Bailout Blues

¡Hola! Everybody…
I’m interviewing people for an open position in my unit and no one -- not one person -- has emphasized their lack of experience or being tortured as a qualification for the job!

Would you hire someone who bragged they had no experience as a plumber to fix your pipes?

Then why do you accept all of the above?

We’re on the cusp of “hiring” someone who can’t name a Supreme Court case or which newspaper she reads.

* * *

-=[ Bailout Blues ]=-

As someone else pointed out recently, the run-up to the failed bailout proposal was similar to the same rhetoric used during the run-up to the Iraq war. Scare tactics combined with an all too obvious incomprehension by The Idiot stood in for leadership. The basic rationale was, “Give us a blank check for $700 billion or the End Times will be upon us.”

Sound familiar?

Well, thankfully, the American people weren’t asleep in front of the TV this time and the massive outpouring of disapproval and anger by the constituency stuck a wrench in the spokes of the Wall St. Bailout. Republicans, calling this socialism (funny that they don’t whine when Halliburton gets preferred treatment).

On the other side, a third or so voted against the bill. To their detriment, leadership on both sides of the aisle failed us. The Dems fell for the scare tactics once again, and the republican leadership turned their back on their “free-market” principles.

The republicans, their feelings hurt by that evil Nancy Pelosi’s speech, took cover. They’re scared because people are hurting and they (rightfully) see the original bailout, as proposed by the republican leadership, as a handout for the wealthy.

Any discussion addressing the other side of the equation -- the consumers -- is almost non-existent, except to blame (black and white trash) borrowers for the global financial meltdown.

Black people did it!

So, I was sitting here, playing with my foreskin just waiting for the republicans to disclose their strategy. Make no mistake about this people, the current meltdown can be directly traced the thirty-years-long dismantling of government and oversight crusade. This conservative onslaught, worshiping at the altar of the (not so) Free Market, claims that the market is the answer to all our ills. It’s exactly this superstition that has allowed an unprecedented corporate crime wave to take place (remember Enron, WorldCom, et al.?).

What is the republican response? More of the same, except more.

According to The Hill, The RSC plan, which will be unveiled at noon, calls for a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax:

“By encouraging corporations to sell unwanted assets, this provision would unleash funds and materials with which to create jobs and grow the economy,” an outline of the proposal said. “After the two-year suspension, capital gains rates would return to present levels but assets would be indexed permanently for any inflationary gains.” (emphasis added)

Many of you have bought into the trickle down snake oil that has raped the economic base of this country. Make no mistake about this: shifting the tax burden from large asset owners to the working stiff (as a suspension in the capital gains tax would do) serves to take a bigger bite out of the paychecks of most wage earners. Showing their true colors once again, conservatives are saying that if we continue to do the same, cut taxes for the wealthy, that it will save us. This is insanity. No one is asking how encouraging major shareholders to dump off stock and pay no taxes on the sale, is going to correct anything. This is just another wealth-favoring loophole.

This nation isn’t broke, or insolvent, or even in much trouble. For once, Wall Street’s own markets speak the truth. The financially challenged consumer isn’t the country -- the “Joe Six-packs.” He’s up on Wall Street, where deregulation, greed and fraud, abetted by conservative policies, have run wild for too long.

Here’s another question no one is bothering to ask: The government was willing to propose a $700 bailout for the banks. Why shouldn’t we take that money and spend it on health care, housing, and similar direct needs, and let people spend the money and get it into the economy that way?

::blank stare::

Love,

Eddie