So after many months of being nagged to blog on his fabulous site and listening to all the fantastic things my husband has had to say in his blogs, I fianlly am popping the cork on blogging rhodesnetwork style.
In all that has been going on in politics in the last few months, the one thing that has really rocked my boat and has me ready to try walking on water, is the idea that George W and his Wall Street CEO turned Treasury Secretary buddy would even suggest that we should foot the bill for bailing out the failing financial firms on Wall Street.
If you know anything about business, you know that businesses fail. Sometimes really big businesses fail. This happens everyday.
When a manufacturing business in small town, podunk nowhere fails and takes down the whole city with it you don’t see the government swooping in with the fraction of the money it would take to repair the damage.
When the housing market crashes and takes down 100,000 families with it month after month, the Bush administration swoops in to “rescue” the coorporation that made the bad loans in the first place in stead of the American people for whom they are supposed to be working.
The other thing to note about business is that NOTHING happens by suprise. This did not happen overnight and you can bet the Wall Street numbers junkies saw it coming years ago. They spend millions of dollars every year tracking every cent of their profits and losses. Even if they were cooking the books for the public, they knew damn well what was happening AND THEY LET IT HAPPEN.
I think the timing is just a little too convienient. The Republicans see that they are losing the election and offer up a ridiculous plan in the middle of the night and attempt to bully those even in their own party into voting for it with out proper discussion. All this to create so much debt and crisis that the newly elected Democratic President would have no choice but to raise taxes. Then they could point to the Democrats and say look…they raise taxes every time! Only because the Republicans make such a mess of our country they have to come in and clean it back up. But they are in for it with Barack Obama… the corporate giants and wealthy are the ones who will suffer.
So, if we don’t bail them out, what should we do?
Our elected officials in Washington who are busy predicting fire and brimstone should be focused on legislation to protect the American people from the repercussions of letting the businesses fail not trying to stop them from failing. Let them fail!
Their responsibility is to the majority of the population not to the shareholders of major corporations and banks and their executives.
4 responses to “Hell no don’t bail them out!”
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Whoa!
I really shouldn’t respond. But everything I read & hear says the Democrats are pushing the bailouts & those lousy Republicans are fighting it.
I think we did have to help the major banks quickly. Some of us closer to 1928 might have been too fearful, causing a run on the banks & a collapse of the whole banking house of cards. A lot of smaller banks did fail. But on the verge of collapse was B of A, Citi Bank, Wamu, Wells Fargo & a few more big ones… Now we’re talking Depression.
The car companies, on the other hand, can go Chapter 11 & restructure with more realistic union contracts & less top-heavy management.
I’m sure Pelosi & Reid could run GM better. Look at how well the government has done with Social Security & health care! But they’re busy trying to make radio less commercial & more “fair”.
But, what do I know. I’m just a union member in liberal Hollywood. I should shut-up & listen to what the government tells me to listen to.
First of all, I am really glad you responded. You know that I enjoy hearing your point of view regardless of whether I agree with you or not.
Second, I apologize for stereotyping all you “lousy Republicans” in to the same category as our esteemed lame duck and his cronies.
While I don’t buy into the typically Republican doom and gloom and scare tactics, there are many points you make of which I agree. And to be fair, discussion of possible full on depression is more realistic than anyone would like.
But on to how I agree with you. Are you sitting down? I know this comes as a shock.
I agree that something had to be done and quickly. I believe our politicians chose to act in the urgency and push to do something now and accepted the polished version of what was on the table, instead of discussing their options and putting together a plan with careful consideration and appropriate oversight. There were many on “both sides of the isle” as they say who voted for this proposal and a very few just as mixed who didn’t. It is those who didn’t that I agree with. I stand by what I said in my original blog and I understand that letting them fail without any action at all would have been irresponsible.
I also agree with you that the car companies could file chapter 11 and restructure. Getting rid of the top heavy management and renegotiating their union contracts are definitely places to start. As a progressive Democrat I believe their restructure should be taken further providing for more fuel efficient vehicles and *gasp* alternative fuel vehicles.
Now I refuse to get my panties in a bunch over the typically Republican stance that Democrats are not doing anything about health care and Social Security. Do you not remember the “Republican Revolution” (as the Republicans liked to call it) where Republicans gained a majority in the house and the Senate, governorships and many state legislatures? Republicans maintained this majority in Congress for ten years! And you’re going to give Democrats a hard time for not fixing Social Security and health care in the two that Democrats have had with a President who was bound and determined not to let real progress happen? Democrats have had two! What happened to the Republican ten?! Awww, crap now I have to un – bunch again.
As for the talking points put forward by Bill O’, Hannity and Rush, they are completely incorrect about what Pelosi and Reid are doing. Which falls into the category of scare tactics and lack of fact checking that seems to happen so often on that “side of the isle”.
I don’t think you are listening to what your government tells you to listen to and I commend you on that. Although I do recommend some of the many fact checking websites to verify your favorite talk show hosts’ talking points before you get too bunched up about those ol’ Democrats. And if you choose not to, I will thoroughly enjoy our discussions and love you very much, just the way you are, dear father-in law.
Just a quick comment on trying to make radio less commercial and more “fair:”
The issue so many talk show hosts are talking about is the “Fairness Doctrine,” instituted in 1949 and upheld unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969. Justice Byron White wrote in the decision that “a license permits broadcasting, but the licensee has no constitutional right to be the one who holds the license or to monopolize a radio frequency to the exclusion of his fellow citizens. There is nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the Government from requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others…. It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.”
It’s interesting that the Reagan administration – NOT congress – revoked the Fairness Doctrine in the mid-1980s citing that it violated the First Ammendment. Forget that silly Supreme Court decision. Yes, that unanimous one.
I would also point out that the Fairness Doctrine has nothing to do with Equal Time, although I’ve often heard hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly confuse the two. The Fairness Doctrine requires that holders of broadcast licenses present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that is honest, equitable, and balanced.
And finally, although some in Congress have expressed interest in a return of the Fairness Doctrine, no such legislation has appeared since 2005 – before Reid and Pelosi were in Congressional leadership positions.