeering pizza delivery cars/trucks and their drivers to quickly and accurately make sure Middle America receives the case as soon as they ask for it;

(6) paying money to “Any American” including taxpayers, homeowners, working Americans and anyone generating economic activity in the United States as designated by this Act; and

(7) issuing regulations and guidance as necessary or appropriate to carry out the delivery of cash to Main Street, U.S.A. as authorized under the authority of this Act.

 

Sec. 4. Designated Recipients of Pallets of Cash.

 

In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall pay money, up to $6750.00 to Any American.  For purposes of this Act, “Any American” shall   person with an adjusted gross income of $75,000.00 or less who lives in a household anywhere in the United States, other than on Wall Street, who is threatened by conservative economic policies and who —

 

(1) Works, has worked, will work, has a home, wants a home or has lost a home to the vagaries of the Republican economy; and

(2) Faces or fears the possibility of foreclosure; and

(3) For purposes of this Act “any American” shall also include a family with an adjusted gross income of $125,000.00 per annum or less or a married/civil-unioned couple (even if their state refuses to recognize their marriage) and who together have an adjusted gross income of $100,000.00 or less; and

(4) For purposes of this Act, “any American” also means any sick, disabled, veteran or family facing foreclosure due to Republican economic, social, tax, war or health care policy, and who has already received the maximum benefit, may petition for another benefit.

 

Sec. 5. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are reviewable by a coupla' hard, pipe-hittin' **economists** who'll go to work on the trickle-down Republicans with a pair of pliers and a blow torch and get medieval on his ass” if the Secretary doesn't show Main Street the money the way the Bush administration has shown the money to American's monopolized wealth class.

 

Sec. 6. Definitions.

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

 

(1) Secretary.–The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Treasury.

(2) United States.–The term “United States” means the everywhere in the U.S. except Wall Street.

———–
** $27 Billion – This figure is a rounded number taken from a 2008 adjusted value of the money airlifted into the war zone and the dozen or so $Billions that just disappeared after being trucked into the desert and poured into all sorts of alleged projects and random money dumps throughout Iraq.

[NOTE: This post was revised from the earlier version]

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