Is there anything the American Taxpayer cannot do?
We are being asked to bail out Wall Street itself, the very financial epicenter of the Wealthiest and Most Powerful Country On Earth ....
And now we are propping up the failed U.S. auto industry (who make CRAPPY CARS) to the tune of $7.5 billion (yes, with a B) so they can stay afloat and continue to make crappy cars that nobody wants to buy.
Do you remember anyone asking you if this was okay with you?
Hm, I sure don't remember anyone asking me ....
But yes, we are now forking over $7.5 billion of our hard-earned money to one of the biggest industries in the world, the American Auto Industry.
The loan package for automakers would reward them with $25 billion in below-market loans, costing taxpayers $7.5 billion to subsidize the retooling of plants and development of technologies to help U.S. carmakers to build cleaner, more fuel efficient cars. Companies would not have to begin repaying the loans for five years, drawing objections from Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who predicted they would return for more help when the money is due.
This is "free market" economics at work?
Why don't they subsidize, instead, with that $7.5 BILLION of our money, companies that actually know how to make "cleaner, more fuel efficient cars"? $7.5 billion is just a godawful TON of money, in spite of it being only 1% of the proposed bail out of the Financial Epicenter of the Richest Country on Earth.
Why don't they give that $7.5 BILLION dollars for companies who are producing new technologies, and thus JOBS, that would actually grow, and work toward ending our addiction to fossil fuels which are killing the entire world? Why should Detroit be put on this extremely expensive life-support to continue doing the stupid shit they are doing?
Oh, and by the way this same bill does this:
Oil companies won elimination of a long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
And there's this:
The Pentagon is in line for a record budget. In addition to $70 billion approved this summer for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department would receive $488 billion, a 6 percent increase.
So, let's see, who did Congress just pass this bill for?
Big Auto.
Big Oil.
Defense Contractors.
How did the American people fare?
Well, gosh, we just picked up the tab for this massive display of brazen corporate welfare.
Thanks, guys, for getting our permission to do this!
Not.
Throw. The. Bums. Out.
All of them. The (D)'s and the (R)'s.
They are NOT working for us. They are simply draining our wallets of money we do not have. They seem to think of us as nothing but a human ATM machine, to be used at their whim.
UPDATE:
Thanks to Don the swing voter, in a comment below, who reveals that Robert Reich thinks the same thing:
"Meanwhile, when no one was looking, American automakers are on the way to getting their own sweetheart deal from Congress -- billions, ostensibly to convert to more fuel-efficient cars. On a much smaller scale, this bailout is almost as outrageuos as Wall Street's. Detroit has known for years that it would eventually have to create fuel-efficient cars, but it kept producing SUVs and trucks because that was where the profits were. Japanese automakers in the US did the right thing, took the risk, made the investments in fuel-efficient technologies. But they're not getting bailed out."
Of course, you're going to hear:
It creates jobs, without any evidence that it's an efficient expenditure for such a purpose.
It's a loan. So is the AIG bailout, for example.
It will be good for the environment. This is hilarious. The automakers have avoided preparing for this by not making energy efficient cars, and are now, in essence, blackmailing the taxpayers.
Finally, many investors, like William Gross of Pimco, claim the Paulson Plan will make money in the long run. I tell you what, he has a much better record of making money and turning a profit than the auto industry. The idea that they can now, magically, turn a profit on these cars, is really funny. These bailouts are all very risky, and many people who are criticizing the Paulson plan really have no idea of its effect on jobs and the economy. But, hey, what's 25 Billion more.
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/...