John Dunbar of the Associated Press has an article entitled Bailout-money uses continue to shift. The massive bailout bill stampeded through Congress was originally about buying devalued mortgage-backed securities from tottering banks to unclog frozen credit markets. Then it was about using some of the money to buy stakes in banks.
But reports surfaced that bankers might instead use the money to buy other banks, pay dividends, give employees a raise and executives a bonus, or just sit on it. Insurance companies now want a piece; maybe automakers, too, even though Congress has approved $25 billion in low-interest loans for them.
Officials are even getting around to talking about helping a few mortgage-strapped homeowners. And, this passage makes me laugh:
As the crisis worsens, the government’s reaction keeps changing. Lawmakers in both parties are starting to gripe that the bailout is turning out to be far different from what the Bush administration sold to Congress.
As if this is the first go-round with the Bush administration. As Bush himself once said, “Fool me once shame on . . . . you? Fool me . . . . you can’t get fooled again.” Or, more appropriately, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Near as I can figure, the Bush administration has lied about anything it has ever done. If they gave me the time, I’d check my watch.
To make matters worse, the Bush administration is redacting copies of bailout contracts it releases to the public, hiding key information such as how much various firms are being compensated for providing bailout related services to the government. This feeds suspicion that the bailout is being used to transfer truckloads of cash to favored cronies.
As predicted by too few people, just like with the Iraq war, the country was stampeded over the cliff by a bunch of hootin’ cowboys. What scares me is that the next President seemed to go right along with it, too.
Lawmakers can gripe all they want, but they haven’t a leg to stand on when they vote on something without reading it. What was sold by the Administration? You mean to tell me the Democratic Congress simply bought what Bush was saying? After themselves making the case ad nauseum that Bush lies? Shame on them, indeed. You’d be smart enough to check your watch. The Democratic Congress will vote ‘Aye’ and even carry the water. See: Barney Frank.
Did you catch 60 Minutes last night? What struck me was that the collapse of the derivative market was made possible by the Senate in 2000, when it passed a law making the side bets (the former bucket shop games) legal once again. What struck me was that the Senate clearly hadn’t read the legislation they were voting on.
This happens with great frequency- from McCain not having read the proposed bailout when it was merely a 3-page document, to the Patriot Act, to apparently this set of bailouts.
Here’s real change we can believe in: Make our legislators read the laws in their entirety before they vote on them.