The Daily Show - Jon Stewart - October 2, 2008
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Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Bailout Bill Passes
I am not happy with the Senate's Financial bailout/rescue bill. I am voting for OBAMA - BIDEN but that doesn't mean I agree with everything. This bill is not fit for the problem we have been hearing about since Paulson brought us the deal.
The Senate Breakdown of the Bailout Vote October 1, 2008
The House of Representatives Breakdown of the Bailout Vote September 29, 2008
WALL ST.'S RESCUE LEGISLATION: MAKERS OF RUM, TOY ARROWS TAG ALONG
Bill larded with 'goodies' for all
The U.S. government's $700-billion (U.S.) rescue plan won't just bail out Wall Street, it's also going to help rum makers, film producers, race car drivers, sheep farmers and children who play bow and arrows - provided their arrows are wooden.
The bailout legislation passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday night contains dozens of special tax breaks and spending measures, many of which have been pet causes for some politicians for years. They were inserted largely to make the rescue package more palatable to members of the House of Representatives, who voted down an earlier version of the plan on Monday.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed the rescue package last week as an emergency effort to get billions of dollars worth of bad housing-related investments off the books of financial firms. Since then, the plan has swelled from a three-page document to a 451-page piece of legislation loaded with $150-billion worth of extras. They include:
Dropping a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows made for children, a cause of politicians in Oregon to help manufacturers in their state;
Extending a cut in the excise tax on rum made in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands;
Increasing funding for the Wool Research Trust Fund, which provides grants to wool makers and sheep farmers, and for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund;
Extending tax breaks for film and television productions, mine rescue training, undercover operations, motorsport race tracks, railway maintenance, idling reduction units in trucks, refined coal used by steel producers, small wind power projects, donations of food or books to charities, hurricane relief employees and people affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill;
New rules for mental health benefits and the disclosure of information in terrorist cases.
Adding tax and spending measures to proposed legislation is common practice in the U.S. Congress, but the financial rescue plan was supposed to be an emergency, targeted at just the bailout.
The bill now heads for a vote in the House of Representatives, where some members are proposing to stick on more measures including a $61-billion stimulus package.
The legislation "is no longer an emergency package, it's no longer a bailout package, it's just your typical year-end Christmas tree with goodies for everyone," said Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union, which has opposed the bailout bill.
Read the full article
Watch Video of Independent Vermont US Senator speak about the financil bailout
Here is Bernie Sanders Senate Floor Speech on the Bailout:
Easy Street -- 10/02/2008
While the middle class has declined under President Bush's reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush's tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. We have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth, with the top 1 percent earning more income than the bottom 50 percent. There has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest people in this country, when, among others, CEOs of Wall Street firms received unbelievable amounts in bonuses, including $39 billion in bonuses in the year 2007 alone for just the five major investment houses.
"“Maybe I am the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the secretary of the Treasury, who is the former C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs, which, along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem,” Sanders said. “Maybe I am the only person in America who thinks that is a little bit weird, but that is what I think.”
“Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in three years, as did Henry Paulson, the current secretary of the Treasury, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs,” Senator Bernie Sanders said moments before the Senate voted Wednesday for a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
“Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past five years as did Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers,” Sanders added. “Most of my constituents did not cash out $60 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns after that failing company was bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O'Neill, former CEO Merrill Lynch did.”
Sanders argued that those who caused the problems in our economy should pay for the solution. "If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people,” the senator had argued.
He offered an amendment that would have taxed the very wealthy to pay for the bailout. It lost on a voice vote.
So Sanders voted against the bailout bill, which nevertheless passed by a lopsided majority in the Senate. The plan reportedly is gaining ground in the House, which could take it up on Friday.
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Palin Debate Training
The Daily Show full episode October 2, 2008
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Sarah Palin has her own rules. If/when she has problems as Vice-President and/or President one day, will she simply ignore the ones she doesn't like?
I think this question is ridiculous in a way: Who Won the VP Debate?
You can look good on the TV screen and come across as someone who has answered the questions good enough for a beauty contest, but that has no bearing on whether or not you are qualified to be Vice-President. I am hoping there are enough smart voters to see through the charm and vote for the one with real knowledge. The kind that didn't come from cramming.
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Palin: How long have I been at this? Like five weeks?
I skipped all but a few minutes of pundits after the VP debate tonight.
Am I the only one who noticed, that Sarah Palin smiled all the way through this debate? This looked more like what a beauty contestant does. She smiled all through talking about war. War and smiling just don't go together.
I am voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. However, the Senate bailout bill is wrong. The extra junk in the bill are as wrong as those who sold mortgages to those who couldn't afford them. We need to do something. But doing something shouldn't be an excuse to do things with rum and arrows.
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