Blank check—that's not just a campaign sound bite; it's a pretty accurate description of the $700 billion mortgage bailout plan President Bush is asking Congress for. Read the draft proposal, and you'll see shockingly brief, sketchy legislation that would give unchecked power to Treasury Secretary Paulson:
Sec. 7. Funding: ...Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.
Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
The only "oversight" included in the bill is in Section 4, which requires the Treasury Secretary to report to Congress within three months of his first action under the authority granted by this bill and every six months thereafter. "Report"—not answer to, not request permission from, not follow the directives of, simply "report."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it unsupervised, unregulated lending that got us into this crisis in the first place?
Senator Obama is right on when he refers to the proposal as a "blank check." He won't even grace it with the name "plan": "[T]hus far, the administration has only offered a concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan" [Mike Allen, "Obama Calls Bailout a 'Blank Check,'" Politico.com, 2008.09.21].
Now I read somewhere that the Dems would probably not stand in the way of the $700B bailout but would try to tack on all sorts of extras. Obama is pushing for inclusion of another dose of economic stimulus for working families. But more importantly, he's asking for some accountability. Speaker Pelosi and Representative Barney Frank (bless his pugnacious heart) are on board with that. Rep. Frank wants to see the companies we bail out capping their executives' pay. (That's relatively generous: I still want those CEOs over here mowing my lawn and filling potholes.)
The bailout bill as drafted by the Bush Administration is a naked power grab, a fitting capstone to the Bush Administration's legacy of expanding executive power. Congress has an obligation to itself, to checks and balances, and to us taxpayers to rewrite this bill to create a safe, accountable response to the mortgage crisis.
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ReplyDeleteDr. Ten Thumbs here. I'll try again ...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Cory. Make those CEOs do public service. And tax their income, direct and indirect, onshore and off, in this galaxy and elsewhere, at 100 percent over five million dollars annually.
And, as Hillary said, "No more golden parachutes."
the golden parachutes should be replaced with an open window and a lead anchor. oh wait lead is bad for the environment. make it a tungsten anchor.
ReplyDeleteThere are (2)of the Most Important Reasons that this 'Bailout' has happened.
ReplyDelete(1)During the past 2 years, Obama took $1.6 Billion dollars from Fannie & Freddie. Raines, Obama's Financial Campaign Manager, was the Top Dog then, & Axelrod, Obama's Advertising Campaign Manager was there too.
When repeated attempts by the Republicans were made to Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, and this other guy in the Video, they said, "There's NOTHING WRONG with Fannie & Freddie" and were denied any kind of 'Oversight or Regulation' to begin 'Investigations' into the missing money. Here is the link to that Video:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/29/video-democrats-insist-nothing-wrong-at-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-in-2004
(2) Reason why the Grand Theft Democrats want a 'Bailout' is because, The Wall Street mogals that gave millions in Contributions to the Obama Campaign, are 99.9% Liberal-Democrats. Goldman Sachs gave the most, and then, ran to Government to get 'bailout' funding. There were OTHER Wall Street mogals that followed this lead, and ALL OF THEM, were huge contributers to the Obama Campaign. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0.2933.345371.00.html
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008
The REAL reason that the House of Representatives said, 'NO BAILOUT' yesterday, for one, is because the Grand Theft Democrats want to be their OWN Oversight-Regulators, the very SAME people on the Video that said, "nothing wrong" with Fannie & Freddie missing any money.
The House Republicans want a non-Partisan group to be the Oversight-Regulation Committee. There WILL be Indictments if this happens, of the people on the Video.
Obama, when he recieved the $1.6 Billion dollars gave much to ACORN, that is under-indictment, investigation for 'Voter Fraud'. Ken Blackwell, a Black man, said today that ACORN uses Saul Alinsky "Bare-Knuckles Tactics" to Force people ro Register Democrat On-Sight whenever they are out canvasing.
Pelosi already has a Bill that starts tomorrow, that she and the Grand Theft Democrats said, would 'solve everything' in regards to the ARM Mortgages. HR-3221 with it's erie and strange Section 503
You can read that bill at:
http://www.govtrack.us
Bill HR-3221
There's already another Bill in ACTION already that helps only Low-Incomes also, HR-1851.
And, Dodd is trying to put this Bill into the 'Bailout' bill, S-2684
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2684
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill-h110-1851
Here is a link to a meeting between Frank & NAACP:
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/2084361.html
And, there is another bill, HR-2926,that 'meets the quota of any shortages under the Minimum of 30%
You can find HR-2926 on the http://www.govtrack.us Website as well.
Hope this helps to explain WHO took the money. And caused this 'Bailout' to become necessary.
Unfortunately, if these low-incomes do this even with more help from the 'Bailout' and all these other bills, and there's even MORE than these,HR-1852, HR-3915, HR-4351, HR-3996, HR-2206 & HR-1562, then they will probably do as they doing now, "Squatting" in the houses.
Here's an article to demonstrate what they are doing to Cities, towns, rural communities.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis_online
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/us/housing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.ibelieve.com/fb.aspx?m=3843419
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/pork/indes
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/Lobbying/
http://obamawtf.blogspot.com/2008/05/obamas-list-of-earmarks-us-senate-years.html
http://www.arthurhu.com/INDEX/immig.htm
http://feeds.foxbusiness.com/~r/blogs/briansullivan/~
http://rendesvouswithdestiny.blogspot.com
http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm
http://www.fantasycongress.com/Legislation/S.2684
http://www.ruralpa.migration_for_housing.pdg
http://www.ffiec.gov/Geocode/default.aspx
http://www.chapa.org/FMRCommentstoHUD.pdf
http://nkca.usla.edu/Master.cfm?Content=Map&ZoomTo-tract
economically_clueless, If you check my links, and you are voting Democrat, you might want to retract that lead anchor!
ReplyDeleteI have hundreds of Valid links, to prove WHO took the money.
Stan, the CEO's of Wall Street are all Obama supporters and Campaign Contributors...If you need links as proof, I have 100's
ReplyDelete