AIG Bonus Furor: Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) Made The Bonuses Possible

Don’t you just love it when a Senator steps on his/her own foot and trips him/herself up? I do. That’s why I am blogging about Senator Chris Dodd and his hypocrisy about bonuses being paid out by American International Group (AIG).

While Congress was working on the porkulus/spendulus bill, Sen. Dodd added an amendment that I am pretty sure he wishes nobody remembered.

According to Fox Business:

That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” — which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax. The amendment made it into the final version of the bill, and is law.

So, the Democrats (and a few ignorant Republicans) are all up in arms about bonuses being paid out in strict accordance with a law that they themselves passed!

Can you say CHUTZPAH?

Here are the rules of the Dodd amendment:

Crack down on bonuses, retention awards and incentive compensation: Bonuses can only be paid in the form of long-term restricted stock, equal to no greater than 1/3 of total annual compensation, and will vest only when taxpayer funds are repaid. There is an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009. For institutions that received assistance totaling less than $25 million, the bonus restriction applies to the highest compensated employee; $25 million to $250 million, applies to the top five employees; $250 million to $500 million, applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 10 employees; and more than $500 million applies to the senior executive officers and the next top 20 employees (or such higher number as the Secretary determines is in the public interest).

Now, why would Sen. Dodd have done something like this? Perhaps OpenSecrets.org can provide us with the answer:

Note that Chris Dodd and Barack Obama were the two top recipients of money from AIG.

Now, people have known for over a year that these bonuses were coming out and a Democrat Senator introduced an amendment to make sure that those bonuses were legal. Why is their such a furor going on over all of it?

It is a distraction from other things, that’s why. It turns out that AIG was used as a launderer to spread money around to other banks. Someone doesn’t want us investigating that so they blow the bonus issue way out of proportion to try and make it into some type of scandal.

As for the outrage, I wonder why there was no outrage when public funds were used to shore up UAW retirement accounts?

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries To Undo Bonus Protections He Put In
Rich Edson
Fox Business
March 17, 2009

How The Bailouts Are Faring In Europe

Let’s see, the bailout of the banks has failed. The two bailouts of Detroit have both failed. The massive porkulus/spendulus package that was supposed to inject confidence in the economy has failed. How many more failures do we need to see before we realize that socialism is the worng way to go?

If not here in the U.S., then look at Europe. Rachel Marsden has an excellent column for Town Hall.

Here are some excerpts:

Hungary and the Baltic states want to be bailed out by countries like France and Germany, which are having enough financial troubles of their own. Le Figaro newspaper reports that France’s debt is heading for 80% of its GDP (or $27,625 US per person) by the end of next year. France pumped $450 billion US into its banks last year, and another $7.8 billion to prop up French car manufacturers – because the world would be lost without Renaults and Citroens. Germany bailed out its banks last October to the tune of $675 billion US. And now the crippled are being asked to carry the wounded with a massive transfer of wealth.

It didn’t work in Europe and it certainly won’t work here in the U.S.

More:

So far, the consensus is to deal with such bailouts of entire countries on a case-by-case basis. Hopefully, that means never. Argentina has been digging itself out of bankruptcy for the past few years, and will perhaps one day figure out that socialism doesn’t work. In the meantime, other countries can use the lesson: You can’t keep pouring money into a socialist society when there’s no production occurring to create the wealth you’re spending pre-emptively.

That is what socialists don’t understand. Socialism destroys the means of production which in turn destroys wealth. The big mistake that socialists make is that they think the main social goal of businesses is to create jobs. That is wrong. The main social goal of businesses is to turn a profit and from that profit new jobs will be created. That’s why higher taxes lead to higher unemployment. Taxes reduce the profit of a business.

Finally:

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Why should I care, as an American?” Well, because President Obama is intent on spreading the misery of this crisis, and it’s unclear at this point how far across borders that misery will reach, or whether we’re looking at some kind of a new economic Marshall Plan to help out Europe. He’s already being prodded in that regard by UK PM Gordon Brown who, like Obama, is tossing money at make-work government projects and, unlike Obama, is facing a toss right out of office as a result. It would represent yet another failure of Obama-style socialism. … Perhaps I can put this in terms that some Brits can understand: Never before has the detriment of giving a socialist more money to piss up a wall been so glaringly evident.

Gotta love that parting shot.

You can access the complete columnn on-line here:

Hang On To Your Wallets, Here Comes The EU!
Rachel Marsden
TownHall.com
March 5, 2009

Socialism? The Current Proposal From The Democrats Is Outright Marxism!

You are not going to believe this, but read it for yourself:

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said. “There’s deeply rooted anger on the part of the average American,” the Massachusetts Democrat said at a Washington news conference today. He said the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies.

Yes, if you read all the way to the end of that clip, you saw the words: “to include all U.S. companies.”

That’s right. The Dems are now proposing Soviet-style control on how much money you could potentially make.

Think this is just some leftist idle chat? Read on:

Mr. Frank seems to be in synch with the Obama administration in his plans for executive compensation. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last month that he might try to extend to all U.S. companies a restriction that prohibits bailout banks from taking a tax deduction of more than $500,000 in pay for each executive. The Troubled Assets Relief Program legislation enacted in October seeks to give companies receiving aid under the $700 billion bailout a number of incentives to curb what it calls excessive executive pay. Mr. Geithner said he would consider “extending at least some of the TARP provisions and features of the $500,000 cap to U.S. companies generally.”

Yes, our current tax-evading Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, said that.

Any of you libs out there still want to whine about the Dems being referred to as “socialists?” Maybe you are right. This latest proposal puts them in league with the Marxists.

There is an old saying: “With the first link, the chain is forged.”

This idiotic proposal the Dems are making is that first link.

Wake up, America!

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Barney Frank: TARP’s Comp Curbs Could Be Extended To All Businesses
Neil Roland
Financial Week
February 3, 2009

Democrats At The Trough: Your Taxpayer Dollars Feeding The Pigs

If only all journalists in the United States had as much integrity and courage as Cal Thomas does to write what is overwhelmingly obvious and write it with so much clarity. Take, for example, government spending, why it has become so bloated and what effect such spending has on you and I, the American taxpayers.

Cal’s latest column is about overspending by governments: Federal, State and Local. And he explains clearly why such overspending occurred and what the (mostly Democrat) elected leaders in these governments want to do by way of a “solution.”

From his column:

Democratic governors from overspending states like New York, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Ohio are among those seeking financial deliverance. The governors want Washington to pony up $1 trillion for their absolutely-essential-non-negotiable-if-we-don’t-get-the-money-people-will-starve programs.

But why should we, the taxpayers, fund this bailout? Who among us would not be held responsible, as individual citizens, for spending more than we take in?

Read on:

New York Governor David Paterson claims that, because tax revenues have plunged, 43 states now have budget deficits totaling around $100 billion. No, those states have deficits because when times were good and the money was rolling in they thought they could get away with endless new programs, while putting little or no money aside for the inevitable rainy day. Neither did they consider which programs were necessary and which ones were just politically beneficial. Or, maybe they did and they opted for politically beneficial, thus creating their problem, and ours. Notice the sleight of hand about to be perpetrated on hardworking taxpayers. In the end, it is we who pay for the plans of politicians who are unable, or unwilling, to control themselves when it comes to other peoples’ money. When Republicans cut taxes, Democrats scream about growing deficits. But Democrats never worry about the deficit when they spend more than what the government takes in. So it really isn’t about the deficit at all. It is about how much of our hard-earned money the Democrats, mostly, will allow us to keep.

Bingo! Look at that simplicity of comparison. Conservatives cut taxes and the libs complain about not enough money to spend. Libs spend more money than they have and then delude themselves into believing that our grand-children will be happy to pay for the libs non-sense appropriations. What would happen to you if you ran your household budget like this? You would, at the very least, recieve a very low credit rating and not be able to get new loans, or at worst, go to jail.

And what is even better is that the comparison between the libs and Conservatives is valid and absolutely true.

More:

The incoming Obama administration wants to spend gobs of money on “infrastructure,” creating government jobs that will end when the work is completed. Isn’t infrastructure primarily supposed to be the work of state and local governments? Isn’t the gasoline tax supposed to go to build and repair local roads and bridges? The federal responsibility should begin and end with the interstate highway system. The governors’ request for more money from Washington is also about unfunded mandates, the rising cost of Medicare and Medicaid and a lot of other “entitlement” programs that could have been made solvent during the Bush administration, which tried, but was unable to succeed due to opposition from Democrats who preferred to have an issue rather than a solution.

And there is the reason the Dems don’t want any real solutions to the overspending problem. They need wasteful programs in order to buy votes and they need a way to keep people dependent on the government for their livelihood.

This is a most excellent column and everyone should read it:

Pigs At The Trough
Cal Thomas
TownHall.com
January 6, 2009

$33 Million Lakside Resort Owned By UAW Exposes Jim Webb’s Hypocrisy

You know, one of the things that really angers me is arrogant hypocrisy. What I mean by that is a “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude. As the proud father of a newborn baby boy, I can honestly say that I will teach my son to never engage in such behavior. I only wish that the full-grown politicians who ride roughshod over us would live by the same rules we teach our children to live by.

To wit, there is an interesting story from Fox News that came out on December 26th concerning a resort owned by the United Auto Workers and financed by the Big Three Automakers through union negotiated contracts.

You all may recall that I wrote letters to my Congressional Representatives concerning the proposed bailout of Detroit. I noted that legacy costs such as the Jobs Bank program were forcing higher costs on the Big Three and that was why they were facing backruptcy. I further noted that many small businesses here in Virginia were in danger of failing but that no one was talking about bailing them out.

Well, I did get a response back from Jim Webb. In his response, he noted that the Big Three executives recieved much higher salaries when compared to the executives of foreign automakers and proposed forcing the U.S. executives to take a parity of salary. It should also be noted that Senator Webb never made one single mention of the plight of small businesses here in Virginia nor did he express any concern their situation.

This brings me to the point of the above mentioned arrogant hypocrisy. If we are to take such a negative view of the American Automakers executives’ salaries, then we must also look at the perks that the officers of the UAW are enjoying. One of those perks is a UAW owned golf course that has bled off $23 million over the past five years.

From Fox News:

Even as the industry struggles with massive losses, the UAW brass continue to own and operate a $33 million lakeside retreat in Michigan, complete with a $6.4 million designer golf course. And it’s costing them millions each year. The UAW, known more for its strikes than its slices, hosts seminars and junkets at the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center in Onaway, Mich., which is nestled on “1,000 heavily forested acres” on Michigan’s Black Lake, according to its Web site. But the Black Lake club and retreat, which are among the union’s biggest fixed assets, have lost $23 million in the past five years alone, a heavy albatross around the union’s neck as it tries to manage a multibillion-dollar pension plan crisis.

So, if we are to take Jim Webb seriously about his proposal of forcing executives to accept parity of salary, should we not also impose the same standard on the UAW officers who live the high life while the rest of America (most of whom can’t afford to spend time at high class resorts like the UAW does) floats them?

Or how about applying that same standard to Congress and other government officials? Should we not also impose “parity of salary” on them as well? According to the Census Bureau, the median household income in the United States in 2007 was $50,233.00. Thus, government officials, if they truly believe themselves to be the servants of the people and to be in touch with the peoples’ needs, should only accept salaries of $50,233.00 per year. If they are not willing to accept such parity for themselves, then they certainly should not be suggesting that it be imposed upon others.

But I am certain that Jim Webb lacks the integrity necessary to make such a bold stand. He has no problem imposing his standards on others, but will resist to the end any attempt at imposing those same standards on himself.

If any of the bailout money that President Bush released to finance the Big Three ends up floating that resort, it will serve as proof that the Democrats were more interested in repaying the UAW for political support than they were in bailing out the Big Three.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Autoworkers Union Keeps $6 Million Golf Course For Members At $33 Million Lakeside Retreat
FoxNews.com
December 26, 2008

Great News! Automaker Bailout Dies In The Senate!

This is good news for America. The proposed bailout for the Big Three in Detroit has died and for very good reasons. The remaining GOP Senators demanded that the United Auto Workers scale back their demands to be more on par with the compensation given to auto workers employed by Toyota and Honda.

That was a more than reasonable request given the current economic conditions, but the UAW wouldn’t budge and the Dems couldn’t do anything about it.

Associated Press has this to say via MSNBC:

Republicans, breaking sharply with President George W. Bush as his term draws to a close, refused to back federal aid for Detroit’s beleaguered Big Three without a guarantee that the United Auto Workers would agree by the end of next year to wage cuts to bring their pay into line with U.S. plants of Japanese carmakers. The UAW refused to do so before its current contract with the automakers expires in 2011.

Why is such a request meaningful? Because of this:

Congressional Republicans have been in open revolt against Bush over the auto bailout. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined other GOP lawmakers Thursday in announcing his opposition to the White House-backed bill, which passed the House on Wednesday. He and other Republicans insisted that the carmakers restructure their debt and bring wages and benefits in line with those paid by Toyota, Honda and Nissan in the United States. Hourly wages for UAW workers at GM factories are about equal to those paid by Toyota Motor Corp. at its older U.S. factories, according to the companies. GM says the average UAW laborer makes $29.78 per hour, while Toyota says it pays about $30 per hour. But the unionized factories have far higher benefit costs. GM says its total hourly labor costs are now $69, including wages, pensions and health care for active workers, plus the pension and health care costs of more than 432,000 retirees and spouses. Toyota says its total costs are around $48. The Japanese automaker has far fewer retirees and its pension and health care benefits are not as rich as those paid to UAW workers.

If the Japanese carmakers can produce cars for only three-quarters of the cost that American carmakers incur, then there is absolutely no reason why American carmakers can’t bring themselves in line with the lower costs.

But the unions are against this, mostly because it reduces their power and because the union bosses will no longer have any justification for their own high salaries nor for the massive donations they routinely make to the Democrat Party.

The GOP was absolutely right to make sure this deal is killed. It will be a day of reckoning for the UAW and for the Dems who have failed to pay them back for their support. Plus, it aims the spotlight exactly where it needs to be pointing.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Auto Industry Bailout Plan Dies In The Senate
Associated Press via MSNBC
December 12, 2008

House Approves Automaker Bailout, Sends Measure To Senate. Time To Tell The Senate “No!”

Well, the House has approved the ill-fated bailout of Detroit, mostly along party lines. It is clear that the Dems are serious about paying back the big unions for their support in the election and that they want the American taxpayer to foot the bill for it.

The only good thing I can say about this is that my own Representative, Frank Wolf (R-VA) actually voted against this bill. Maybe because of the letters he recieved from people like me or maybe because he has looked back at the dismal failure of the Wall Street bailout and thought better of doing the same thing again.

Now, we have to stop the measure from passing in the Senate. According to Bloomberg:

The House approved a $14 billion loan package intended to prevent a collapse of domestic automakers that would threaten millions of U.S. jobs. The 237-170 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where opposition is growing. … Some Republicans said the measure would waste taxpayer money without saving the companies from collapse. The bailout “won’t save a single job,” said Representative David Dreier, a California Republican. … In the Senate, Republicans said the bill lacked the 60 votes needed to overcome delaying tactics threatened by some members. Democrats have a 50-49 edge in the Senate.

It’s time to get going and write your Senators. Ask them to vote “Nay” on the automaker bailout. It is destined to fail as surely as the Wall Street bailout failed.

Besides, given that Congress has been running massive deficits and cannot balance a budget, can we really trust them to prevent the Big Three from going into bankruptcy? I am not the smartest man in the world, but even I know better than that.

You can access Congressional email directories on-line here:

Congressional Email Directory

Just click on your state and you will be taken a page with contact links for your Congressional delegation.

Here is a sample of what you can email to your Senator. Feel free to copy and paste it:

Dear Senator, I am writing this email to ask you to vote “Nay” on the automaker bailout bill which recently passed the House of Representatives (H.R. 7321). This bill is destined to be a dismal failure just as the $700 billion Wall Street bailout was a failure and huge waste of taxpayers money. It is already bad enough that our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay for these bailout failures. We need to stop this foolishness now before we begin saddling a debt on our great-grandchildren as well. The best thing to do for Detroit is to let them go into Chapter 11. That way, they can reorganize and retool. This will allow them to modernize as the foreign carmakers have done and Detroit can become competitive again. Right now, the Big Three have manpower costs such that they must pay over $70 an hour to build a car whereas other automakers can do the same job for $35 to $45 an hour. Bailing out Detroit will only prolong the inevitable and waste billions of taxpayer dollars in the process. As a final note, you should realize that hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the United States are in danger of failing, but no one is proposing to bail any of them out. Please apply that same standard to Detroit. Thank you.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

House Approves Automaker Bailout, Sends It To Senate
John Hughes
Bloomberg.com
December 10, 2008

A Letter To Virginia Senators Warner And Webb, And Representative Wolf

Another bailout? Another failure in the works? Why won’t Congress learn?

If you are from Virginia, feel free to copy this letter and send it in:

Dear [Congressional Representative], I am writing this letter to ask you to vote “Nay” on the proposed bailout of the Detroit “Big Three” automakers. While it is true that the American economy has been in a recession since last December, it is also true that we cannot kick-start it by placing yet another burden on the children and grand-children of the American taxpayer, especially a burden of a program that is doomed to failure. As a case in point, I show you the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street that was supposed to fend off a market crash. Not only was that bailout a complete and total failure, but it saddled a $905 billion debt on our children and grand-children. And even beyond that, the pork that existed in that bill was nothing short of unpardonable. After all, those toy wooden arrows, wheat research grants and subsidies for Puerto Rican rum didn’t do a damn thing to shore up the markets. And now, the Federal Government wants to make the same mistake again, only this time with Detroit. There comes a time when you simply must let a business fail. Detroit has reached that time. The legacy costs they have incurred over the years are too much for them to overcome and certainly not worthy of the hard-earned dollars that the American taxpayer will be forced into paying for them. As a case in point for this, I show you the Jobs Bank program that the United Auto Workers negotiated with the Big Three. In this program, workers are literally paid not to work. How long can any business maintain such a ridiculous policy? It is true that there is talk of “suspending” this program, but that won’t help since it means the program could come back and force more legacy cost on the automakers. It needs to be killed completely along with several other concessions to the UAW that have contributed to the legacy costs that are right now killing Detroit. The best way to fix the problem is to allow the Big Three to go into Chapter 11 and re-organize. This is the most viable option as is evidenced by the other big automakers in the United States who have plants in California, Tennessee and South Carolina. None of them are in trouble nor are they asking for any kind of bailout nor are they beholden to any labor unions. If the Big Three want to survive, they should look to Toyota, Honda and BMW as models for restructuring. One last point I want to make. Small businesses all over Virginia are in danger of failing due to the bad economy. Hairdressers are losing business because people don’t have the money to get their hair done as often. Garages are losing business because people are putting off auto repair for as long as possible. Painters, plumbers and carpenters are losing business because people are putting off home repairs as long as possible. But despite the fact that small businesses here in Virginia are in danger of failing, no one has been proposing a government bailout for us. Please apply that same standard to Detroit. Thank you.

Convert Paulson’s Last $350 Billion Into A Tax Holiday

I had always entertained the thought that a President who wanted to drum up support for the FairTax could have easily done so by granting a period of Tax Amnesty (Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution) during which no one would have to pay any Federal taxes. It would be a small taste of what effect the FairTax would have on the national economy and when people see how relieving so much economic pressure would allow such a huge economic boom to occur, they would be writing letters to Congress urging the passage of HR 25 and S 1025.

Louie Gohmert has a similar idea except that he is going to try and push it through Congress. Not an easy task since the Democrats control both houses and the idea of not collecting taxes is a concept they seem completely incapable of grasping. But a two-month Tax Holiday would be exactly like having the FairTax for that same time period and it would more than jump-start our economy.

From a November 28, 2008 Press Release:

By instating a temporary tax holiday, we could electrify the American economy and provide overwhelming relief to taxpayers, all for less than the cost of the current failed Paulson-Pelosi bailout system.” “We need to give this money to the people who earned it. I am sick of Washington millionaires trying to decide which of their cronies should get the next wad of taxpayer money,” Rep. Louie Gohmert continued. “Think about how much you would have if you didn’t have any social security or income tax withheld from your pay check, or if you didn’t have to pay those taxes for January and February! Americans could take and invest their own money where they believe it should go – to paying down mortgages, buying a new car, making credit card payments. The economy would get relief where it is needed the most. Why try to decide how to prevent foreclosures? Just give taxpayers their own money to catch up on their payments. Those in lower income brackets who are hit the hardest by the FICA tax would see huge money back, and then THEY could choose who should benefit from their hard earned money. Even the self-employed and small business owners would receive a fantastic amount of their own much-needed money, and they will be able to invest that back into their businesses and even create the ability to hire more people.” Gohmert is currently preparing a bill to declare the tax holiday for January and February of 2009 and is also gathering support at the same time. He said, “We can save more home mortgages, increase employment, and boost economic growth for a lower price tag with this plan than with any centralized bureaucratic program, all by giving the power back to the taxpayers. I am demanding that not another penny goes to executive bailouts, but these billions of taxpayer dollars should go to the taxpayers who earned them.”

You can support the Tax Holiday by going to the following link and signing the petition:

Sign The Tax Holiday Petition!

You can access the original Press Release on-line here:

Convert Paulson’s Last $350 Billion Into Tax Holiday, Says U.S. Congressman
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
November 28, 2008

A Bailout Update (Cartoon)

Detroit Doesn’t Understand Why The Automaker Bailout Must Not Happen

The bailout for the Big Three Automakers is still being dicussed in Congress even though the bill itself is on life-support. This isn’t because it’s a good idea (it isn’t), rather it is because the Democrats have to pay back the support they got from the United Auto Workers and they want Main Street America to pony up the money.

Running alongside this argument is a spotlight that illuminates what is going on in Detroit and why the Big Three Automakers are in trouble. Unfortunately for the UAW, these revelations don’t make them look good.

From Dan Calabrese of the North Star Writers Group:

To survive in business, you have to make a profit. Period. Nothing else matters. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler don’t do that, so they deserve to die. But if you want to understand why they don’t make a profit, all you need to do is look at two schemes concocted along with the United Auto Workers – the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) and the UAW Jobs Bank. The two entities work in different ways, but they have one devastating fact in common. Both require the automakers to pay billions to people who don’t do any work for them. The VEBA, which is actually being hailed by Detroit media and civic leadership as a positive measure, is in reality a way for the UAW to protect its retirees from losing their health benefits in the event of an automaker bankruptcy. Negotiated by GM in 2007, it requires the UAW to administer retiree health benefits beginning in January 2010. That’s the part the industry’s defenders keep pointing to – the notion that it offloads retiree benefits onto the union, as if the union was going to pay these benefits out of its own pocket. In fact, GM is required to continue spending $1.8 billion a year through the end of 2009 on retiree health benefits, while also bankrolling the VEBA to the tune of an astounding $24.1 billion so the funds are ready for the UAW to begin administering on January 1, 2010. And that’s not all. GM will be required to make up to 20 additional annual payments of $165 million apiece in order to guarantee that retiree health benefits for UAW members are not reduced at all for 25 years. This is what the Big Three would have us believe amounts to legacy cost relief. But even that is not as outrageous as the Jobs Bank. Established in 1984, the original purpose of the Jobs Bank was to keep workers available during temporary layoffs when the emerging technology of the time was causing short-term displacement of workers. A worker would receive 95 percent of his or her wage for up to two years – again, through a fund administered by the UAW but funded by the Big Three – until a new job opened up.

As long as the Big Three are throwing money away on these outrageous expenditures on the unions, they will not be able to make money and therefore will not be able to remain competitive in the market. The Big Three need to go into Chapter 11 to break these wasteful contracts.

But, what of the union leadership?

Read on:

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, who is predictably coming under fire from all quarters for clinging to these perks, held an astounding news conference late last week in which he insisted that none of this has caused the problem. Again citing the struggling economy and the consumer credit crunch, Gettelfinger began howling, “It’s not our fault! It’s not our fault!” It was an eye-opening scene, and surely illustrative for anyone who is just now getting introduced to economic thinking, Detroit-style. If my eight-year-old talked like that, I would send him to his room. In Detroit, this passes for community leadership.

Gettelfinger knows where the groceries are coming from and he knows who is paying for them. As long as he and his union management cronies are making bank off of these deals, they want to keep them in place, even if it means having Joe and Jane Average American pay for it with higher taxes.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

No, Detroit, It’s You Who Doesn’t Understand
Dan Calabrese
North Star Writers Group
November 24, 2008

Big Surprise: Unions Want A Bailout Deal For Detroit

And now, the shoe is on the other foot. It should come as no surprise that the UAW is now putting pressure on Congressional Democrats to support a bailout of Detroit. After all, if the Big Three go into Chapter 11, all of those union contracts will be torn up and would have to be renegotiated, assuming whomever comes in to replace the Big Three want to negotiate at all.

Thus, the union bosses like Ron Gettelfinger would lose their large salaries and would have to come up with really good explanations about things like why the new owners have to pay workers for not working.

David Goldman at CNN notes:

The UAW called on Congress to provide a low-interest bridge loan to get the companies through the end of the Bush administration until President-elect Barack Obama can put in place a bigger bailout package that will help restore General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to solvency.

But the UAW is a major reason why Detroit is in such bad shape. The unions have bled so much capital away from the companies that there is no money left for modernizing or improving the productions lines. Further, the union negotiated contracts have artificially inflated the prices of American autos to the point that now foreign carmakers have the majority of the market share.

If the unions are for a bailout of Detroit, then those of us living on Main Street U.S.A. should be against it.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

UAW To Congress: Get A Deal Done
David Goldman
CNN.com
November 20, 2008

No Bailout For The Big Three Automakers

Most of us were pretty adamant that we did not want our tax money going to bailout failing financial institutions on Wall Street, especially since those same institutions were failing due to government regulations that forced them into bad business practices. Here we are several weeks later and it is looking like that bailout is going to go down in history as a huge, $905 billion failure.

Now, Congress is talking about bailing out the Big Three automakers, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. I am against this bailout for essentially the same reasons as being opposed to the Wall Street bailout: bad business practices being forced upon the automakers, not by government, but by the United Auto Workers Union.

Plain and simple, because of the lunacy of the union negotiated contracts, American automakers cannot compete with foreign automakers and produce a quality car for the same low price. Thus, Detroit is in big trouble with no way out.

Investor’s Business Daily, giving credit to former Clinton Administration official Robert Riech, goes through the issues that the union brings to American automakers and why those issues prevent Detroit from competing in the world market.

Reich says that if a bailout is to be given, then the unions must be willing to give back many of their contract perks. I say that these same issues show exactly why no bailout should be given at all and the Big Three should be allowed to go into Chapter 11.

From the IBD editorial page:

[T]he companies’ poisonous contracts with the United Auto Workers union have to be torn up. The problem is that the UAW, under President Ron Gettelfinger, remains adamant: No givebacks. This is financial lunacy. Thanks in part to managerial incompetence, but mostly due to pricey union contracts, it costs American carmakers too much to build cars here; they can’t compete. When you fold in health care, pensions, hourly pay, vacations and the rest, average total compensation for a Big Three autoworker is $73.21 an hour, according to data cited by University of Michigan economist Mark Perry. Toyota, Honda and Nissan pay a still-generous $44.20 an hour in total compensation — a cost edge of nearly 40%. Is it any wonder that Ford, GM and Chrysler can’t compete? Or that, after paying their workers, they never have enough cash left to retool?

That last paragraph shows how union contracts are holding the automakers back. The automakers cannot afford to retool because they are doing things like paying laid-off workers 90% of their salaries for not working.

More:

These aren’t temporary problems. They’ve been brewing for decades, as management agreed over and over to labor deals that now financially strangle the industry. Yet, UAW’s Gettelfinger claims the weak economy is to blame for the industry’s woes. Nonsense. As blogger (and former corporate CEO) Jim Manzi notes, American carmakers in 1960 owned 90% of the U.S. auto market. This year, for the first time ever, that share slipped below 50%. Japan’s Big Three — Honda, Nissan and Toyota — make anywhere from $900 to $1,600 in pretax profit on each car they make in North America (mostly in southeastern states, with non-union contracts). America’s Big Three, by comparison, lose anywhere from $400 to $1,500. Truth is, they’re being out-hustled and out-priced in their own backyard due mainly to labor agreements that have driven up costs and become a millstone around their neck.

Chapter 11 will allow the Big Three to tear up those union contracts and start fresh. That is what is needed more than anything else.

Jack and Suzy Welch at Business Week make the case for Chapter 11 as well.

A government handout, however, isn’t the way to make that happen. Washington would impose conditions and promise strict oversight, but it simply can’t push through the kind of transformative change the industry needs. There would be too much political opposition, and regardless, the bailout sums being bandied about—$25 billion of taxpayer dollars, for starters—would only keep the Big Three heaving along, basically as they are. It’s a life-support solution, not a cure. That’s why the boards of the automakers should take the courageous step of putting their companies into bankruptcy. Some creditors might make the case for liquidation, but given the diminished worth of the automakers’ assets, that’s an unattractive scenario. Instead, creditors would most likely opt for the government stepping in as the debtor-in-possession financier supporting the reorganization. Talk about a fresh start. For more than a decade, U.S. carmakers have chipped away incrementally at massive legacy costs. But reorganization would open the doors to meaningful structural change through the renegotiation of contracts with creditors, dealers, and unions. And it would offer better odds of paying back taxpayers.

A bailout is not going to work and it certainly will not encourage the UAW to do the right thing and allow a massive reorganization of the Big Three’s management and production practices.

A majority of Americans were against the Wall Street bailout and it turns out that we were right to be opposed. But the Democrats in Congress are itching to repay the UAW and other unions for their political support during the elections, and they want to repay them with our tax dollars.

We need to send another message to Congress that this bailout is not acceptable. We need to tell Congress that the interests of the American people must take precedence over the interests of a bloated and self-serving labor union.

You can access these articles on-line here:

If No Givebacks, Then No Bailout
Investor’s Business Daily Editorials
November 17, 2008

GM: The Case Against A Bailout
Jack and Suzy Welch
Business Week
November 18, 2008

Fannie Mae Execs Wine, Dine & Golf After Bailout

From the “Complete Chutzpuh” department:

DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ― The Cowboys Golf Course in Grapevine is an exceptional place to play. Hitting driver there is a dream for many local golfers. The plush rolling fairways and smooth greens can command one of the highest fees for a public course in all of North Texas. But it seems cost was no barrier for some high ranking executives from the Fannie Mae office in Dallas, which is located just off the North Dallas Tollway. Documents obtained by CBS 11 show at least 14 people in a recent Fannie Mae outing teed off at Cowboys at 1:30 p.m. on September 29 — 22 days after the federal government took over Fannie to save the massive mortgage company from failure. The taxpayers tab for the golf outing was $6,279.26. According to this receipt, Fannie paid for 20 golfers. The 14 listed on the tee sheet included three Fannie executives from Dallas, two Fannie execs from Chicago and one from Washington, DC. The cost for golf alone was $3,316. According to the contract, golfing included a mango towel service. The contract also shows additional guests joined the golfers for dinner where they dined on over $1,700 worth of buffet food. Then came the bar tab. According to this receipt, they drank 49 bottles or cans of domestic beer, five Grey Goose vodkas, six Absolute vodkas, some Tanqueray, and 31 glasses of the house red wine. The total bar tab was $555.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Fannie Mae Execs Wine, Dine & Golf After Bailout
Doug Dunbar
CBS 11 News
November 3, 2008

Jim Webb Thinks We Virginians Are Stupid

Well, we’ve seen the effects of the bailout that both Senators Webb and Warner voted for to the tune of $905 billion.  Stock markets are crashing.  They would have crashed anyway, but now we are paying an extra $905 billion for it.

Before the Senate vote, I faxed letters to my Senators about my opposition to the bailout (as did about 80% of the rest of America).  And Jim Webb responded with an email.  Here is a portion of what he wrote to me:

<table border=”1″><tbody><tr><td><font face=”Courier New” size=”2″><b>For many years, I have said that the current Administration has failed to exercise appropriate oversight of the nation’s banking and corporate sectors, and has promoted policies that reward Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.  The Administration’s actions are largely responsible for our current economic crisis, which resulted in President Bush’s September 2008 proposal to help restore soundness to U.S. credit markets.</b></font></td></tr></tbody></table>

Now, either Webb is completely ignorant of recent history or he is deliberately lying to me hoping that I am too stupid to see through the lie.

The truth is that several times since 1999, the Republicans have tried to enact reform of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  You can read my earlier blog posts about how people like Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank have stonewalled those efforts by saying that they saw no problem at all.

<a href=”http://new84rules.blogspot.com/2008/10/democrats-will-not-talk-about-freddie.html”>Democrats Will Not Talk About Freddie Or Fannnie</a>
84rules
October 7, 2008

<a href=”http://new84rules.blogspot.com/2008/10/pelosi-declares-hearings-on-housing.html”>Pelosi Declares Hearngs On Housing Crisis: Barney Frank To Co-Chair</a>
84rules
October 3, 2008

<a href=”http://new84rules.blogspot.com/2008/09/crony-capitalism-is-root-cause-of.html”>Crony Capitalism Is The Root Cause Of Freddie And Fannie Troubles: Democrats At The Center Of It All</a>
84rules
September 27, 2008

And a more in depth look at Barney Frank’s statements about Freddie and Fannie over the past several years:

<a href=”http://new84rules.blogspot.com/2008/09/barney-frank-lies-and-damned-lies-about.html”>Barney Frank: Lies And Damned Lies About Freddie And Fannie</a>
84rules
September 24, 2008

And he also wrote this little tidbit:

<table border=”1″><tbody><tr><td><font face=”Courier New” size=”2″><b>I opposed the original hastily-written and woefully inadequate financial sector bailout bill proposed by President Bush.  In the nearly two weeks after the President’s proposal, the U.S. Congress radically changed the original bill to better protect taxpayers and to ensure greater Congressional oversight.  I am pleased that the bipartisan compromise legislation to stabilize our nation’s economic system (H.R.1424), which the Senate passed on October 1, 2008 by a bipartisan vote of 74-25, bore no resemblance to the original Bush proposal.</b></font></td></tr></tbody></table>

Now, the only real difference between the original bill and the one Webb voted for was over $150 billion in earmarks and pork.  Thus, if we follow Webb’s own words, the only reason he voted for the second version was because it contained so much irresponsible spending!  Look at all the wooden arrows Webb voted for!  Look at all the Rum from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Webb voted for!  Webb voted to give Hollywood a $500 million tax break for making movies!  Those are among the the differences between the original bill and the bill that the Senate passed!

So, Senator Webb either has the most incompetent research staff in the Senate, or he is deliberately lying to us Virginians about the true causes of the current financial crisis and the true reasons he voted for it.  Or another theory is that he is simply toting the Democrat Party line because that is what he was told to do by his political masters even if it means going against the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Anyway you cut it, he must really think that we Virginians are stupid.

We need to make sure that he is a one-term Senator and then elect someone who will actually represent Virginia rather than the interests of the Democrats.

Pelosi Declares Hearings On Housing Crisis: Barney Frank To Co-Chair

Immediately after the Wall Street Bailout bill passed the House and went to the Oval Office for Presidential signature, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that there would be hearings on the subject.

According to CNN:

She said Congress will shine a new “light of scrutiny and accountability” on the nation’s financial system to try to prevent a replay of the problems that plunged the nation into a financial crisis. Reps. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, and Henry Waxman, D-California, plan to hold hearings to increase scrutiny of the financial system, Pelosi added. “We want to take our country in a new direction for the middle class,” Pelosi said. Frank told reporters Friday that starting in January, Congress will “have a major role.” “We have to rewrite housing in America. … It would be highly irresponsible if we were to stop here,” he said. “Now we have to perform more serious reform.”

Yet, she mentions nothing about the accountability of people like Sen. Chris Dodd, or Franklin Raines or Jamie Gorelick, the latter two having made millions off of Fannie while the organization itself was sliding into government conservatorship.

And what about Barney Frank Co-Chairing these hearings? Will anyone get him to answer questions about the way he blocked reform of Freddie and Fannie over the past several years? Will Pelosi demand accountability and transparency from him? No. She is nothing more than a partisan hack who just managed to cram through the biggest socialist package in American history.

Something else that should be looked into: Barney Frank’s relationship with a former Fannie executive named Herb Moses.

From Fox News:

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank’s relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie. Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical. “It’s absolutely a conflict,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. “He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane? “If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have – or at least what’s not in the stock market – that this would be considered germane,” added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. “But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard.” A top GOP House aide agreed. “C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?” the aide told FOX News. “No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws.” Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Of course they didn’t immediately respond. They need time to think up a way of spinning out of it.

You can access these articles on-line here:

Pelosi: After Bill Passage, Hearings Set To Begin
CNN.com
October 3, 2008

Lawmaker Accused Of Fannie Mae Conflict Of Interest
Bill Sammon
Fox News
October 3, 2008

Congress Passes Legislation That Hands American Taxpayers The Largest Bill In History

All the scaremongers said that it was necessary to avert a credit crisis.

Credit crisis?

Where? I was still getting credit card offers through the mail. A 20-year-old friend of mine just got approved for a car loan. Student loans are still being approved. Small businesses are still able to get loans. Exactly where is the “credit crisis?”

Only on Wall Street. And Congress has now authorized the President to screw the American Taxpayer with over $805 billion in responsibilities. Maybe our children will be able to pay this off, but those of us living on Main Street just got served notice that the Federal Government cares more about the people who make big campaign donations than they do about the American people.

From the Associated Press:

The final vote, 263-171 in the House, a comfortable margin that was 58 more votes than it garnered on Monday. The vote capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act. Bush was poised to make a statement on the historic vote. “We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis,” House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, said shortly before casting his vote for government intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a month ago. “And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen.”

And this bailout is going to put us in a situation like none of us have ever seen!

Here is what I see:

- Wall Street Big Wigs and the Congressional recipients of their donations are stuffing my tax dollars into their pockets.
- Numerous recipients of earmarks and pork stuffing my tax dollars in their pockets.
- My gasoline prices going up because some idiot inserted a carbon tax into the bill my and stupid fool Senators (Webb and Warner) and Representative (Wolf) completely missed it!

Here is what I don’t see:

- Accountability from those who caused this mess.
- I don’t see Chris Dodd (D-CT) or Barney Frank (D-MA) being hauled before a Congressional committee to give account of how they blocked Republicans from enacting the reform that could averted this whole mess and saved us $805 billion dollars.
- I don’t see Franklin Raines being hauled before a Congressional committee to explain how he made $90 million while Fannie was losing money.
- I don’t see that the progenitor of this whole thing, the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, has been repealed which means that banks and lending institutions are still being forced to make bad loans.

Let’s see who the big winners really were:

Sec. 101. Extension of alternative minimum tax relief for nonrefundable personal credits.
Sec. 102. Extension of increased alternative minimum tax exemption amount.
Sec. 103. Increase of AMT refundable credit amount for individuals with longterm unused credits for prior year minimum tax liability, etc.
Sec. 201. Deduction for State and local sales taxes.
Sec. 202. Deduction of qualified tuition and related expenses.
Sec. 203. Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers.
Sec. 204. Additional standard deduction for real property taxes for nonitemizers.
Sec. 205. Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes.
Sec. 206. Treatment of certain dividends of regulated investment companies.
Sec. 207. Stock in RIC for purposes of determining estates of nonresidents not citizens.
Sec. 208. Qualified investment entities.
Sec. 301. Extension and modification of research credit.
Sec. 302. New markets tax credit.
Sec. 303. Subpart F exception for active financing income.
Sec. 304. Extension of look-thru rule for related controlled foreign corporations.
Sec. 305. Extension of 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements and qualified restaurant improvements; 15-year straight-line cost recovery for certain improvements to retail space.
Sec. 306. Modification of tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt organizations.
Sec. 307. Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property.
Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
Sec. 310. Extension of mine rescue team training credit.
Sec. 311. Extension of election to expense advanced mine safety equipment.
Sec. 312. Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
Sec. 313. Qualified zone academy bonds.
Sec. 314. Indian employment credit.
Sec. 315. Accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations.
Sec. 316. Railroad track maintenance. Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
Sec. 318. Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
Sec. 319. Extension of work opportunity tax credit for Hurricane Katrina employees.
Sec. 320. Extension of increased rehabilitation credit for structures in the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
Sec. 321. Enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions.
Sec. 322. Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 323. Enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory.
Sec. 324. Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
Sec. 325. Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
Sec. 401. Permanent authority for undercover operations. v Sec. 402. Permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to terrorist activities.
Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Sec. 504. Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.
Sec. 505. Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as 5-year property.
Sec. 506. Modification of penalty on understatement of taxpayer’s liability by tax return preparer.
Sec. 512. Mental health parity.
Sec. 601. Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.
Sec. 602. Transfer to abandoned mine reclamation fund.
Sec. 702. Temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 Midwestern severe storms, tornados, and flooding.
Sec. 703. Reporting requirements relating to disaster relief contributions.
Sec. 704. Temporary tax-exempt bond financing and low-income housing tax relief for areas damaged by Hurricane Ike.
Sec. 706. Losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 707. Expensing of Qualified Disaster Expenses.
Sec. 708. Net operating losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 709. Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements following federally declared disasters.
Sec. 710. Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property.
Sec. 711. Increased expensing for qualified disaster assistance property.
Sec. 712. Coordination with Heartland disaster relief.
Sec. 801. Nonqualified deferred compensation from certain tax indifferent parties.

And don’t forget Sec. 117. The carbon tax. Now the Feds can royally screw our economy just like the governments in Europe are screwing theirs!

At least I can say one thing that is a bit of a relief. This bailout is going to ultimately fail and the economy is going to crash (we cannot keep the markets artificially inflated like this) and it looks like Barack Obama is going to win this election. The crash will happen on his watch and he will have no one to blame except himself and the Democrat-controlled Congress.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Congress OKs Historic Bailout Bill
Julie Hirschfeld and David Espo
Associated Press via Breitbart
October 3, 2008

Now There Is A ‘Carbon Tax’ In The Bailout!

As if taking your money and giving it to Wall Street wasn’t enough! Now they want to reach deeper into your wallet and take even more money from you! All for a manufactured crisis called “Climate Change” that the legitimate sceintific world has shown to be a natural phenomenon.

Check this out from Matthew Vadum at Capital Research Center:

If you look at page 180 of the 451-page monster bailout bill that easily passed the Senate yesterday (PDF here), you will see that it includes at Section 116 language about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide.” It also provides, at Section 117, for a “carbon audit of the tax code.” What could a provision about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide” and another provision about doing a “carbon audit” of the tax code possibly have to do with restoring confidence in Wall Street’s troubled credit markets? The answer: NOTHING. This appears to be an attempt by global warming fanatics to lay the foundation for an economy-killing carbon tax just like the “cap-and-tax” system that is now destroying European industry. If you think the Mother of All Bailouts is bad, just wait till you see the carbon tax. Get ready to reduce your standard of living drastically.

And the amount of money you have to take care of your family.

This bailout is getting worse and worse.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Hidden Carbon Tax Provisions In Paulson’s Bailout 2.0
Matthew Vadum
Capital Research Center
October 2, 2008

An Interesting Thought About The Wall Street Bailout Bill: Do Any In Congress Have A Financial Interest?

I’m sure there are websites out there that have this information. Somewhere, there has to be records of whether or not Representatives or Senators own stock or otherwise have any kind of financial interest in the Wall Street institutions that are being bailed out under this bill.

I would be very interested in seeing those records and comparing them to the voting record of the entire Congress, particularly for those who vote “Yes.”

If any member of Congress did have any financial interest in any institution that is about to recieve Federal monies, that would be a major conflict-of-interest and said member of Congress should have recused him/herself from voting.

If there are such connections, I wonder if the entire bill can be invalidated or declared unconstitutional?

It would certainly be an interesting exercise to see who has investments in these places.

An Open Letter To Rep. Frank Wolf Concerning The Wall Street Bailout

Frank Wolf
241 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515

Subj: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

Mr. Wolf,

As you already know, Senators Warner and Webb have voted “Yes” to bailing out the Wall Street Banks and Institutions that got themselves into a serious mess by engaging in extremely poor business practices. This bailout amounts to the Federal Government using my hard earned money to give a huge payday to a group of Wall Street executives while completely failing to hold accountable any of the people who caused this whole situation to begin with.

Further, this bill is being shoved down our collective throats since there have been no hearings, no debates and no investigations into the exact cause of the problem.

I recommend that at least four people be brought before Congress and put under oath to explain their exact roles in this matter. These four are Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Franklin Raines, who made $90 million in personal income off of Fannie and Jim Johnson who made over $20 million. I, for one, would like to know how these last two made money while everyone else lost money.

Beyond all of this is the pork that has been tacked onto this bailout. Main Street is going to bail out Wall Street for some Puerto Rican Rum and maybe some NASCAR tracks? How about that “Wool Research?” God knows we can never have too much of that now, can we? And what about those “Wooden Arrows designed for use by children?” Maybe we can line the Wall Street CEOs up against the wall and shoot them with the arrows!

This $700 billion legislation just went up to $850 billion, and now the House is talking about tacking even more pork onto this!

It doesn’t matter whether this bill is 3 pages or 3000 pages. It is still a socialist bailout that will saddle me and my children with bills that will take decades to pay off, if we can even pay them off at all.

Perhaps you should take the time to read through the entire bill before voting to require the American Taxpayer to handle more debt than we can afford.

Also, you should know that the contributions made to you in gratitude for your “Yes” vote on the original bill have not gone unnoticed. To wit:

Securities brokers & investment companies: $28,150
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate: $27,250
Commercial banks & bank holding companies: $21,700
Credit Unions: $13,250
Investment banking: $11,800
Credit agencies & finance companies: $11,250
Private Equity & Investment Firms: $7,800
Venture capital: $7,500
Banks & lending institutions: $6,000
Stock exchanges: $1,950
Savings banks & Savings and loans: $400
Commodity brokers/dealers: $250

The total you received from entities who support this bailout is $137,300. That is how much you have effectively been paid to hand me and my children this huge debt of at least $850 billion plus whatever other pork you and your peers decide to put into this thing. The latest estimate I saw was a final bill of $905 billion.

There is a reason these banks and lending institutions are failing. It is because the market is dictating that the fail. Once they do, businesses that engage in wiser practices will step up and take their place.

Please do the right thing and vote “No” on this bailout bill, or if you cannot do that, please explain to me why I have to provide a huge payday to Wall Street while those who got us into this mess get to walk away with no accountability and at the same time, are shoving my money into their pockets.

Thank you.