Subtitled: "Why Blind Faith Doesn't Make Sense"
I watched a simian bobble head, in an expensive suit on TV last night.
He wants me to believe that he and his cohorts have discovered a big flaw in the financial system and it requires $3,000 from every man woman and child in the US or about $15,000-35,000 for every middle class taxpayer in the US - TO START (may require more) Will require more when the inflation it causes is calculated in.
He wants me to believe that bailing out investment bankers on Wall Street is somehow beneficial to me. These guys make more in one year than I'll make in my lifetime, but unless I give them money, I will be poorer for it.
He wants me to believe that he knows better and has a solution for the problem he presided over. A man with less intelligence then some vegetables is telling me this. The same man that thought Donald Rumsfeld was a military genius.
He wants me to believe that an Investment Banker tapped for secretary of the treasury is going to remain unbiased and honest with more power than the president wields and do so for the next two years. This same secretary is going to bequeath taxpayer money to the banking firm he just left and do so without favoritism. Just like Cheeney and his buddies at Halliburton?
He wants me, and Congress, to believe that the need is imminent and that it needs to be done now. (starting to sound like a commodities broker or telemarketing boiler room there "buy now! buy now! you don't want to miss this opportunity").
- Congress just wants to get the hell out of Washington and hit the campaign trail so they will pass anything in front of them without a lot of scrutiny.
Mr. Paulson, we are told, is a man of incredible integrity. We are told this by men of dubious integrity and no credibility.
Mr. Paulson has already written the law to his liking, to wit:
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.
-Stating in no uncertain terms that his word is absolute and no one can override him, and if he cheats or makes mistakes he can't be second guessed or tried in a court of law.
We are told that the money has to be given to Secretary Paulson's buddies so they can lend us more money and kick start the economy.
-Let me see, the problem is people have taken on more debt than they can handle and the solution is to lend them more money? Wouldn't it make more sense to just give the people that money somehow and practice "trickle up" economics?
And maybe I'm just heartless scum myself - but when they do one of these "human interest" stories on TV about people hurting from the bad choices they were allowed and encouraged to make - they shouldn't be showing single mothers with one child who moved into new 6,000 square foot houses on a secretary's salary. I just don't feel compassion for people living that far above their means. I don't want to "rescue" someone who lives better than I do.
They tell me that "I should borrow responsibly." I take that to mean that borrowing is a last resort - can't they follow the advice they give me?
All the "programs" designed to help people borrow, just make more money available and drive up the prices, for the very things they borrow for, and lock people into debt making the goods cost many times more than their outright cost - and that money goes into the pockets of the financial institutions we are supposed to rescue.
Someone 'plain how that makes sense, so I can understand it too?
And the final insult - they tell us "give us the money or else," and "we'll put into place regulations at a later date to fix the problem once and for all." These are the same guys that have been complaining about too much regulation and have gutted the regulations put in place during the Last Great Depression.
The money will go to the fat cats, the problem will still be there, administrations will come and go, regulations won't be forthcoming, and we'll be paying for it, and newer, more urgent, future crises, for millennia to come.