Banks and other companies taking federal bailout assistance spent $114 million on lobbying and campaign contributions last year, according to a new study……Lawmakers who oversee the bailout were among the top recipients of campaign donations from bailed-out corporations, the study notes. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., took $854,200 during the 2008 election cycle from companies that would receive access to billions in TARP funds. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That would be the very same Christopher Dodd who got below market mortgage rates from Countrywide in a special (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)Â “friends” of the CEO program.
Shocked, shocked am I! And that isn’t including the $18 + million or is it billion?, the failed companies paid themselves with our money.
You know that if Paulson, et al, divvied all that money up to the 18 years and older people of the U.S. that that would really would have created an economy that would sustain us towards a more sane regulated capitalism. What is the real total of the ‘bail-outs’ for the last 2 years? Is it in the trillions? Yes, I think it is. How would those trillion or so have effected the economy if it were given to the people with the stipulation of savings and sound economical purchasing?
Nobbs