The Bush Bail-Out -- We Have Been Here Before

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Peter Dreier
Posted September 23, 2008 | 05:51 PM (EST)
The Bush Bail-Out -- We Have Been Here Before

** By John Atlas and Peter Dreier **


We've been here before -- in the 1930s Depression, when the entire economy collapsed, and in the 1980s, when the savings-and-loan industry imploded. Both times, citizens demanded that the federal government do something to rescue the economy. In the Depression, President Roosevelt and Congress came up with bold plans to save capitalism and humanize it - the Works Progress Administration, the minimum wage, Social Security, and regulations to protect depositors and to keep banks from irresponsible practices. In the 1980s, President George H. W. Bush and Congress set up a bail-out agency, the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), that put the corporate foxes in charge of the financial chicken coop. We served on the RTC advisory committee and watched in horror as the RTC sold off the assets of failed banks to politically-connected developers at fire sale prices.

In response to the current economic crisis, President George W. Bush -- whose misguided policies triggered the Wall Street meltdown in the first place -- has shown no inclination to be bold or to look out for the needs of ordinary Americans worried about losing their jobs, their homes, their health care, and their retirement savings.

The Bush bail-out plan has triggered lots of outrage on the blogosphere and talk show circuit, and skepticism among some Congressional Democrats and editorial writers. But given the magnitude of the crisis, and the proposed corporate give-away, where are the protests? As we know from history, anger and frustration at the bottom takes time to bubble up.

But a number of liberal activist groups and think tanks -- including ACORN, US Action, MoveOn , the AFL-CIO, SEIU, the Steelworkers Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the Center for American Progress, the Campaign for America's Future, and others -- have already taken the lead, formulating a progressive alternative to Bush's plan and urging the Democrats in Congress to show some backbone in standing up to the White House. On Tuesday, for example, ACORN sponsored protests at Federal Reserve banks and financial institutions in 40 cities to protest the failure of the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve to include lifelines for American homeowners facing foreclosures in its big bank bailout bill. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/the-bush-bail-out----we-h_b_128731.html

[dchill]

1. Like father, like son.

[prairierose]

2. Go to the link and read the whole article..

it is worth it.