Ok, so they want to raise the FDIC insurance to $250k from $100k. That can be done with a separate piece of legislation. The problem is that the tax cuts (notice they’re for businesses, not the poor, working or middle classes) will just pile on the debt.
Tag: Democrats
Sep 30 2008
Bailout Rant!
And editorial original to All Over the Board:
So bailout plan A failed. All well and good, but you know that there will be a bailout plan B, C, D, etc. until the bosses get what they want. My guess is it’ll take tomorrow’s session on the stock markets around the world and the failure of another big bank.
Sep 29 2008
The Obama-McCain debate: Right-wing politicians agree on bailout and militarism
Original article, by Patrick Martin, via World Socialist Web Site:
Friday night’s presidential election debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain demonstrated that there is no choice in the 2008 presidential election within the confines of the official two-party system. Two candidates stood facing each other, espousing nearly identical positions in defense of Wall Street and American militarism which would, in any other country in the world, immediately identify them as representatives of the ultra-right.
Sep 28 2008
From across the Pond: Will the crisis lead to the rebirth of the Labour left?
Original article via Socialistworker.org (UK):
Now, I know what you’re thinking (well, maybe one or two of you): rjones2818’s gone off the deep end now, trying to connect the Labour party in the UK with the Democrats in the US. The comparison is good in the sense that both parties are the one’s who are said to represent working people. The difference is that there actually is a Left in Great Britain, so a return to the left is not out of the question for Labour. If the Left actually took control of the Dems, it’d be something of a revolution (the Left, as it is in the US, has been tromped upon by the Dems since at least post-1972’s election). The comparison is valid in that both Labour and the Dems have come under the thrall of neoliberalism. So…
Sep 27 2008
The bipartisan deregulators
Original article, by Lance Selfa and subtitled Both parties have honored Corporate America’s wish for eliminating government regulation, via Socialistworker.org:
LIKE EVERYTHING else in Washington–from the Iraq war to the USA PATRIOT Act–the financial crisis that has already brought down a host of blue-chip Wall Street firms is a bipartisan disaster.
Sep 26 2008
The plot unravels
Orignal article, an editorial subheaded The Bush administration and congressional Democrats are agreed on a bank-robbery-in-reverse to bail out the titans of Wall Street–but the Republican free-market madmen are getting in the way, via socialistworker.org.
BY DAY, it looked like an honorable agreement among thieves–Democratic and Republican lawmakers joining together over a White House conference table to hammer out the basic points of a $700 billion bailout of the Wall Street financial system at the expense of the vast majority of Americans.
Sep 26 2008
Earth to Dems: Stop Trying to Own The Bailout (Updated)
I’m with Kos:
The American people aren’t happy with this bailout. Democrats are giving McCain a gift by allowing him to be seen as its slayer. Yet Democrats sit there thinking that lining up behind Bush’s proposal will somehow be a political plus.
Yet every challenger across the nation, Democratic and Republican, is running against this thing to public cheers. The tone deafness on this is shocking.
At this point I really don’t know who is more incompetent, the Democratic Leadership or the Bush Administration.
All day Thursday – all frickin’ day – we were treated to one pic after another showing Democratic politicians working feverishly to pass a bailout plan that NOBODY WANTS – except Wall Street Fat Cats, Foreign Loan Sharks, and George W. Bush of course.
First, we had shots like this of Chris ‘Fred Flintstone’ Dodd and Barney ‘Rubble’ Frank in a desperate barefoot spin to get this 700 billion ton jalopy moving.
Next we had that uber-embarrassing White House meeting with Pelosi and Reid flanking George Bush like they were his guardian angels.
How bad does this look?
You’ve got polls showing an anemic 30% public support for the bailout, the AFL-CIO picketing Wall Street and Congressional mail coming in at 19 to 1 against, and yet the Dem Leadership somehow thinks it’s to their political advantage to be seen as large and in charge of this monstrosity?
Clueless.
Sep 26 2008
A Personal Story about the RTC and a Conscientious Democrat
Hello, this is my first diary here. It has already been posted and did pretty poorly at DailyKos until being rescued. It is a story of pain and suffering and I believe it is a decent prediction of things to come.
This is an old story from 1994 that has some relevance today. It is a story from a Democratic administration but the victims were forced to deal with a Republican resolution. It is a story that I had to live through.
I live in a 3000 unit apartment complex in the Bronx. It is a massive dwelling on 22 acres that was built in 1961. There was a conversion from a rental property to a cooperative in 1987, the last breath of a housing boom. A complete renovation made the property much more desirable.
In order to sell many apartments very quickly the holder of unsold shares steered new shareholders towards seven and ten year balloon mortgages. People believing in their own upward mobility put up ten percent and made smaller payments that paid down just a small amount of the principle.
When these balloon mortgages ended so many of those loans were with defunct savings and loans and many residents ended up at the mercy of the Resolution Trust Corporation. Not only were many tenant/shareholders in big trouble, because of the RTC it looked like the entire complex was going to fail.
Sep 24 2008
My Local Pizza Place On The Big Bailout
Tonight was an eye-opening experience. Running behind all day long, Hubby and I decided to order a meat-lover’s stromboli for two, and I drove down the road to our local pizza place to pick it up.
There are some things you don’t do in life. You don’t start whistling in the check out line at the grocery store. You don’t give out your personal banking information to the Prince of Nigeria, regardless of how desperate that email sounds.
And, you don’t talk politics at the local pizza place.
All that changed tonight.
Aug 30 2008
Democratic National Convention outlines policy of wider war
Original article via wsws.org:
After going through the formality of a roll call vote ending in the preordained nomination of Barack Obama as its presidential candidate, the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday turned to the question of “national security,” portraying itself as more competent than the Bush administration in defending the interests of US imperialism abroad, while making it clear that it is prepared to launch new and even bloodier wars than those carried out over the past eight years.
Aug 27 2008
The Nation and the Obama campaign
Original article, by Jerry White, via World Socialist Web Site.
The “special convention issue” of the Nation magazine features a lengthy article entitled “Progressives in the Obama Moment,” which seeks to make the case for those opposed to war and the reactionary policies of the Bush administration to rally behind the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Note: The Nation article is here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/2…