DISQUS

Dave of the Jungle · 1 year ago

News Flash: It's a corporate giveaway.

Indigo · 1 year ago

Discretion is essential when you're looting the treasury.

jeffg166 · 1 year ago

Socialism for the rich is all the rage.

Saw the gist of this on some blog:

George Bush entered the White House as a social conservative. He's leaving a conservative socialist.

The conservative part is his socialism is only for the rich. They need it more than anyone else.

naschkatzehussein · 1 year ago

Someone put a comment up elsewhere that there are two kinds of people who are Republicans, millionaires and suckers. 43% of the country (the suckers) voted for the people who perpetrated this sub rosa scheme (the millionaires), and if it is so complicated that even tax lawyers don't understand (and some didn't even know about the rule), then what hope is left?

vkobaya · 1 year ago

43% of the country (the suckers)

The fools who let wedge issues like race, abortion, and homosexuality fool them into hating the liberals and think the liberals are evil. When it comes down to the religious stuff is another bit of horseshit as I seriously doubt that Bush really believes in God. It's all for suckers.

naschkatzehussein · 1 year ago

Yeah, they're willing to cut their noses off to spite their faces on real bread-and-butter issues which face them to base their votes solely on issues which probably don't even come near them personally. They have been twisted into scapegoating other groups by the ones who want to deceive them. Literally, "Oh look, over there!"

red_dwarf · 1 year ago

The little guy gets $4,000 added in penalties if they underpay their taxes by $2,000. The rich get hundreds of billions for free.

Its called facism, and its alive and well in the US.

lynchie · 1 year ago

The looting of the treasury will continue until the day Obama is sworn in unless our pussies in Congress stop it. Who granted Paulson the authority to change the tax code? If this existed who passed the legislation? I have felt for a long time that the bills passed in Congress are designed to be unreadable. How about having a spending bill on a single subject, no add ons, no pork. A bill that the common man can read and understand. If a Congress critter wants some spending in his constituency be man/woman enough to propose the spending, justify it, defend it and if it is worthwhile the rest of Congress will vote on it. This will help eliminate the lobbyist influence and lay out in the sunshine for all to see exactly what these politicians stand for. I think then pork will be cut in half and these types of back room deals for the wealthy might not be so easy to pull off.

stymie · 1 year ago

I could not get a loan to sytart my business so I used high interest credit. Now I'm having a problem keeping my head above water; I understand its my bad. But if the government would loan me the money to pay off these loans at a reasoonable rate it would go direcrly to the banks in trouble and I would not go belly up, (more than breathing room). But no, send it to the banks and fuck the littleguy.

Steve_in_CNJ · 1 year ago

another right-wing solution in search of a problem. bernanke is one of 3 or 4 bush appointees likely to keep their jobs (along with mullen, mueller and maybe gates). does he deserve it? btw, it's "discreet", not "discrete", which means separate or distinct.

Milli · 1 year ago

Someone call Joe the Plumber and alert him to this travesty.

foxy · 1 year ago

Churches and now Banks....trying to see the connection here...

cereal · 1 year ago

this is as clear evidence as anyone needs that this whole "bailout" is simply another massive crony-rewarding boondoggle.

no sane economist would back the idea that MORE CONSOLIDATION of banks is a good idea right now. set aside the part of this that is a simple giveaway from the Bush hacks to their corporate buddies at a time when, to say the least, they have not deserved any such goodies. set aside the fact that the money WE are pumping into banks is supposed to be used to lube up the credit market so American businesses can recover and carry on - not so the same banks that screwed the pooch can make more money buying other banks, which helps nobody.

But bank consolidation, which this change positively encourages (banks would be LOSING money if they failed to take advantage os this shit and buy up whoever they can) is insane. It further increases the risk of failures, making them more likely, and worse. it condenses and collects all that toxic paper and un-valuable losses into fewer and fewer places, setting them up for even bigger failures now and later when other shit pops up.

This is exactly like if the Chinese, on discovering the poisoned baby milk powder, announced a cash reward for any doctor, hospital, school or day care center based on how much of the stuff they could feed to kids, and how many other foods they could keep kids from eating.

or imagine that we discovered large but as yet undetermined toxic chemicals in the water supplies of several large cities..and the government reaction was to give a huge tax break or interest-free loan to anyone who moved there. while at the same time, taking money away from the Centers for Disease Control and giving it to th ecompanies who leaked the shit in the first place.

Seriously - there can't be anyone left with a brain who doesn't get that these people are simply criminals who have intentionally used every single crisis, most of them their OWn fault, to make things worse for America and enrich their handful of asshole buddies.

it's literally insane.

Older_Wiser · 1 year ago

And Dems voted for it, too. It's enough to make a real democrat cry and beat her head against the wall.

Older_Wiser · 1 year ago

I wasted $145 of my piddling $979 SS check this month to have the computer in my 97 Saturn "reset" to pass inspection, since it didn't when it was due 3 months ago (yes, I'm a scofflaw, driving around with an expired sticker). My car still will not pass, and in fact has the same failure codes it had before I had the computer "fixed". I can't afford a new car on my check and they wouldn't loan me the money anyway. I could go to a sleazy used car lot and pay 30-50% interest, but would be much worse off.

I live in an exurb and there is no public transportation and unless I can depend on the kindness of others, I'll not even have a way to buy groceries. This is all too depressing and I'm ready to pack it in, and I know I'm not alone. Welcome to old age.

At this point, all I can say is, Goddamn America, where I worked for 50 years and will die in poverty.

burro · 1 year ago

Criminals. That's taxpayer money they're stealing. Folks worked hard to provide the cash these jerks are stealing with their executive privileges. They are continuing to undermine the health of this country for their own benefit.

Privatizing gains. Socializing losses. It's really all they know how to do.

dcredhead · 1 year ago

Credit Unions in this country don't pay a DIME in taxes. And guess what? There are credit unions that are larger than most community banks (assets less than $1B). Don't whine to me about the banks when credit unions get off scott free and have for decades.

sukabi1 · 1 year ago

Well, it's not just that... the transparancy Paulson was supposed to provide on who was getting bailout funds and what they were putting up as collateral hasn't happened... and has even some wall street and banker types questioning WTF is going on...

Ubiquitous · 1 year ago

IF you haven't read 'Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein, now would be a good time to emergency-read it. If you have, you'll know that this is the natural extention of the doctrine - and by the time Obama gets into the WH on 20th Jan, they will have bled the treasury dry, lined their own pockets and managed to flame-proof the laws so nothing touches them.

Surely Something can be done?