Bailouts, Stimulus, Etc. – What Has The Rush Gotten Us?

Drudge Report has been trying mightily since Saturday to “sell” this story: If there was such a hot rush to pass the stimulus bill, why was President Barack Obama taking the weekend off in Chicago?

What Drudge does is show he’s in the tank for the Republicans when he runs a picture like the one to the left “above the fold” all weekend with the following headline: What’s the rush? ‘Urgent’ stimulus on hold for Obama’s weekend off …

First of all, no president of the U.S. has a “weekend off.” Not even George W. Bush, although some may say he took years off.

This is a potshot – Drudge urging the producers over at Fox News to beat up on the president.

But, despite Drudge’s partisanship, he points out a real problem with Republican and now Democrat management of the U.S. economic crisis.  Our politicians are scaring us silly and ramming TARPs, assorted bailouts and stimulii through the government machine with very little transparency and even less accountability.

Back in the Fall when the Troubled Asset Relief Program, aka $700 billion bailout, was rammed through Congress there was lots of scary talk about meltdowns and companies so big and far-reaching that we couldn’t possibly let them fail.  $350 billion of that bailout went out to the banks and Wall Street.  We still have barely working credit markets.  They’ve loosened up a bit, but nothing much has changed in the past several months.  We also know that a lot of our tax dollars were wasted on bonuses, exorbitant compensation for failing management teams, mergers and acquisitions.

Read more

Final Text: Economic Stimulus Bill, Reported From House-Senate Conference

1. Part A – Click to View
2. Part B – Click to View

At the beginning of this process, the President and Congress said that there would be at least five days for public review of this.  This bill is at least twice as many pages as that which was originally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, and longer than what came out of the U.S. Senate.  This is the reconciling of those two versions, known as a Conference Report.  This is the actual bill.  Nancy Pelosi, according to reports today, has announced that she has to leave for a trip to Europe at 6 p.m. tonight, so this monster needs to be voted on NOW.  Public review of the final bill will have amounted to mere hours – not five days.

Treasury Bailing Out AIG Again

Will There Be Spa Trips and English Hunting Excursions This Time?

I sure hope the executive pigs at AIG get it this time.  After all, the last time our tax money was used to prop up their failing business, they spent hundreds of thousands on a West Coast spa and an English hunting trip.

This morning, the U.S. Dept. of Treasury announced the federal government was upping the AIG bailout ante by $40 billion — bringing the taxpayer funded tab to keep the company solvent to $150 billion.  Additionally, AIG is getting a better deal today on the interest it is paying the federal government for loans the public is backing.  As this once shining capitalist jewel becomes nationalized, that means the public accounts will reap less from the bad business decisions sown by AIG executives.

One must also remember that just weeks ago, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told the insurance company that he was able and willing to ‘help’ them do away with golden parachutes, executive pleasure outings and huge bonuses.  Then, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman found that former AIG exec Joseph Cassano, who ran the company’s financial products section into the ground and left AIG in February was being paid $1 million a month – for nothing – even as the company slurped up taxpayers’ money. Read more

Sunday Papers – November 9, 2008

New York Times Magazine

• After the Imperial Presidency– Jonathan Mahler
• Payday Lenders, Check Cashers – Redeemed?– Douglas McGray
• Deprogramming Jihadists– Katherine Zoepf

New York Times

• Obama team weighs what to take on first
• Harsh words about Obama? Never mind
• Citing workload public lawyers refuse new cases
• How Merrill fell
• Pelosi, Reid want aid for U.S. automakers
• Op-Ed, Frank Rich: It still felt good morning after
• Op-Ed, Al Gore: The climate for change
• Op-Ed, Thomas Friedman: Show me the money
• Op-Ed, Nicholas Kristof: Obama and the War on Brains
• Rice visits West Bank
• U.S. electricity project in Afghanistan
• Back home, Palin finds landscape changed
• After push for Obama, Unions seek new rules

Washington Post

• Preparing for the Obama era
• Reid, Pelosi urge Treasury to extend aid to automakers
• Self-sufficiency evades Iraqi security forces
• Obama positioned to reverse Bush actions
• Medvedev calls Obama; Kremlin describes call
• Congressional Democrats say economy first priority
• Op-Ed, Rich Lowry: The right needs to get centered
• Op-Ed, Joseph Stiglitz: More pain to come even if he’s perfect
• Op-Ed, Ron Suskind: U.S. has power – it could use authority
• Op-Ed, David Broder: Governors know best
• Op-Ed, George Will: Democratic ironies and Republican Afflictions

Los Angeles Times

• Democrats set sights on Texas
• Public works on the table once again
• Obama relies on a close-knit inner circle
• Op-Ed, Norman Ornstein: The GOP’s deep hole
• Op-Ed, James Rainey: Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger
• Political blogger be nimble, be quick
• Election leaves gay couple feeling isolated

Transcript: Nancy Pelosi Before Bailout Vote

Much has been said about U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s speech in the House chamber before Monday’s failed bailout vote. Republican leaders have used the idiotic argument that some of those in their party who were being counted on to deliver ‘yeas’, instead voted ‘nay’, because they were turned off by the partisan nature of her speech. Cry me a river. If your vote in Congress is dependent on whether or not the leader of the opposition says something partisan on the floor of the House, you’re not fit to serve.

At any rate, here’s what she said.

(Source: Congressional Record)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California is

recognized for 1 minute.

Ms. PELOSI. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, for recognizing me, Read more

Bailout Deal Bullet Points & Coverage – Sunday A.M.

Bush Administration and Congressional officials came to terms on the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout early Sunday morning reports the New York Times, Washington Post, and other media outlets. Find clips of the stories this morning after the bullet points of the deal’s terms. The media are reporting that Congressional staff worked through the early morning hours of Sunday and will continue to work until the deal is in bill form. Votes in both houses of Congress are expected late Sunday or early Monday.

Highpoints of Bailout Deal

• The $700 billion would not be released in its entirety at once. Funds would be made available to Treasury in a first installment of $250 billion, a second installment of $100 billion, and a final installment of $350 billion. Congress would have the right of refusal at each step of the process.
• Pay limits will be put in place for executives of companies who make use of the government bailout.
• A Congressional oversight panel will be empowered to oversee Administration and Treasury implementation of the bailout.
• In some cases, the federal government will receive an equity stake in companies participating in the bailout.
• Conflict-of-interest rules will be implemented for firms who contract to help Treasury run the bailout.

Bailout News

• Breakthrough reached in negotiations on bailout – New York Times
• Lawmakers reach tentative deal on bailout – Washington Post
• Lawmakers reach deal on bailout – Wall Street Journal
• U.S. reaches outline bailout deal – Financial Times
• U.S. Congress reaches tentative deal on bailout – Xinhua

Full Text: Nancy Pelosi Speech to Democratic National Convention, August 25, 2008

Source: Democratic National Convention Site

Good evening, Democrats.  Good evening, California.  Good evening, Maryland.  Welcome to the convention that will nominate Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be the next President and Vice President of the United States.
 
This week is the culmination of an historic race that has brought millions of voters to the polls—many voting for the first time.  All Democrats salute Senator Hillary Clinton for her excellent campaign. Our party and our country are strengthened by her candidacy. Read more

“Liberal” Media Apparently Not in the Tank for Obama

Print and Electronic Media Making PUMAs Out to Be More Than What They Are

I get home from work, kiss the wife, pet the cat and check in on the Fourth Estate’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention.  I was shocked to find out that the floor fights have already begun, Hillary has chained herself to the podium, Bill is threatening self-immolation, and James Carville just decked Howard Dean.

That’s what one would think from the 4,793 headlines on Google News and a review of today’s transcripts of CNN’s coverage.  Every reporter in town is trying to find one of the two or three loud-mouthed, sore losers who are threatening to blow the place up.  CNN’s “Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzed began the program with a quote from James Carville suggesting that the Obama campaign has handled things all wrong — the transcript doesn’t point out when that sentence was uttered or in what context.

The vapid Ann Curry of NBC’s Today Show is the podium reporter tonight on MSNBC.  She literally pummeled poor Nancy Pelosi with questions about Hillary v. Barack.  Memo to Ann: This thing was won about four months ago.  Pelosi was straining so hard to smile through the barrage, she literally sweat Botox.

What’s missing from the media’s theme of discontent at the convention is — discontent.  I haven’t seen one party leader threatening insurrection.  I haven’t read one quote tonight from a party leader saying the situation is tenuous.  There are no signs of Hillary placards in the crowd among the delegates.

What the media may be missing in its attempt to create news is the real news.  Democrats are uniting in Denver this week.