Big bankers have no right to complain (The Day)

[struggle4progress]

Published 01/17/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 01/17/2010 04:34 AM

It is utter audacity for the nation's major financial institutions to cry foul about President Obama's proposal to impose a modest tax - $1.5 million for every $1 billion in assets - to try to recover some of the vast taxpayer investment that saved the banking system and economy.

Bank executives, who began announcing their huge bonuses last week, argue that their institutions have started repaying the bailout money. They warn the tax will stifle their ability to provide loans and hurt the economic recovery. Excuse us while we distribute the cashmere, monogrammed crying towels.

While it's true the banks are repaying some bailout money, the Treasury anticipates losses from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program could reach $117 billion. It would take the special tax program 12 years to recover that much money. The president said he wants it in place at least long enough to get the money back.

And these fat-cat bankers should not forget that they helped inflate the housing bubble, enabling them to make billions of dollars by bundling and trading the bad mortgages that resulted from the bogus equity the bubble created. When the pyramid scheme collapsed, the world economy went with it ...

http://www.theday.com/article/20100117/OP01/301179855

[sandnsea]

1. And Scott Brown sides with the bankers

and some progressives are buying into his nonsense that the banks will just pass the tax along, the same noise right wingers use against every business tax every proposed. I can't believe anybody thinks it's a good idea if this clown wins.



Scott Brown, the Republican candidate for the Massachusetts Senate special election, has officially come out against President Obama’s plan to hold banks accountable for the damage they did to the American taxpayer, and to get our money back. As the President said, these “firms took reckless risks in pursuit of short-term profits and soaring bonuses, triggering a financial crisis that nearly pulled the economy into a second Great Depression”. While these financial firms were at the brink of collapse, because of manipulative lending games they played that left taxpayers penniless, who did they expect to bail them out except those same taxpayers.

And now along comes Scott Brown insisting that we all feel sorry for the bankers, trotting out the oldest tax scare in the Republican playbook, the “pass it on to the consumer” panic. Brown trolls the typical Republican line that you can never tax a business or you’ll pay for it in the long run. Apparently Scott Brown can’t figure out that if these bankers can hand out billions of dollars of bonuses, they can pay a fee to make sure the taxpayers are fully reimbursed. Maybe it’s fine with Brown if the banks play fast and loose while still owing the taxpayer, but it isn’t fine with President Obama who promises to “recover every single dime the American people are owed.” It’s what used to be known as “personal responsibility”.

http://obama-mamas.com/blog/?p=1015

[Vidar]

2. K&R.

[proud patriot]

3. Big Bankers need to donate to Haiti NOW !

:mad: