The "Rescue" Plan, in Plain English

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

To stimulate lending, the bailout plan will attempt to recapitalize banks. The method of recapitalization is best described as robbing Taxpayer Pete to pay Wall Street Paul. In essence, money is taken from the poor (via taxes, printing, and weakening of the dollar) and given to the wealthy so the wealthy supposedly will have enough money to lend back (at interest) to those who have just been robbed.

If you prefer comics, then you'll like this one from Sinfest:

Yes, Virginia, there is Pork in the Bailout

As I've been striving to learn Congressional process, after being very annoyed at the pork hiding in the Bailout bill, I stumbled across the Wikipedia entry for H.R. 1424.

I should have known better, but wanted to struggle through the raw text myself. All 3 divisions were indeed passed as the same law, so all that pork is sent to the pit. I still have a lot to learn, as this practice is common. Most of this is just disgusting to me, as the three Acts in this bill have nothing in common with each other.

No wonder our government spends so much.

::sigh::

"Pray for our republic," intoned Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, a leading opponent of the measure. "She's being placed in very uncaring and greedy hands."

Historic bailout bill passes Congress; Bush signs - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081003/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

Now, I have to vote everyone out of office that voted for this thing. Thankfully, my Representative, Michael McCaul, voted against this bill. Unfortunately, Senators Cornyn and Hutchison now must go.

A Letter from Joe Biden

In my quest to spread The Common Sense Fix I've exposed myself to probably far to many mailing lists. This was pretty evident this morning when I received an email from Joe Biden.

Ryan --

If you saw tonight's debate, you saw Governor Sarah Palin give a spirited defense of the same disastrous policies that have failed us for the past eight years.

She couldn't identify a single area where she or John McCain would change George W. Bush's economic or foreign policy positions.

If you want something different, Barack and I need your help.

Make a donation of $5 or more right now to bring about the change we need.

The change we need is fixing this broken economy from the bottom up -- not tax breaks for the wealthy and huge corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas. We need to focus on defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and restoring America's standing in the world -- not an unending commitment in Iraq.

Let's be clear: Governor Palin and Senator McCain are offering nothing but more of the same failed Bush policies at home and abroad, trying to disguise them in the rhetoric of change.

Americans need real solutions and real change.

We're in this together and there's a lot to do before Election Day. Please make a donation of $5 or more right now to support this campaign for change:

https://donate.barackobama.com/changeweneed

This is the most important presidential election you'll be part of in your life.

Thank you for all that you're doing.

Now let's get to work and change this country,

Joe

Here's my reply, which I'm sure will go nowhere.

Ah, Joe, more of the same. I watched the debate and saw very little of consequence for the average American. All I saw is the same politics as usual -- from both sides. You're right, we need real change in this country.

I'm tired of the same old class warfare arguments that tell me to start making one group or another pay more of the burden of running this country. It's time we got back to "All Men Are Create Equal", and started believing in it again. Punishing successful Americans for their income is not the answer, it just creates a disincentive to build wealth and become better.

Corporations are wealth distribution machines, as a company does not amass 'wealth'. Corporations build jobs. Heavily taxing corporations just gives less incentive for them to build them here. It is about time we started making America compete in the world marketplace, and give corporations a reason to create jobs here.

Think for a minute how companies pay taxes. Any income a corporation creates has to be divided up among the employees, the investors, suppliers, debts incurred, growing the business, and the government. A corporation doesn't amass wealth -- it distributes it, so any taxes a corporation pays is taken away from creating wealth for everyone else on that list.

The only way we're going to get out of this mess is to grow this economy. It's time for real change. We need to stop taking so much money away from the American people to give to a bloated government that spends far more than it takes in. Government needs to focus on creating incentives for businesses to start up and thrive in these United States.

It's time for real change. Let's get to work. Three initiatives to get us on track are The Common Sense Fix, change-congress.org, and fairtax.org. It's time for change that can make a difference.

Ryan

I'm not sure if any of this will make a difference, but it feels far better than doing nothing, or whining about it around the water cooler.

I'm Tired... of Election Year Politics

I'm tired of all the same old rhetoric, the same politicking, the same class warfare, and the same corruption. It's time for real change in our government, not more of the same. That's why I've had several politically directed posts in the past several months. I think it's time to enumerate just what I'm tired of.

Class Warfare

Whenever I hear the words rich, poor, greedy, or redistribution of wealth, I know that the person talking is just trying to get us to fight amongst ourselves so they can walk off with the money, power, or whatever it is they set out to take. It's a tactic to deflect from real issues.

Fairness comes from equality, not placing different standards on any particular class of people. Anyone who talks differently is just trying to play one group against another. It is time to stop playing that game. This is one of the reasons I started supporting FairTax, which would take away the inequities in the current tax code and make taxes fair.

Evil Corporations

This mostly involves talk about taxing the excessive profits that a company makes. On the surface, companies appear to pay many taxes -- taxes against their profits, taxes against the income they are providing employees, and taxes on investments they make. Over the water cooler, I heard recently about the tax benefits of employing a workforce in India (I am not kidding).

Now, think for a minute how companies pay taxes. Any income a corporation creates has to be divided up among the employees, the investors, suppliers, debts incurred, growing the business, and the government. A corporation doesn't amass wealth -- it distributes it, so any taxes a corporation pays is taken away from creating wealth for everyone else on that list.

It all sounds good when the evil corporation being taxed isn't identified as you, but in some way or another, you are on that list. That's what makes corporate taxes such an effective way at hiding the true nature of a tax. Again, that's another reason I'm supporting FairTax.

Corruption

The whole process has become corrupt. Money invades and distorts at every level of politics. Earmarks are a staple of the modern political arsenal.

Take a gander at the latest atrocity coming out of government, know as The $700 Billion Bailout. It's 451 pages long!!! For something that has been deemed so critical to our economy, I would have thought they'd be brief and expedient (for reference, The Common Sense Fix is only a single page long, though it might grow to 5 pages it it was formatted like the current bill).

If you bother to scan through that document, you'd find juicy provisions for Energy, Mental Health, Disaster Relief, Film and Television Production, a Motorsports Racing Track Facility, Railroad Track Maintenance, Mine Rescue Team Training, Economic Development for Samoa, and I'm not even covering half of it. Who doesn't have their hand in the till for this one? Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up.

[Note: In reexamining the text, I found that E.E.S.A. is part of Division A, and most of the other troubling stuff I've noted above come from Divisions B & C. I've found a better link for E.E.S.A. here. All these Divisions appear to be part of HR 1424 (which comes from the Senate website), but it's not clear to me if they all are voted on at once. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.]

I'd recommend reading the bill for entertainment value as well. The name given for the bill is E.E.S.A. (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act) and it's main provision is for a T.A.R.P. (Troubled Assets Relief Program), apparently to cover their backsides. It sounds like stuff out of an old comic book!

This is just normal business in Congress. This bill is an ordinary knitting together of all the wants and needs of various constituents, tying together various parts of other legislation, nipping here, extending there -- such that most of the bill is illegible. It makes for a great opportunity to sneak things in.

I would guess that most elected officials don't read the whole bill, and instead read something like this summary of the bailout, which conveniently leaves out all the earmarks hiding in that little bill. Heck, I don't think even journalists read this stuff, because I've certainly never seen it on CNN.

This is why I'm supporting the Change Congress movement. We've got to demand real change out of our system, and vigilantly defend our government from the corruption that has infected it.