U.S. Treasury Betrays America (Good Read)

[OhioChick]

U.S. Treasury Betrays America

It has happened sooner than I thought and it is worse than I thought. The big hustle known as the Wall Street Bailout perpetrated by Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson went south on us like I-75. Not only has the arrogant Secretary decided to change his mind about saving people from foreclosure after receiving the money, he is also outsourcing the work out of the country. That's right. Your tax money is being diverted to foreign shores for cheap labor and the bypassing of American workers and business – particularly small and minority business.

The boilerplate template for the no bid contracts relating to the Bailout funding states, "Unless specifically authorized otherwise by the Treasury in writing, the Financial Agent shall ensure that all employees of the Financial Agent and its affiliates or contractors providing services under this FAA (Financial Agency Agreement) are United States citizens or lawful permanent residents performing their work in the United States, and that the operation and maintenance of all systems and databases used in providing services under this FAA are in the United States." That sounds great, but it is all a rouse to fool Congress.

I got my hands on one of these actual contracts and immediately after the above statement the exemption comes into being, "Consistent with Section 3B, the Treasury hereby authorizes the Financial Agent to employ non-citizens working outside the United States to perform the functions of (i) back office reconciliation and accounting, and (ii) general software application support, provided such functions represent routine commercial practices used to support all Financial Agent customers receiving services similar to those under this FAA." This is the big sell out. This contract is with Bank of New York Mellon and it defines that Mellon may utilize its India subsidiary (page 8, line 5 of the FAA). Thus, this contract is figured at U.S. rates (labor and services) and then the contractor goes straight to India and pays India wages and pockets the difference. It is known as Obscene Profits and they are getting away with it. Remember, it's your tax money.

Congress is the "chump" and the American taxpayers are the "suckers." People, are we going to let these thieves continue to raid our treasury from now until Jan. 21? It is time for outrage and Paulson should be relieved of his office as he is hurting us without remorse or concern. He is dangerous to us all. How many people working for Black accounting firms and financial agents are going to lose their jobs and have their futures destroyed because of this activity? It's a horror story.
I have been compelled to confront Secretary Paulson and call out this activity. My prayer is that the President and Congress will do the proper and patriotic thing. Cancel these no bid contracts and start over in a competitive, fair and inclusive manner. Fire Secretary Paulson immediately. He has stolen enough. The following is my letter:

Dear Secretary Paulson:

When you proposed the $700 billion+ bailout you urged Congress to waive the FAR Procurement Law. My fear was you were doing this to once again dupe Congress from their commitment to small and minority owned businesses. My fears now seem to be realized.
I have just read from your Web site a "Financial Agency Agreement for Custodian, Accounting, Auction Management and Other Infrastructure Services for a Portfolio of Troubled Mortgage-Related Assets" (dated Oct. 14, 2008). In this agreement with Bank of New York Mellon you allow for foreign workers to participate and include the India subsidiary of this company. In essence, U.S. tax money is being outsourced overseas to India. I suspect the purpose is for Mellon to reap obscene profits (pay India rates and pocket the rest).
We consider this a moral outrage and a betrayal of the peoples' trust. There is a myriad of minority owned firms trying to compete for this business while your people cavalierly sent it overseas without bid or consideration.
Please inform this office how many of these contracts or agreements to foreign sources now exist and what dollar amount is involved. Also, please inform us which minority owned businesses have been contracted, if any, for business concerning the Bailout (names, addresses and amounts). My other fear is that there is little or none. By copy of this letter I am requesting Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to ensure that you respect this request.
As a U.S. citizen, Army veteran and African American I find this action deplorable. May we all rise with outrage and demand a quick change. This action is hurting businesses and individuals at a time when the economy can ill afford chicanery.

Sincerely,


Harry C. Alford
President/CEO

http://www.washingtoninformer.com/wi/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1457&Itemid=88

[ixion]

1. kicked and recommended

excellent read. There should be far more outrage at the looting that is going on before our eyes.

[ihavenobias]

2. What the...how does this have 18 recs (1 from me) and only 2 responses (1 from me)? n/t

[Seldona]

3. Agreed. Everyone here will feel this in one way or another.

Maybe I should hit the Activist Forum and see what is going on over there. I'm just a disabled guy with three kids and a wife that works twelve-hour shifts so we can barely hang on, but I am willing to do what I can.

The price on this bullshit just went up to over seven trillion. Yes, with a T. Now, wtf are we going to do? When the confidence men are running the show, it is hard to stop. Call our reps, write letters to the editor, whatever we can do put an end to the unregulated looting of AMERICA.

If the people at Treasury can't do their jobs, fire their asses and put someone in there that will.

[Laelth]

4. What can I say?

We're being looted. Congressional Democrats are enabling the looting. I am outraged, of course, but there's little I can do when the leaders of the Democratic Party support the looting.

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. You can click rec and not respond to post.

[ihavenobias]

34. :)

Smart ass!

:)

[Peggy Day]

15. I personally have outrage overload-I have called my representatives

constantly about this. I live in California, and have one of the most liberal senators in the congress. Today, I swear the guy put the phone on the desk. When I asked him a question, he didn't know what I had just asked.
I called when this bill came up, and they said most people don't want the bailout, but they did it anyway. Now, what I feared is coming true, and this is a HUGE heist! Again, nothing from our elected representatives except vacations.
I'd throw myself on the floor and have a fit if it would help. I feel powerless. My mother just passed away, and the IRA that she worked and saved for her whole life lost 40% of it's value, and she wasn't the only one. Our senior citizens are really in trouble if they are counting on any funds in the stock market.
I am sick about the state of our country, and from the looks of some of Obama's picks, it probably won't get much better soon.

[nashville_brook]

5. everyone should read this.

[MasonJar]

6. All of you with Dems or reasonable senators please forward this to them.

Mine are scum, but I will send it to Rep Yarmuth.

[blue97keet]

7. India's Tata Wins Big Citi Outsourcing Deal

India's Tata Wins Big Citi Outsourcing Deal
TCS acquires Citigroup Global Services—and bags a giant contract to provide outsourcing services to Citi for the next nine-and-a-half years

by Nandini Lakshman

"It's festival time in India, and Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest IT software and services provider, is celebrating with gusto. After months of speculation, TCS acquired Citigroup's (C) India-based outsourcing unit, Citigroup Global Services, for $505 million in an all-cash deal announced on Oct. 8. That's the largest-ever purchase for TCS. What's more, the company bagged a $2.5 billion contract to provide process outsourcing services, application development, and infrastructure support to Citigroup and its affiliates over nine-and-a-half years. "This transaction will complement our domain expertise and bring new capabilities to TCS that will help drive growth," says S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer of TCS."

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2008/gb20081010_639548.htm

[OhioChick]

30. Thanks, blue97keet .

That deserves a thread of it's own. :grr:

[MichiganVote]

9. K&R. We can count and do sums in the US.

[snot]

10. Wondering why you didn't cc Obama on your letter, since

he's been hiring quite a few of the people on whose prior watches the stage for the current crisis was set.

[pam4water]

11. Depressing. This is making me sick. TT We are never goin to be able to

get this money back or pay off these loans. :puke:

[geckosfeet]

12. Lets bail out the auto makers too.

[Azlady]

13. My most used word anymore....... OUTRAGE

This so angers me! WRITTEN in the agreement!!!! HOW long were they were on this "bailout" program before we were ever even told it was the only way to save the economy! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[Oldtimeralso]

14. This another move by the rich to control the working class

We now have put a TRILLION dollars at risk to the people that shuffled the deck and built this house of cards that the financial system has become due to the deregulation. What do these people do to deserve this? Their taxes have been cut from 90 per cent fifty years ago to 33 percent today. How much of these financial institutions the American taxpayer are owned by foreign interests? The outsourcing of this work in the OP is damnable and may even be criminal. Congress should investigate,indite,convict, and incarcerate the people responsible these crimes perpetrated on the American taxpayer.

We should bailout the Big Three with as much as they need as they keep Americans working. The rich do not want this as they are unionized and that is a threat. The rise of unions in the first half of the 20th Century coincided with the rise of the Middle Class and now the barriers placed on unions has caused their membership to severely decline as now the Middle Class declines. I also think any auto bailout should be tied to an increase in CAFE and hybrid or all electric auto production. The Government should provide the money for research to attain the technology to do this and help to retool the factories.

[davidthegnome]

16. Surprise surprise

Shock... awe... ::gasp::... what, you mean you didn't know?

[desktop]

17. Corporations want you to give up your job to Indians, otherwise you're racist

They won't stop until the Indian workers complete the takeover of the board room. By then it will be to late. America is being sold out to foreign hands, piece by piece. Few ever cared about the lower class workers, now few care about the lower middle class workers, as long as it's not them. Now the upper middle class jobs are being sold away. If they can't outsource your job to India, they bring the Indian over here to do it.

[OhioChick]

31. All of the white collar jobs are going to India....

And the blue collar jobs to China and whoever else will do the work on the cheap. Disgusting.

[blackbart99]

18. They do it this way so when they are out...

on Jan 21st. they can go to India and pick up their paychecks...kickbacks...to the tune of billions
for their hotel rooms in the U.A.E. or Dubai. Bush will get his and retire to Paraguay out of reach
of our authority.

[UpInArms]

19. when the people take back their country, it will be only a facade

of a country - minus all the money, the work, the rights - all that we and our forebears have contributed - looted by the BFEE and its crony corporatists buddies

[cyberpj]

20. Why were these people copied on the letter to Paulson?

Beyond the Rhetoric
By Harry C. Alford
Wednesday, 26 November 2008

snip-
cc: Honorable George W. Bush, President
Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Honorables Harry Reid, John Kerry, Barney Frank, James Clyburn, Barbara Lee, Nydia Velazquez

AND NOT THIS PERSON?
President Elect Barack Obama

It was written 11/26/08 --- what does he expect bush to do?

[MsLeopard]

21. But, but, he copied Nancy Pelosi

Surely she will jump to the defense of the American people from her position as Speaker of the House in a Congress that represents We the People, right? Right? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Oh wait...
:sarcasm:

Forgot to add - K&R Edit again: I missed the R deadline by three minutes!

[Phred42]

22. K only (it wouldn't let me R) Thanks Ohiochick

[OhioChick]

38. Thanks, Phred.

This shit has to stop.....not next year or who knows when, but NOW. Americans are losing everything due to job loss.

[Phred42]

23. Why are we bailin gout Corporations that Outsource our JObs?

Bringing jobs BACK to American should b a requirement for taking Tax payer money

[OhioChick]

32. "Bringing jobs BACK to American should b a requirement for taking Tax payer money"

Damn straight.

[Azlady]

24. Kick IMPORTANT - Please copy this article & link and

send to Obama, your Reps, newspapers, family, friends... KICK!

[ooglymoogly]

25. Congress isn't the chump, they are the co conspiritors.

What is odd is they don't mind that we the people think they are drooling idiots. I can only guess, like Rahm, they are now in power and do not have to care a twit what we think. Slopping the pigs on Wall st with trillions means millions for the folks in congress, a gazillion to one ratio. They are two bit whores and even the shadows are laughing.

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. Oh, let's hope not! That would be unbearable in this crisis.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. K&R. Important read.

[AntiFascist]

28. K&R, Paulson wants us to enjoy the Thanksgiving Turkey and shut up. n/t

[Turbineguy]

29. This last eight years has been an economic fraud.

Whatever growth there was came from borrowing and leverage. Which means there was no growth. In fact there was a real decline.

Those who's incomes improved did so at the expense of other Americans. Even those who stayed the same did so at the expense of others.

Hence the increase in poverty.

[Azlady]

33. Kicking & please everyone Recommend/Kick and read... IMPORTANT..

[Azlady]

35. Kick again -

[antimatter98]

36. And Congress approves of this outrageous looting of America. n/t

[lovuian]

37. this is again and again how the American worker and US

citizen gets screwed over and over again and its a freakin Depression

this HAS to STOP

[Blue_Tires]

39. ttt

[JDPriestly]

40. Watch the Charlie Rose interview with Vikram Pandit (Bandit) which was

done after the Citi-Group bail-out. Bandit makes it very clear that Citi-Group is an international bank (read funds companies that exploit today's version of slave labor in third world countries) and that it is mostly concerned about pleasing its overseas investors.

My question is, if Bandit's goal is to make Citi-Group an even more international bank, then why should American taxpayers have bailed out him and his bank? Why didn't he turn to an international bank.

The Bandit also repeatedly mentioned lowering mortgage costs. (Personally, I had the feeling that his remarks about improving the housing market was kind of an afterthought, kind a way of pandering to the American audience.) Here's how I understand that: The banks' plan is to lower interest rates -- and make it possible for more people to buy houses. Sounds great, but think about it. The Fed and the Treasury Department have just inundated the banking world with dollars. The next step as I understand the plan is to offer mortgages at ever lower rates. Won't that raise housing prices? Usually, when interest rates on mortgages go down, prices on houses go up. And, of course, when the housing prices go up, the banks' losses on their sub-prime mortgage investments will be recouped. But, as we saw during the Carter administration, inflation brings a whole lot of problems with it -- for one, rapidly increasing inflation.

I realize that the bankers are worried about deflation and would argue that they need to stimulate demand for housing, but I think they are overdoing it. Way overdoing it.

This plan may be great for young families whose earning and saving years are in front of them and who want to buy houses. And it may also be good for those who know own their homes and want to sell before too long, but it will be tragic for elderly people who rent their homes and other renters like disabled people.

But then, what do bankers, especially an international banker from India, know or care about the problems of poor American renters with limited incomes? They just care about their bonuses and expanding their business dealings in other countries -- and expanding it with Americans' money.

The bail-out must be stopped. And those who have received money should give it back.

And by the way, please note that the tsunami of inflation is going to hit right smack in the middle of the Obama administration. The Republicans are intervening to make the economy even worse than it is. They are not this stupid. I'm not an economist. If I can see that these bail-outs are leading us into inflation, certainly they should be able to see it too. This is the revenge of the Bush administrating not just on Obama but on future generations of Americans.

[whistle]

41. Hank Paulson and George Bush have betrayed the American public

...because they are criminally insane fascists