Senator Charles Schumer asks if Congress could give $150 billion instead.

[Eric J in MN]

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/following-the-bailout-hearing/

Next, Mr. Schumer proposed a staged bailout instead of one big one.

How about doing this in stages, with, say, $150 billion now, and then come back in January and see how we’re doing?, he asked. Mr. Paulson said that he sought full authority up front, even though we are unlikely to spend the full amount by January.

“Could you live with less?” Mr. Schumer asked, specifically accepting a provision like that in the legilsation.

“I think that would be a grave mistake,” Mr. Paulson said. “Give us the tools we need to make this work.”

I'm against the whole idea of the government buying bad investments from investment banks.

But if Congress is going to do this at all, they should give a small amount to Treasury and review how well they spent that before giving more.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Sounds like the prudent thing to do.

Hope the Democrats back this approach. Show results on $150BB before we throw more money we don't have into this black hole.

[Lex]

2. They've totally screwed it up and they want ALL the money at once?

Prove you can behave prudently first, assholes.

[yurbud]

3. "Mr. Secretary, what if I validate your parking, give you a good swift kick in the ass...

and you could count yourself lucky I didn't throw you in prison in a red dress with no panties?"

[yurbud]

4. This is a step in the right direction. The next step needs to be up Paulson's ass. HARD

[yurbud]

5. VIDEO: My response to Paulson: tar and feathers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJzJuc69YgU

[Cronus Protagonist]

6. $150,000,000,000 is NOT a small amount, IMHO

Take their companies away from them. They're clearly incompetent. Fire them, and garnish at least 80% of their personal wealth. Make their companies bring in all the cash they took offshore to avoid paying taxes and saddle them with a huge tax bill to repay every dime we spend, in addition to making them pay taxes on all future profits whether offshore or not.

We need to take advantage of this moment of weakness to get back that which they stole from the American people.

[Eric J in MN]

11. Yes, when I mentioned the possibility..

...of giving Treasury a small amount, I meant much less, not the amount proposed by Senator Charles Schumer.

Ideally, Congress would reject the whole concept of the government buying bad investments from investment banks.

[dysfunctional press]

7. “I think that would be a grave mistake,” Mr. Paulson said.

bank robbers generally don't like to negotiate.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. Why don't they try to get money from the private sector instead of the public?

Why isn't the entire country pointing the finger at the private sector and demanding they cough up their fair share? ChimpCo has scared the American public to death, virtually holding a gun to their head and telling them that if they don't act immediately to fork over $700 billion, the entire economy will collapse.

Well, if there's a collapse, won't that bring down a heck of a lot of private institutions and banks, even ones that are relatively healthy? If Americans lose their jobs and can't drive to work anymore, won't that represent the loss of tremendous profits to the oil companies? If the $700 million in taxpayer money is pumped in, won't it also benefit those private institutions?

Why isn't Bank of America, Citicorp, and maybe an oil company or two or three being asked to take on the bad debt? They stand as much to lose as the American public in general if everything falls down. They stand a lot to gain if a bailout occurs.

I'm amazed that no one is asking this question. Why just threaten the American public? Why not threaten the private sector, too, and ask them to chip in?

[Eric J in MN]

12. Citicorp is probably one of the corporations...

...which would get cash for its trash investments under this scheme.

[Bluestar]

9. We need it quick and clean!!! There are only 3 months left for us to

loot the rest of the treasury before you Democrats take over!

[TexasObserver]

10. they need to require bailouts on a case by case basis only

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Maybe they could get the Pentagon to loan it to them. They're never broke.

Thanks to our thrifty congress.

[ReadTomPaine]

14. "Shut up and put the money in the bag!" Hank growled "Don't try to be a hero..." n/t

[adigal]

15. "Give us the tools" means "give us the sledgehammer to knock you out

with, so we can steal a great deal of your money."

Same damn thing.

[baldguy]

16. Maybe Congress should pass the bailout as-is

But put someone else besides Paulson in charge - like Robert Reich.