Bailouts – C-Haze
Posted in C-Haze, Economy, News, Politics	
Rising Blood Pressure, More Bailouts and a New Kia
This crap is getting downright old.
This time it’s the automobile industry.
Rumor has it that the dems, led by Nancy Pelosi (House Speaker), are pushing for $25 billion in taxpayer funds to help the 3 biggest- and most troubled- companies within the auto industry.
The bill is expected to pass next week during a lame-duck session.
Funding will (hopefully) come from the already-approved $700 billion originally earmarked to save the financial sector on Wall Street.
Here’s what I need to know- Why is there an extra $25 billion available from the original bailout package?
I mean, I thought this $700 billion price tag was the bare minimum- a must- to save the banks…
…So did Congress actually pass a much bigger package than was actually necessary?
Seems to me, it wasn’t too terribly long ago that politicians were hoppin’ up and down, swearing that the banks needed at least $700 billion to save their butts…
Are they now saying that the banks didn’t actually need all that money, and that there is enough excess- billions in excess, mind you- to save Ford, GM and Chrysler too?
… And did the original damn bailout even work?
I don’t know about anybody else, but my 401(k) is still as deep in the shitter as it ever was.
Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me.
If there is enough excess from that original bill to bail out the auto industry then I’m pissed off that I was lied to… it would mean that my representatives fed me a bunch of bull about how necessary every penny of this was, and took more than they needed to take- of my money.
On the flip side, If there isn’t enough excess to cover the auto industry then I am pissed off because really, what the hell are we having this conversation for, if we can’t even afford to help?
Look- the whole thing stinks.
Bush has said he may veto, should Congress send legislation his way that requires the government to dip into funds that have previously been earmarked for Wall Street.
At the same time, however, the bill may not pass if Congress tries to create an additional bailout- to the tune of $25 billion- seperate from the money set aside for the financial sector.
Not without billions in added pork, anyway.
Regardless, I still haven’t heard a single fuckin’ word about who is going to help me– the little guy who needs it most.
When I bailed out the banks, nobody tried to make my loans easier to repay or more secure in return.
Now that I have to bail out the auto industry too, I don’t hear anything about lowering the interest on my car loan, or hell, even helping me make a single payment.
If the government wants to “shore up the economy”, how about take those billions of dollars- our money- and give it back to us?
Hell, if I had an extra several hundred thousand dollars in my pocket, I’d start spending.
I’d do it with finesse!
What better way to get the economy going again than giving hard-working people their own money back, and letting them spend it?
This nonsense has my blood pressure up.
This is why I voted against every last incumbent on the ballot November 4th.
I figure the people we have runnin’ this thing have done a royal job of scewing it all up… so I voted for every single challenger on that damn ballot, regardless of party line.
I had never even heard of half the people I voted for.
… But I didn’t give a hoot.
Meanwhile, if Chrysler goes under, I’ll buy a fuckin’ Kia… and if the rest of us do the same, they’ll have no choice but to hire the old Big Three union workers to meet their added demand.
And this time around, I suggest they NOT pay their employees 80 zillion dollars a year plus benefits to screw a damn screw into a flippin’ door down on the line… Union or not.
That’d save a bundle, I’m sure.
Better yet, I’m calling Chrysler as soon as this thing passes- they own the loan on my Sebring… and I’m letting them know that effective immediately, my loan is paid in full.
I just gave them 25 billion dollars, dammit.
Implosion, Spontaneous Combustion and John McCain
This man is about to implode…
Now McCain wants to postpone the VP Debates in addition to the Presidential Debates.
He’s lost his ever-loving mind.
That’s what this “I need to suspend my campaign to put country first” bullshit was all about…
As noted in yesterday’s post, this man couldn’t care less about the economy.
Something else entirely was going on.
He needed an excuse to avoid getting killed by Obama in the presidential debates on Friday… and more importantly needed a way to get Palin out of having to debate Biden.
We all knew he would have chewed her lipstick wearin’ ass up and spit her right back out again.
Are people actually falling for this?
I wonder if there are millions of people sitting there, coffee in hand, as I’m typing this, thinking, “Aww… that John McCain! What a sweetheart, postponing something so damn important to this very election- which is in 40 days by the way- I think I’ll vote for him!”
I certainly hope people are not actually falling for this ridiculously obvious and transparent ploy.
He can’t get his campaign or his party under control… the majority of Americans are blaming the GOP for this economic mess we’re finding ourselves in… blaming the GOP for the bailout…
His own so-called supporters aren’t doing the best job supporting him or his running mate either…
Hell, Laura Bush told the press yesterday that Sarah Palin didn’t have enough foreign policy experience… but no worries… she’s a quick learner.
McCain, for his part, says he’s trying to rescue the economy right now, not the campaign.
Well, he needs to rescue both.
This girl can’t help but giggle.
Banks, Steak and Mac-n-Cheese
Alright look- I’m all in favor of saving the nation’s banks.
I understand that as long as the credit markets remain frozen, there will be no lending- not to individuals, not to businesses, not to anyone. If people and corporations cannot get the credit they need, the economy will grind to a screeching halt.
What I am having a tough time grasping is all the arguing between the GOP and the Democrats on how this thing should actually operate.
I mean, intellectually I get it. I know why they’re fighting. Personally, however, I’m pretty damn frustrated with the whole thing.
Why, why, why should we, as tax payers, bail these banks out and get no personal relief or mortgage/debt assistance in return?
These banks will be able to sell off their bad debt to me– Little Miss Broke Ass Taxpayer- but when I (or you) need a little assistance from them to keep my home from being foreclosed on, I get…
It would be different if we, average tax payers, actually had the extra change to shell out to begin with…
… But dangit, we’re suffering pretty darn terribly ourselves right now…
And it’s about it get worse.
Shit- war is not cheap, you know- and quite frankly, neither is gas or anything else right now.
I’m not an economics girl… but I’m not stupid either… so I’ve done my best to wrap my brain around this mess, breaking it down into chunks of data that I can actually understand- as Lord knows good ol’ Chaze cannot grasp the magnitude of what 700 billion bucks really amounts to.
I’m trying to compare this bailout to my own real-life (if a bit meager) financial situation- to better understand this mess, you see.
So when I was but a broke young divorcee, I came into some money strife and had to call Maw and Paw to bail my butt out.
They helped me… God love ’em… and in doing so, saved me from a whole world of hurt.
What they did not do, however, was go overboard…
They gave me what I needed to survive- rent, groceries, perhaps a car payment or two.
I was not able to live high on the hog (and no, for you over-sensitive types, I did not just call Sarah Palin a pig).
The parents gave me just enough to get by until I was able to help myself.
Basically, I lived a mac-n-cheese kind of existence, not a steak-n-lobster life.
Wait- Lived a mac-n-cheese kind of existence? As in past tense? Who am I kidding- I still live that life.
My point is this- why should things be any different for the banks? Why should we, the tax payers, the same people who are getting our very own houses foreclosed on, bail out the very companies that are doing all the foreclosing without insisting on a little help for ourselves as well?
Beyond that, why in the hell should they be able to sell off their rotten-egg debt… to me… and you… and walk away as well off- or better- than they were to start with?
Unfortunately, Bush’s bailout plan pretty much lets the banks off easy, moving the burden of their bad debt to the tax payers… the banks get out of this mess scott-free while… you and I have a ton of new debt in addition to the debt we already had… and no more help to pay it off than we had before.
I say give ’em what they need to survive- and if that’s 700 billion buck-a-roos, so be it. But don’t give ’em so much that they get to keep eating lobster-n-steak… they need to live on mac-n-cheese until they can afford their own damn steak.
In the meantime, if I’m bailing their asses out, they can express their gratitude by throwing my brown butt a bone too (actually, I’m more of a caramel color… but you catch my drift).
Here’s what my proposal woul be, if I ruled the world:
I’d tell the banks- the tax-payers will help them… but they have to help the tax payers in return.
Let’s work something out to where the very people that are saving those fat-cat-bankers’ asses can at least keep their homes.
And hey- if that’s the way it’s handled, I bet none of us would mind eatin’ mac-n-cheese instead of steak for just a little bit longer.
Posted in Barack Obama, C-Haze, Elections, Joe Biden, John McCain, News, Politics, Presidential Campaign, Race, Sarah Palin, Single Mom, War on Terror	
Bailouts, Banks, Health Care and More of the Same
With Congress being told just this past week by the Fed chairman and Treasury Secretary that we are mere days from a complete and total meltdown of our financial system, John McCain proposes a privatized health care plan that mirrors…
Bad idea, Maverick boy…
And I don’t have to be a health-insurance-slash-banking-industry insider to know that.
So why doesn’t he get it?
I wonder which part of the banking sector Senator McCain would like the Health Insurance industry to mirror…
The part where many of our biggest banks are imploding?
The part where they’re scrambling to find cash on hand, to avoid complete and total collapse?
Ooh! Or how about the part where due to the credit crisis, banks are approving fewer and fewer people for mortgages, making home-ownership all but impossible for millions upon millions of Americans?
That’s how we want our health insurance coverage to work? I mean, if McCain wants it to be much more difficult for average people to get coverage… and therefore find himself responsible for fewer people than ever before having access to quality health care… then…
Well… I guess maybe this is a good plan!
Or wait- perhaps McCain wants health insurance to mirror the financial sector in that so many of our largest banks are now requiring massive federal bailouts just to stay alive… at the expense of tax-payers… who are already facing massive financial challenges with these same institutions, to the tune of about 9,800 home foreclosures a day…
Oh- and those that will be blessed enough to keep their homes will find themselves paying off sub-prime loans, owing something in the neighborhood of 25% more than what their homes are even worth… a nightmare caused, in large part, by the very thing McCain is peddling…
Marketizing the health insurance industry so that it can perform the same way as the financial industry is an absolute reckless and ridiculous idea.
**News flash to Sarah Palin’s running-mate**
The financial industry is in complete ruin.
Bush, our esteemed Prez, has just requested $700 billion dollars for a federal bailout of said financial industry, which will just barely save its ass.
Right. Cuz we can afford that.
I mean, after all, the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Why in the hell would anyone want to model anything, let alone something as important as health care, after such a complete cluster fuck?
What really pisses me off is the fact that so many of my fellow Americans… regular ol’ middle class folks… who are being hit the hardest by this nonsense… and stand to lose the most… are still going to vote for these GOP clowns.
These people would rather lose their homes, continue paying gas prices that they cannot afford, continue losing federal funding for programs that could actually help them get back on their feet, and lose health care coverage for themselves and their children simply because…
They’re too racist wussy to vote for a man who will change it all for the better…
People are scared cuz the guy running against McSame has a weird moniker and looks different than your typical old-ass white politician.
I was a home owner for the first half of the Bush Administration, and was forced to sell my house- mere months before it was foreclosed on- simply to pay off mounting medical bills (in spite of the fact that my family and I were covered by one of the largest health insurance companies in the country)…
I am struggling every single day, even as I have what most would consider a great job working for a fortune 500 company…
Yet I still can’t afford gas and milk and eggs and rent and utilities and my health insurance premiums…
Certainly not simultaneously.
I take this shit personally.
McCain is telling us that he will model his presidency after Bush’s.
He isn’t using those exact words…
But he’s saying it nonetheless.
I cannot survive 8 more years of the same…
… and neither can you.