Please vote NO on the bailout package. It seems Wall Streets wants its $700 “or else” our retirement plans get shot in the head. But why rush to put so much control and money into their hands? Why not first consult with the over 200 academic economists, include four Nobel laureates, who signed a petition opposing the bailout as hasty and ill-conceived.
And since Congress is embracing bipartisan action, why not slow down and listen to the concerns of Senator Enzi (R-Wyoming) who lamented that this bill, pressured onto Congress by a hasty administration and crafted in large part by Wall Street itself, has resulted in a “very costly Band-Aid for big banks that will do very little to help” what ails America.
Take into account the criticisms of Senator Shelby (R-Alabama) the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, when he said that Congress has panicked and is “now about to spend $700 billion on something we have not examined closely. Yes, in the end, we will have ‘done something.’ At the same time, however, we will have done nothing to determine whether it will accomplish anything at all.”
Take counsel from the remarkable agreement of Senator Sanders, the Socialist Senator from Vermont, and Senator Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, when they said that it is strange and breathtaking that Congress is about allocate $700 billion, the largest single authorization of expenditure in United States history, to one person – Secretary Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the wall street mavens who got us into this trouble in the first place — with very little oversight as to which institution is bailed out, what is purchased, and at what price.
Vote NO, take time, and craft a better bill. Yes, the banks need recapitalization, but there are better ways.
Thanks, Sue. Here’s mine:
http://asymptoticlife.com/2008/10/03/dear-rep-matheson-oppose-the-bailout.aspx