I live comfortably, own a home, work reasonably steady (freelance television work), have my fair share of debt (home loan, revolving credit (ick), lines of credit, one car bought on time, health insurance for a family of four (kaiser, which I like, but not at over $850 a month). On the other hand, approaching 50 I have no real retirement plan, no life insurance, in general, no plan except for the social security fund that I have been contributing to for nearly 35 years...
...which brings me to this week and the state of the union. I barely feel the pinch of todays economics, but I know it is there because for the last year and half my wife has been contributing to our income (teaching part time at an art institute) and that supplemental income has not contributed to much more than slowly creeping out of our revolving debt.
So as the last couple of weeks of economic opera has unfolded simultaneously with the 2008 presidential campaign I found myself watching once again as an administration that doesn't deserve the generous nickname of "Lame Duck" began to unfold another of their mischievous schemes: the Golden Bailout.
I don't know economics (so I follow Bonddad and Billmon and Jerome a Paris when they grace these pages with their knowledge) but I'm pretty sure I can spot a three dollar bill when somebody tries to pass me one, and that is how I felt when the great Golden Bailout was unveiled.
Let us hope that congress has the temerity to take a real look at the boondoggle, the infusion to nowhere, with its absent oversight and show a backbone that has been arrested by a foot stomping momma's boy (who always found a way to win the football games at the family gatherings by calling fouls and making up infractions when it appeared his team was about to lose).
I do know that there may or may not have been progress on the Golden Bailout since I began thinking about this diary, but I am posting it anyways and am including the missive I sent my senators and congresswoman. and yes, I sent them by snail mail, and I sent one to each of their Washington offices and one to each of their local offices as all mail sent to DC takes two weeks to sort because of an ancient anthrax scare.
xxxxxx
Los Angeles, CA 90026
September 22, 2008
Senator xxxxxxxx
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator xxxxx,
I cannot support the $700,000,000,000 bailout which gives absolute authority once again to an administration’s appointees. As said in the bill:
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
and:
"(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as
the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation ...
(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties ...
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts ..."
I beg of you to find the backbone that harks back to the ideas about democracy and the common good that FDR so ably understood when he led us out of the first great depression. This bailout, no matter how it is stated is nothing more than a golden parachute, one in which the common man will pay the most and the uncommon man will receive the most.
I ask you with all my heart and sincerity to work as hard as you can to refute this bailout, and help us to once again try and balance the needs of all as opposed to those of the few.
It is very simple, as I know you know: the Republican party is for the rich, and the Democrats are for everybody else. If you vote in favor of such a shameless tactic as this bailout proposes, then you are voting Republican, no matter how it is spun. Please vote in the interests of the people, which are the interests of the Democratic party.
Thank you for your time,
xxxxxxx
I would like to add that the vitriol in the letter is directed at the "Republican Party" and not its individual members who I hope have the good sense to realize that it is their party who is responsible for the present administrations decision to offer such a generous Golden Bailout to those who have so much already at the expense of those who have much less, and take this time to reconsider their support for the senator who's history is tattered by his compliance in financial disasters of the past and commitment to those who have orchestrated the disasters of the present.
someTV