With all due respect to Obama and the Democratic leadership, I would submit that their guiding principles for a bailout are not the right ones if they want Main Street to get on board with a bailout plan.
Here is what I believe it will take:
- The people in charge of the money should not be Bush appointees. We have been lied to, ignored and scammed by these people for 8 years. Giving them a final gift of $700B in their last 4 months in office strikes those of us outside the beltway as foolhardy.
Suggestion: The people controlling the funds should be a committee of non-partisans. Maybe headed by Warren Buffet?
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- Congressional oversight has been worthless the last 8 years and we all know that. If you are not able to enforce your subpoenas when you know the law has been broken, why are we supposed to believe that this "oversight" will have any impact.
Suggestion: Tie this bill to the Bush Admin cooperation on the existing oversight issues. Make it a criminal offense to block exercise of this oversight
- The reimbursement that is contemplated in the form of warrants (equity) and the five year recovery is so nebulous we all know it won't get us anything. The curbs on CEO pay and "golden parachutes" doesn't prevent the existing agreements , only new ones. Does anyone seriously think that the Wall Street Gurus won't make out here? The plan as I understand it is to make CEO pay above $500K non-deductible. Has a "luxury tax" stopped the New York Yankees? This is a joke.
Suggestion: You ran your company so that you needed our bailout. You bite the bullet. $1MM/year max and reduced payouts. You want to retire because you don't want to work for that much? Fine with us.
- The government will not "overpay" for assets. This never solves anything. It just gets us ripped off.
Suggestion: Fair market value. If we need auctions to figure out the price, so be it.
- Not all the money goes to Wall Street.
Suggestion: For every $$$ that goes to Wall Street, a dollar goes to infrastructure, energy, etc. This will create jobs and help people on Mainstreet get their financial house in order
- Tax reform: Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest people.
- Get out of Iraq. Polls consistently show the American people want out of this expensive war that is not accomplishing anything. We only have so much money. This war is a luxury we can't afford.
Now I have no illusions that the Bush Administration will accept very much of this. I guess then we will find out how desperate things really are. But if they want the people behind this bill, some or all of the above will be necessary.