Hank Paulson’s Raid on the Treasury

[deminks]

http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/20/hank-paulsons-raid-on-the-treasury/

The more I look at the Paulson "plan" the more I come to the conclusion it's just an old fashioned stickup. A scam. The Republicans know they have only a few more months, and this is their last raid on the treasury. Republicans created this crisis, and in the way of scam artists everywhere now that there's a crisis they're demanding money and power to fix their own mistakes.

What I'm hearing is that the gun being held to Congress's head is the fear of a money market meltdown. These funds are integral to the economy, yes, but 700 billion is far more than is needed to bail them out. They aren't all going to fail tomorrow, which that number assumes - that they'll zero out on Monday, and then a few banks will fail simultaneously. A few money market funds may break the buck, but you can deal with that with, oh, 25 billion, and with change to spare. Frankly the Fed's Bernanke can deal with it with the authority he already has.

So the gun that Paulson is holding to Congress's head, while not filled with blanks, is a BB gun. He's trying to stampede Congress into giving him more money and more power than he actually needs to fix the ostensible problem by acting as if there's no time to think through, or disaster will occur almost immediately.

Why?


Well, that 700 billion bails out Paulson's friends and colleagues at the highest levels (most of the little people will still lose their jobs). It preserves the world that Paulson worked in all his life. It means that Wall Street and the Banking industry doesn't have to change how they do business. The people in charge of it will stay in charge and they will stay rich.

[Democrats_win]

1. False urgency should remind us of the unPatriot Act. Congress should include a tax to pay for this.

I think Americans will understand that we've got to pay for this somehow. The tax will be on the very rich.