Bailout or Rescue? Rape of American Taxpayer! Who Voted Yea?

Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director

 

On RFFM.org you will find a list of those Congressional members who voted "yea" for a nearly $1 trillion rape of the American taxpayer: http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2008/10/the-bipartisan-boondoggle-which-members-of-congress-voted-yea---putting-the-us-nearly-1-trillion-in-more-debt.html  

 

I am not an economist.  I am simply an American citizen who knows when it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and defecates like a duck, it's a duck.

 

Late last week, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill that will put the U.S. government nearly $1 trillion deeper in debt.  Earlier in the week, the House of Reps. found some political backbone and rejected the $700 billion pork-laden bailout plan and it was a victory for the American people.  I rejoiced.  It was reminiscent of when the public stopped the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that would have granted amnesty to over 12 million illegal immigrants.  Unbelievably, the original bailout bill would have provided millions of tax dollars to La Raza, a pro-illegal immigration organization which supports an open border between the United States and Mexico.  If that wasn't enough to stick in your throat, the bailout legislation also targeted monies for another dubious organization.  Acorn, which has members who are under indictment for voter fraud in five battle-ground states, would have received millions to help, in some cases, defraud our nation's system of democracy.

 

Of course, my joy was short-lived.  Talking points circulated.  What once was a bailout was now being called a rescue plan.  Fear-mongering dominated the day.  Wall Street dropped 777 points and the politicians who wanted to protect their high-roller compatriots in the investment banking industry, used the stock market drop to soak every ounce of fear possible out of the American people.

 

Amazingly, the next day the stock market rebounded to the tune of 500 points, even after the House defeated the original bailout plan.  However, there were thousands, if not millions, of average people who bailed out of the stock market after the House vote and lost their life savings.  Why?  Because it was necessary to frighten the American people into compliance.

 

Next, the more "cerebral" Senate voted the bailout into law and threw in billions of dollars of earmarks to boot.  From mental health care to rum from the Virgin Islands, rugs from Texas and wooden arrows from who knows where--everybody was promised a piece of the taxpayer pie and extreme pressure was put upon the House to pass something we were all told was a thing of the past.

 

"No more earmarks, no more wasteful spending" was the mantra from both political parties.  But while Americans were being told one story, the truth is, individual Senators, like Christopher Dodd, and Rep. Barney Frank, needed to keep the money tap flowing from failed organizations like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

 

Let's face it, people, this bailout was about nothing more than keeping fat cats happy, so they could keep politicians happy.  It was the old, "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" at an astronomic level.

 

As days go by, we are learning what the House and Senate actually passed and what George Bush signed--with a straight face.  Shame on them!  Shame on them all!

 

I believe we are at a crossroads in America.  We either will be a major power for the next 50 years or more or we will surrender to the greed that permeates our political and financial systems.  But you the voter should know who voted for this bailout -- the rape of the American taxpayer.

 

There's one thing I will say with pride.  The American public tried to do what was right--or at least convince their elected officials to do so.  But we live in a democratic republic.  We expect those we send to Washington to have our best interests at heart.  But perhaps that is a notion long past and buried with America's future.

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Comments

[Charlie]

Surely your memory of "public servants in a democratic republic" must be fading, as mine are. As a good friend of mine would say, "The servants are getting mighty uppity." Perhaps that is the reason so many hate free speech and the right to bear arms?