Bailout battle costs the American people real money
By Ray Hanania – Republicans are blaming the Democrats and Democrats are blaming the Republicans for the crash of the stock market in the wake of the failure of the Congress to approve the $700 billion economic bailout. But I have to blame someone else.
They said Hell would freeze over first before the Chicago Cubs make it into the World Series, a goal they’ve aspired to since their last series 100 years ago.
And it isn’t just Hell freezing over. The stock market is in a nose dive. The economy is imitating a serious depression. And the solutions from our leaders are colder than a medical school corpse.
I say to Hell with “Billy Goat’s” curse. They should have eaten that Goat at a Ramadan Eid celebration 30 years ago.
But now that I have that out of my system, maybe I can focus on the real problem.
We have George W. Bush, whose polices have dragged this country down with his misguided and excessively expensive and unaffordable War in Iraq, who is still the president.
Yet Bush is acting like he is already retired.
Why are the candidates John McCain and Barack Obama responsible for this crisis? Because they hope to be president? Bush IS the president and he can’t get his own party to support his bailout plan.
The truth is the Bush Bailout plan is more of a last minute Golden Parachute for the banking and investment industries which have benefited from his war policies and his economic polices that have put them before the average American citizen.
No one cares about the American people. Almost everyone is playing politics with this crisis, and many are acting in their own best political interests, too afraid to do the right thing in order to save their worthless hides.
Here is what happened yesterday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got up and said what I just said. Not about the Chicago Cubs who opened the gates of Hell to the cold freeze, but Bush, who brought this mess down on every one of us, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
She placed the blame exactly where it belongs. And what happened.
John McCain who always seems to be complaining about someone instead of offering answers in his campaign, pointed another finger at the Democrats and said it was their fault for letting the bill fail.
Their fault?
Almost two-thirds of the Democrats voted to support the passage of the bailout plan, and those Democrats who opposed it like Congressman Dan Lipinski and Jesse L. Jackson Jr., did so out of principled defense of the middle class Americans who will get not a penny out of this Wall Street extortion. They want more for the average American. But what did the Republicans want who voted against the bill?
Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation. Only 65 Republicans backed the bill while 133 opposed it. You tell me who caused this bill to fail.
Almost two thirds of the Republicans voted against the bailout and it lost by 23 mostly Republican votes. Two dozen failed votes from a party that Bush has failed to lead and is in total disarray because of his failed foreign policies and economic programs.
The truth is the bailout failed because McCain’s own party failed to support it. They were “upset” because Pelosi got up and took a few partisan shots at pathetic little president Bush.
Do you mean to tell me that the stock market crashed dropping almost 800 points – the largest drop in history – because a handful of Republican congressman had their feelings hurt?
We all know that something will pass. But regardless of how much money they dump into the market to save the rich, greedy bankers, and the sleaze ball investment bankers who you can bet are making a killing on the “loss” of $1.3 trillion dollars in market value, the average schmoe – you and me – will get nothing.
The real solution is not to save the banks. They’ll collapse and another bank will buy them up. Instead, give the money directly to the American people.
Let’s borrow a Bush term. We need a “cash surge.” Divide that $700 billion and divide it up among American families who are earning under $75,000. That could be as much as $10,000 a family. Give them the money and let them pay off their credit card debts and their car loans and their banks loans and their pay-day loans and their college loans and their health care hospital bills.
You want to help the American people survive, give them a real “surge” of cash so they can balance themselves.
And instead of crying tears as they watch their pensions collapse, let them enjoy this depression knowing that the fat cat robber barons who have been ripping us off Enron-style for the past eight years will burn in hell this time and not profit from the economy’s demise.
The greatest wealth isn’t made when the economy is doing great. The greatest wealth is made when the economy is on the rocks. The money comes out of our pockets and goes into the Cayman and Swiss bank accounts of the greedy “Masters of the Universe” who play the American people more ruthlessly than they play the stock market and this nation’s politics.
Hell’s gonna freeze over. Instead of giving the Wall Street robber barons their bailout, give the American people a warm coat so they don’t freeze to death.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and Chicago morning radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com.)
