After heated debate and an onslaught of constituent calls to Congressmen, talks pick up again on the bailout.

On Friday, President Bush told Congress to "rise to the occassion" and pass the bailout bill to rescue the nation's financial system. In a statement, the president acknowledged "disagreements over aspects of the rescue plan," but noted, "there is no disagreement that something substantial must be done. The legislative process is sometimes not very pretty. But we are going to get a package passed."

The redoubled effort to pass some form of the bailout plan comes after talks in Washington last night became, according to the McCain campaign, "a contentious shouting match." The breakdown came after a day when it appeared the plan would move forward quickly in Congresss.

Yesterday, CNN reported that "both parties and the House and Senate agreed Thursday to a set of principles on revisions to the rescue plan."

According to the CNN report, Sen. Christopher Dodd said the proposal would cut down on pay to corporate executives working at companies helped by the bailout and would also help homeowners, though details were lacking.

"We've reached a fundamental agreement on a set of principles, one, for taxpayers, which is tremendously important," Dodd said according to CNN. "We're very confident we can act expeditiously."

Rep. Barney Frank, head of the House Financial Services Committee, also praised the plan, saying it should now make Americans "legitimately feel better about the overall approach."

Despite the platitudes, that's highly unlikely. All Americans should be shocked at what this plan will mean. After a fairly thorough analysis, attorney Jeff Snyder, author of the book Nation of Cowards -- Essays on the Ethics of Gun Control, puts it this way:

With hundreds of billions at its disposal, the Fed has the ability to preserve and create new titans of finance. The bailout process will not be unlike Russia’s creation of overnight billionaires through the public sale of rights to its national resources for ludicrously low sums of money, all accomplished at the expense of the taxpayer. I believe we here in the US call this "crony capitalism" when practiced in Russia. The taxpayers will bear the losses, receive nothing for it, while new profit opportunities are created for the ruling class. Nothing prevents this. Congress will receive reports.

The Fed and the Treasury Department and the Bush administration badly want the American people to believe that this bailout will save the nation and the world from another Great Depression. The truth is that the current crisis is of the government's own making through the dubious miracle of fiat money and Federal Reserve monetary expansion — and more government, in the form of this bailout, will not solve the problem.

What it will do is hurt the average citizen. There will be more taxes, more inflation, and more regulation.

"For the titans of industry," says Snyder, "what's done is not done. For you, regulation, for them, money. You will remediate them, now, for the damage they have inflicted on themselves, and pay for it the rest of your lives."

Take action on this, and contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to oppose this bailout.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments