It's a Bunch of B.S.
You heard it. He said it. Representative Peter DeFazio called Treasury Secretary Paulson's Bail Out Bill a bunch of B.S.....
The Reaction? Damn straight Congressman DeFazio!
If only we had more of you to represent us!
Anyone not familiar with Congress Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon, you should be. This is one guy who cannot be bought and speaks some obvious truth and votes accordingly! Pander? Not this guy and he sure as hell isn't pandering in this speech.
Also, Democracy Now's phone interview with Senator Bernie Sanders on the bail out:
What I find strange is how they are not talking about HOLC, which looks like a very good alternative to a bail out in terms of getting rid of toxic paper.
CQ Politics has the latest on negotiations of the bill.
So will the wisdom of DeFazio be listening to? I doubt it frankly. The reality is Democrats are bought and paid for by the financial lobbyists as badly as the Republicans are.
Our only hope is these Democratic leaders believe their cash cow is running dry.
Update: Senator Bernie Sanders has put together a petition for you to read and sign.
Comments
My kinda guy!
This is my kind of rep. Now I wonder if my representative will issue a similar protest?
Truly
Most of the time the districts are so rigged plus the parties so entrenched, you cannot get rid of a corporate representative to save your soul.
I can think of a host of districts in California this way...there is no way a Republican can win and they make sure there are no serious challenges in the Dem primary.
Guaranteed job, regardless of what they do.
BTW
That cow picture was very appropriate, they are trying to milk us!
re: Representative Peter DeFazio
Absolutely brilliant.
There should be more reps like him who have
the guts to tell the truth and not be intimidated
by the "Wall Street gang".
I think that Wall Street should be renamed Crooked Street.
maria
Jeff Merkley, running for OR Sen - Speech on the Bail out
Now if he would state a position on anything regarding putting US citizens, Americans 1st for jobs...when it comes to insourcing (displacement, labor arbitrage of workers through use of guest worker Visas/immigration system). Drives me crazy how these politicians completely ignore US Professional labor issues and he clearly knows that Oregon has had massive offshore outsourcing of jobs (which he will talk about) and Americans being displaced through manipulation of the US immigration system (which he won't touch with a pole, although that is the 3rd rail, damned if you do, damned if you don't). Anyway, this is the most forceful speech to date. I hope we see more of this, Merkley is a very good geeky policy wonk and he should show more of that asset.
bail faster
Dennis Kucinich explains how this tar baby works:
"The $700 billion bailout would have added to our existing unbearable load of national debt, trade deficits, and the cost of paying for the war. It would have been a disaster for the American public and the government for decades and maybe even centuries to come.
Here is a very quick explanation of the $700 billion bailout within the context of the mechanics of our monetary and banking system:
The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them.
Confused?
This is the system. This is the standard mechanism used to expand the money supply on a daily basis not a special one designed only for the "$700 billion" transaction. People will explain this to you in many different ways, but this is what it comes down to.
The banks needed Congress' approval. Of course in this topsy turvy world, it is the banks which set the terms of the money they are borrowing from the taxpayers. And what do we get for this transaction? Long term debt enslavement of our country. We get to pay back to the banks trillions of dollars ($700 billion with compounded interest) and the banks give us their bad debt which they cull from everywhere in the world.
The globalization of the debt puts the United States in the position that in order to repay the money that we borrow from the banks (for the
Under the failed $700 billion bailout plan, Wall Street's profits are Wall Street's profits and Wall Street's losses are the taxpayers' losses. Profits are capitalized. Losses are socialized."
I have excerpted section for brevity, but the message is clear: contact everybody who has a vote in Congress and JUST SAY NO!