David Sirota: Congress Writes A Goodbye Cruel World Diary to America

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Congress Writes A Goodbye Cruel World Diary to America
By David Sirota

October 1st, 2008 - 7:36pm ET



Watch:http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104001/congress-writes-goodbye-cruel-world-diary-america


Following a noontime anti-bailout rally on the steps of the Denver Federal Reserve Bank, I was on CNN this afternoon discussing the bailout. I followed Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) regurgitating various lies about this bill and how it is supposedly a substantial improvement over the original Paulson plan, when in fact, the Treasury Department is secretly telling traders many of the "improvements" were written to be unenforceable. I made this point as succinctly as I could, and by the time I got home from the appearance, my email box was filled with various "amens" from viewers.

Nonetheless, I feel somewhat demoralized at this point, both because of this bill, and because the progressive movement's larger demoralization has worn off on me.

The facts of this bailout are very clear. Though there were scores of solid alternatives that took cues from our own history and that of industrialized countries like Sweden, our Congress is rushing full-bore towards handing 5 percent of our economy to speculators, no strings attached. Good progressives like Paul Krugman openly admit that "to this day have never been able to explain clearly why buying up bad mortgage assets at market prices will solve the credit crunch" - and yet leading voices like Krugman have used their platforms not to aggressively advocate for a real solution, but to instead play armchair political strategist, telling us that this is the best we can get from the current Congress.

Though we know that simply adding a $700 billion tab to the national debt will help raise the very interest rates we are supposedly trying to keep down with this bailout, the U.S. Senate will allow only an rigged, politburo-style "vote" on an amendment that would actually pay for this bailout with any kind of tax.

Meanwhile, as Free Press's Josh Silver points out, the national media debate is dominated - like it was in the march to the Iraq War - almost exclusively by voices who say that A) anyone, including the hundreds of award-winning economists, who opposes this bailout is a Luddite know-nothings who are too stupid to even know how to balance their own checkbooks and B) we must do exactly what the White House says or end up looking at the smoking gun of an economic mushroom cloud. And perhaps worst of all, many of the major institutions on the left have sat on the sidelines, as one of the century's most significant economic decisions is made - a decision that will have lasting ramifications for a generation. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104001/congress-writes-goodbye-cruel-world-diary-america

[chill_wind]

1. Sirota truth-telling deserves to be on the GP ALWAYS. K & R

eom

[BridgeTheGap]

2. I loved Russ Feingold's response/reason for voting no. I respect him even more now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4151300&mesg_id=4151300

[Hydra]

3. This depresses me so much

So many of us see through this BS, but we're being shouted down by the people who will benefit and people who THINK they will benefit.

This is a republican plan, and as the saying goes: "There are two types of Republicans- Billionaires and Suckers."

[CoffeeCat]

4. The scariest part of all of this...

...is that if this bailout is similar to the Iraq war--then we are not being told the truth about
why this is happening, and we are also in the dark about our country's future, as it relates to
economic issues.

We went into Iraq--based on lies. They hid the real reasons. It wasn't "to spread peace and freedom"
to the Iraqi people. Iraq was to gain a foothold in the Middle East, where the PNAC plan could be
staged and unfolded. Everything we saw--from Congress and from the media--was a staged performance.

So, what is happening behind the curtain, regarding this economic issue?

Sirota is right. We're being terrified into going along with this. Naysayers are being positioned
as ignorant fools. Also, Congress is ignoring the overwhelming response from constituents.

There is some truth to the notion that bad things will happen if the bailout isn't passed. Credit
could freeze up. However, I think what they're hiding is that this economy is going to implode, no
matter how much money is thrown at Wall Street. Main Street is crumbling. Our entire economy was
propped up with bloated credit card spending and people using their homes as ATMs. Now, credit cards
are maxed out, people are saving and home-equity loans are hard to get now.

We're going to see big, downward shifts in the demand curve. People just aren't buying like they were. The Main
Street bubble will burst very soon. It's all ready happening.

It's almost as if our government hurriedly rushed their rich friends and fat cats onto the lifeboats--while
the lower 99 percent of Americans remains on a sinking ship. When the Titanic first began to sink, the passengers
didn't realize it. They scoffed at the idea that anything was wrong and they were irritated that the ship
had stopped. However, the stewards knew the ship would sink and they quickly rushed to save as many as possible,
knowing that hundreds would die.

We're on the Titanic right now. We know something is wrong, but we don't know how bad it is. However,
Congress does. Pretty soon, our entire economy will start listing, and more signs (higher unemployment,
continued falling growth, business failures, etc) will indicate that this is a sinking ship.

It's going to be a complete panic--and utter devastation for so many Americans.

Sorry to ramble, I'm just a bit upset about what's happening to our country.

[Hydra]

6. Care to be more scared?

The small banks are lending just fine, and the Fed can lend if the larger banks refuse to.

This bailout is as necessary as the Iraq war was.

[riverdeep]

8. As if the timing were mere circumstance.

Gee, this crisis hit just before Congress was to adjourn, giving them little time for alternatives and their back against the wall. How odd. Oh well, it's just a coincidence.

Did anyone think that this was manufactured? You say, come now, this crisis is real, how could they have power to do something this grand? Here's how: :tinfoilhat: They've known for some time that the markets are going to tank, so they put band-aid after band-aid (lower the interest rate, again, bail out this bank, prop up that industry, look the other way while the books get cooked), and then, when the time is right, send Paulson to scare monger. His job was to ask for something outrageous. They know that people will reject it, but now, other plans that would normally be considered outrageous, seem reasonable by comparision. I can't tell you how many times I've come across financial experts saying that while the market may have been bad, what Paulson did was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whether it was teetering on the edge before or not, it definitely was by the time he was done. And our very own Dufus in Chief, letting slip the phrase 'This sucker is going down'? Nothing gets out of that White House they don't want released.

And voila, we just happen to have a cure for what ails ya, cooked up a couple months ago, but don't read to much into that. Yeah, the Bush administration is ending it's run like they started. They started by stealing the Presidency, now they're stealing what's left of our country. And even our own nominee either can't see, or is in on it, or is too cowardly to speak out. Too bad, because if he would've stood up for the American people yesterday, he would have had the election sealed. Fortunately for him, his opponent is even more tone deaf.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

9. Just like the war on Iraq, they were kicking the can down the

road on this. They expected it all to implode after 1/20/09. Only with the economy, the can hit a pothole.

[bbgrunt]

5. k n r. WAKE UP SHEEPLE

[Hydra]

7. BAHHH!

[mhatrw]

10. He couldn't be any more right. n/t