WHY DO WE HAVE ONE WEEK TO DETERMINE APPROPRIATION OF TAXPAYERS' $700 BILLION BAILOUT OF FAT CATS?

Every time we want a program to help our children, provide health care, keep social security, help with education funding, aid energy plans to wean us off oil dependence - we are told we can't afford it. The simple phrase to put down the thoughts is always "Well, who is going to pay for it?" And it is meant as a rhetorical question because we all know the question is meant to put the thought out of our minds. But we can afford the Iraq war to the tune of $3 Trillion and bailout after bailout of big business. Isn't there something wrong, here?

When George Herbert Walker Bush was campaigning to be our President his catch phrase was READ MY LIPS ~ NO NEW TAXES. We won't vote for anyone who says that we are in debt over our eyeballs. But we are. Do you hear any media pundit say anything about our national debt? Do you hear any candidate mention our national debt? Look at my sidebar for the cost of the Iraq war. We are funding the war by borrowing from countries such as China and Japan. Does it make sense to you that we choose to be in debt to China, who is not a democracy, a country who is funding the genocide by Sudanese government on the Darfuris, selling the weapons to Sudan for the genocide and selling us poisonous products, not to mention their products killing their own people.

It doesn't make sense to run from accountability and regulation. But that is what we have allowed our country to do to us.

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US Senator Jon Tester, member of the Banking Committee
speaks on the $700 Billion bailout proposal.

Jon Tester asks a good question

Source: www.salon.com

No wonder grass-roots Democrats like this guy:

Montana Sen. Jon Tester, to Paulson, Bernanke, SEC chairman Christopher Cox, and Federal Housing Finance Agency director James Lockhart:

I'm a dirt farmer. You guys have been in the business -- the former chairman of Goldman Sachs.

Why do we have one week to determine $700 billion that has to be appropriated, or this country's financial systems go down the pipes?

Wasn't there some opportunity sometime down the line where we could have been informed of how serious this crisis was so we could take some preventative steps before this got to this point?

Perhaps back in the spring of 2007, say, when Paulson and Bernanke were telling us that the subprime problem was "contained"?

The following is from Senator Tester's website:

Tester: Government's bailout plan doesn't smell right

Says Congress should stay in session as long as it takes to make right decision

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – After grilling some of nation’s most powerful decisionmakers on Capitol Hill, Senator Jon Tester today said he still is not sold on the government’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

Tester also said the situation is too important and too expensive for an artificial deadline, adding that Congress should stay in session as long as it takes to make the right decision.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said they support the controversial plan during today’s Senate Banking Committee hearing. The plan would allow the U.S. Treasury to buy up to $700 billion in troubled assets—like bad mortgages—from financial institutions.

“Like most Montanans, I’ve got a heck of a lot of concerns about this,” Tester said after the hearing. “I want to know that this legislation fixes the root problems, so we’re not doing this year after year. I want to know that no CEOs are getting big paychecks for running their companies into the ground. And I want to make sure that Main Street not just Wall Street is helped.”

During today’s hearing, Bernanke said Congress needs to take urgent action to avoid “serious consequences” in the financial industry and the U.S. economy. Tester was disappointed because the Treasury proposed its complex, controversial $700 billion plan just days ago.

“Wasn’t there some opportunity somewhere down the line where we could have been informed of how serious this crisis was so we can take some preventative steps before we got to this point?” Tester asked Bernanke. “I’m not sure we’ve got the whole sentence written much less the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.”

Earlier this month the Treasury risked $85 billion to bail out insurance giant AIG, and the government took over housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government bailed out investment bank Bear Stearns earlier this year.

Paulson and Bernanke Put Aiding Banks Ahead of Best Taxpayer Deal

Bernanke, Paulson Face Skeptics On the Hill Despite Dire Warnings

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Barack Obama talks to Matt Lauer about the bailout