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FacebookLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Give bailout cash to working people
Mon, Oct 13, 2008 (2:05 a.m.)
So AIG gets an $85 billion check from U.S. taxpayers and throws, posthaste, a retreat party at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in the Los Angeles area for some of its top insurance sales agents. I read that it was in excess of $140,000 — spa, golf, dinners.
Oh, but these people were not from the division of the company that caused the failure. Bully for them! This is obviously what will happen, over time, to the rest of the $700 billion being sent to these companies. Now I guess they will need more. Christmas is coming, you know, and one must provide.
It is time to help the everyday working American and those who have been laid off. There will be many from good families who are in dire need of help. Save them first, not the overpaid executives who have enough in reserve to save a small country.
So here we are, watching our tax dollars thrown adrift. It’s not the Queen Mary sinking, but the little rowboats all around her, in her wake. Save all the little ones first; the old “tanker” will stay afloat. Unless the ”celebration” gets out of hand and she starts to list.
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I want mine. Send me a check. That's why I am voting for Obama, he will make it right for us and tax those corporations and send us a check.
Obama's tax policies will put money in the pockets of those in the mainstream of earnings. Do the homework. The facts are out there.
But why aren't we being given some of those billions to keep ourselves going? Why does one man have so much power over where the money's going? Take the accounts of the fat cats, and their future earnings!
Isn't that just typical - all this over the top partying and people are losing their homes, their jobs and starving........this is a classic example of the haves and have-nots.....and it will get worse and worse before it ever gets better. This country is a very sorry state and shame on all those who get OUR money and then squander it on parties and gala affairs for themselves. But what else did we really expect they'd do with the money - certainly not help the little guy.
Re: "Take the accounts of the fat cats, and their future earnings!"
And "their future earnings", if history is any precedent (and it is), will be magnitudes above what their current pay is. CEO is about the only position wherein one is rewarded for doing poorly. You take the helm of a company, you run it into the ground, you get hired at the helm of another company at (minimum) two to three times what the first company paid you, and you proceed to run THAT company into the ground.
And on it goes.
Meanwhile, we get trickled on.
Obama has a cheeseburger plan.
He is offering $1.95 more a day in middle class tax cuts than McCain's plan.
The $1.95 is like when Caesar would throw bread to the mobs of citizens to keep them happy.
I guess Obama is throwing happy meals at the mobs of citizens.
At the same time, Obama will increase taxes on job creation capital investments.
He will move money from a productivity pool to a consumption pool.
McCain will reduce taxes on job creation capital investments.
If you want more McDonald jobs then vote for Obama.
If you want more Boeing jobs then vote for McCain.
Must read on the financial mess:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12221294...
Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs: Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest in America's highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world.
Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies: The Obama-Biden plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, high-paying jobs. Obama and Biden will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth.
Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs: The Obama-Biden plan will create new federal policies, and expand existing ones, that have been proven to create new American jobs. Obama and Biden will create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025, which has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs on its own. Obama and Biden will also extend the Production Tax Credit, a credit used successfully by American farmers and investors to increase renewable energy production and create new local jobs.
Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation's most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.
Invest in the Sciences: Barack Obama and Joe Biden support doubling federal funding for basic research and changing the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology. This will foster home-grown innovation, help ensure the competitiveness of US technology-based businesses, and ensure that 21st century jobs can and will grow in America.
Jumpstart the Economy
Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families:Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama-Biden long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief.
Provide $50 billion to Jumpstart the Economy and Prevent 1 Million Americans from Losing Their Jobs: This relief would include a $25 billion State Growth Fund to prevent state and local cuts in health, education, housing, and heating assistance or counterproductive increases in property taxes, tolls or fees. The Obama-Biden relief plan will also include $25 billion in a Jobs and Growth Fund to prevent cutbacks in road and bridge maintenance and fund school repair - all to save more than 1 million jobs in danger of being cut.
Supply side economics (trickle down) has been proven a massive failure. Bush is responsible for passing the highest tax increase in history to your children in the form of deficits.
I see Nance is still passing an opinion piece as a source of information. Those wanting a reliable source for our financial mess watch the 60 Minutes story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y9A0C45K...
The ex-CEO's of that time served as Obama campaign advisors. Those crooked CEO's were cooking the books so that they would get paid millions in bonuses.
The ex-CEO's of that time promised to Democratic leaders to open the flood gates to sub-prime so that even more minorities would get homes. They were trying to evade punishment. They bride their way out the punishment so now we are paying the price.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12221294......
Anybody that is says that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played no role in this sub-prime mess is a FULL BLOWN LAIR!!!!!!!!!
Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.
And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.
I've seen no arguments that Fannie and Freddie played no role. The way you portray that 'role' is wrong though. Republicans have been trying to frame the crisis around Fannie and Freddie. Problem is the facts don't support the argument. Cherry picking and distorting facts while eliminating the 'whole picture' is the method of choice for neocons.
Look at the whole picture of the financial crisis, as done in the 60 Minutes story, not just a slice of the picture called subprime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y9A0C45K...
I never said that it was all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Without Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having extremely loose standards for buying poor quality sub-prime, there would have a much smaller market for these poor quality sub-primes.
All the lenders that were signing up poor quality sub-prime were turning around and selling the terrible mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a profit.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae help created a big market for poor quality sub-prime products because they were buying up the product left and right.
Yes, it is correct that greedy lenders were a part of the problem. Without the help of Freddie and Fannie, they would have had a much tougher time re-selling their horrible sub-primes.
You keep noting that the sub-prime bubble started in 2004 but you refuse to also note that Fannie and Freddie at that time decided to reduce their standards of buying sub-prime and greatly increase their purchases of poor quality sub-primes starting in 2004.
They deserved the retreat, they worked very hard to get your politician to turn their back on you. They deserve a reward for conning the American people.
Just think of the stress those AIG execs were under. You'd need a retreat too if you were about to lose your lobster dinners, golf club membership and American Express Gold Card and be forced to work for a living.
Wouldn't you know it? It's jfnance32 defending the CEO's and saying that Obama "will throw happy meals at the mobs of citizens." He says that Obama "will increase taxes on job increasing capital investments" and "move money from a productivity pool to a consumption pool." As a prognosticator, he gets an "F". We know that for at least the last three decades, it has been the CEO's and members of the board who have moved money to off shore tax-free accounts and to productivity pools in foreign countries. These traitors have done everything they could think of to avoid paying their fair share of the costs of supporting our forays in Iraq and elsewhere, and supporting our government. They will do whatever they can to avoid paying Americans a fair wage and to avoid paying for the ruin that they have done to our environment. They have done far, far more damage to our country than the worst serial killers. Gutting them or cooking them over a low flame may be too extreme, but drawing and quartering sounds about right.
The filth that prevails within the government is disgusting. Those billions that have been 'borrowed' from the poor and middle class, are being delivered to the rich in a sterling silver cup. I hope all you totally blind Republicans get yours, in the form of tax increases by Obama to level the playing field of government handouts.
Obama as prez and we can all have more bling.