Straight Talk from Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a competent-sounding lady who will never be confused with Governor Sarah “yup, yup, I’ll try to find you some and bring ‘em to you” Palin:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, here is the latest reality game. Let’s play Wall Street Bailout.
Rule one: Rush the decision. Time the game to fall in the week before Congress is set to adjourn and just 6 weeks before an historic election so your opponents will be preoccupied, pressured, distracted, and in a hurry.
Rule two: Disarm the public through fear. Warn that the entire global financial system will collapse and the world will fall into another Great Depression. Control the media enough to ensure that the public will not notice this.
Bailout will indebt them for generations, taking from them trillions of dollars they earned and deserve to keep.
Rule three: Control the playing field and set the rules. Hide from the public and most of the Congress just who is arranging this deal. Communicate with the public through leaks to media insiders. Limit any open congressional hearings. Communicate with Congress via private teleconferencing calls. Heighten political anxiety by contacting each political party separately. Treat Members of Congress condescendingly, telling them that the matter is so complex that they must rely on those few insiders who really do know what’s going on.
Rule four: Divert attention and keep people confused. Manage the news cycle so Congress and the public have no time to examine who destroyed the prudent banking system that served America so well for 60 years after the financial meltdown of the 1920s.
Rule five: Always keep in mind the goal is to privatize gains to a few and socialize loss to the many. For 30 years in one financial scandal after another, Wall Street game masters have kept billions of dollars of their gain and shifted their losses to American taxpayers. Once this bailout is in place, the greed game will begin again.
But I have a counter-game. It’s called Wall Street Reckoning. Congress shouldn’t go home to campaign. It should put America’s accounts in order.
To Wall Street insiders, it says “no” on behalf of the American people. You have perpetrated the greatest financial crimes ever on this American republic. You think you can get by with it because you are extraordinarily wealthy and the largest contributors to both Presidential and congressional campaigns in both major parties, but you are about to be brought under firm control.
First, America doesn’t need to bail you out, it needs to secure the real assets and property, not your paper, that means the homes and properties of hardworking Americans who are about to lose their homes because of your mortgage greed. There should be a new job for regional Federal Reserve Banks. We want no home foreclosed if a serious work-out agreement can be put into place. And if you don’t do it, we want a notarized statement by a Federal Reserve official that they tried and failed.
Second, taxpayers should directly gain any equity benefits that may flow from this historic bailout. We want the American people to get first priority in taking ownership of the institutions that want to pass their toxic paper onto the taxpayers.
Third, before any bailouts for Wall Street, America needs major job creation to rebuild our major infrastructure. America needs assets, not paper. We need working assets.
Fourth, the time for real financial regulatory change is now, not next year. A modernized Glass-Steagall Act must be put in place. We need to reestablish locally-owned community savings banks across this country and create within the Justice Department a fully funded unit to prosecute every single high-flying thief whose fraud and criminal acts created this debacle and then forced their disgorgement of assets going back 15 years.
Fifth, any refinancing must return a major share of profits to a new Social Security and Medicare lockbox, where the monies can go to pay for a dignified and assured retirement for every American. This Member isn’t voting for a penny of it. Those who created and profited from this game of games must be brought to justice. The assets they stole must be returned to the American taxpayers, right down to the tires on their Mercedes.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring my bill to create an independent commission to investigate these well-heeled wrongdoers. Real reform now, or nothing.
This entry was posted
on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 8:13 am and is filed under Politics.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
10 Responses to “Rep. Marcy Kaptur Plays Wall Street Bailout”
Spot on about the Palin interview with Couric where she told Couric that she would get back to her with answers…I mean, Palin may as well have said “hey, does it look like I give a shit here? I’m trying to be vp and not the class valedictorian.”
If we used all this energy to question all the boys and girls on Capital Hill and Wall Street as we have been about Palin, maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in.
I will agree she is not be the brightest bulb of the bunch. But didn’t all these bright Ivy Leaugers the ones that have gotten us in this mess we are in.
The people who have been hurt the most have all their energy focused on this woman, instead of the people that created this fiasco.
As long as they can so easily divert the attention away from themselves and on to others we will never be able to keep an eye on what they are really doing. So let’s focus our attention on the real issues and those who have caused it.
Thanks. I corrected the Glass-Steagall Act. More about that here: Glass-Steagall Act.
Also, more about one of the big reasons we’re in this mess: McCain’s prime economics advisor, Phil Gramm (deregulation Phil, as he’s also known), slipped in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in December 2000 while we were all still arguing over who won the election.
Joe, the only problem is that they are both surrounding themselves with these inside financial advisers and no matter who gets in we will still be left holding the bag
I’ve been listening to Thom Hartmann explain the finer points of this colossal cluster fuck. He has some interesting ideas on how this can be resolved in ways more beneficial to the common heritage than what is being proposed.
The rush to resolve this in ways that rescue the banksters will not drive a stake through the the heart of trickle down Reagonomics. This isn’t your grandfather’s economic crisis, and won’t be reckoned with by Hoover style resolutions.
We need vision going forward, not rearview mirror mentalities.
Pelmo, I am not fond of Obama’s backing this bill. At the same time — and I could be wrong — but I just think he’s less corrupted than McCain. I know we’ll get left holding the bag. Even as the bailout bill has been up in the air, over the past couple of weeks the Federal Reserve has pumped $630 billion into the financial system — money created out of thin air with nothing of value behind it. So, I agree, we are already holding the bag, because $630 billion more dollars in the system is going to send the value of the dollar plummeting, which means my current pay check will stay the same but in reality I’ll be taking a big cut in pay as far as what that money will buy. Also, even if my 401K doesn’t drop another dollar in value, it will also be taking a big drop in real value. Still…I’m glad we’re making them work for it a LITTLE bit…at least with no bailout, we’ll take down some of the wreckless banking bastards with us. I think saying no to this bailout sends the same signal as punishing the whole class for one clown cutting up…not fair, but the clown suddenly realizes that when the punishment is over, some of those who were undeservedly punished are going to come beat the crap out of ‘em. I think saying no to the bailout is going to lead to some much-earned, behind-the-scenes, peer-to-peer butt kicking a few months down the road…
Indigobusiness: Thom Hartman has a good head on his shoulders…I’m convinced of that after reading Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. I’ve seen several proposals on the blogs in the comments from people with ideas that seem pretty darn good…but Congress seems to only be considering ideas that funnel money through handpicked oversight organizations which we know are going to have to be paid, and which will probably be stacked with friends and which will probably also skim billions off the top….see Iraq, see Halliburton, see KBR, see Cheney. Pelmo’s right…we are going to be left holding the bag. But, if we don’t stick our heels in the ground, I fear the bag will only be bigger next year.
Amazing how except for Lou Dobbs who had her on his show explaining her position on solving this mess, all the other news outlets have gone out of there way to ignore her comments.
All we hear is the same partision backers bashing and accusing the other side for the failure of this idiotic bail out. Nobody even mentions this as a good or bad alternative.
In all my years I have never seen such a media controled election. Wouldn’t it be nice if all four candidates were scrutinized and questioned as much as Palin. The media is taking to big a part in trying to sway our opinions. Then we wonder why we are in such a mess.
Yes, of course, Joe, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise, lots of insight by the voices here. My take is that the good people know there is blood in the water from the abject corruption of this boondoggle, and there will be a reckoning.
Catherine Austin-Fitts, who knows this story from the inside (HUD) -and only spoke out after being threatened- says there has been years of systematic fraud perpetrated under official auspices by the very agencies meant to serve the people. If the criminality can’t be exposed and prosecuted, it will mean the banksters (etal) have successfully conquered America. It will mean the people are entirely impotent and at their mercy. Hard to imagine what sort of remedy there’d be for all the misery inflicted by these bastards. America will be hard-pressed to ever recover from the Bush era.
Joe, isn’t Marcy great? If only…
Spot on about the Palin interview with Couric where she told Couric that she would get back to her with answers…I mean, Palin may as well have said “hey, does it look like I give a shit here? I’m trying to be vp and not the class valedictorian.”
If we used all this energy to question all the boys and girls on Capital Hill and Wall Street as we have been about Palin, maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in.
I will agree she is not be the brightest bulb of the bunch. But didn’t all these bright Ivy Leaugers the ones that have gotten us in this mess we are in.
The people who have been hurt the most have all their energy focused on this woman, instead of the people that created this fiasco.
As long as they can so easily divert the attention away from themselves and on to others we will never be able to keep an eye on what they are really doing. So let’s focus our attention on the real issues and those who have caused it.
Wow, she is saying EXACTLY what so many of us are saying. Thanks for posting. I’ve emailed this to everyone I know… on both political sides.
Glass-Stegall Act, not Glass Eagle.
Thanks. I corrected the Glass-Steagall Act. More about that here: Glass-Steagall Act.
Also, more about one of the big reasons we’re in this mess: McCain’s prime economics advisor, Phil Gramm (deregulation Phil, as he’s also known), slipped in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in December 2000 while we were all still arguing over who won the election.
Joe, the only problem is that they are both surrounding themselves with these inside financial advisers and no matter who gets in we will still be left holding the bag
I’ve been listening to Thom Hartmann explain the finer points of this colossal cluster fuck. He has some interesting ideas on how this can be resolved in ways more beneficial to the common heritage than what is being proposed.
The rush to resolve this in ways that rescue the banksters will not drive a stake through the the heart of trickle down Reagonomics. This isn’t your grandfather’s economic crisis, and won’t be reckoned with by Hoover style resolutions.
We need vision going forward, not rearview mirror mentalities.
Pelmo, I am not fond of Obama’s backing this bill. At the same time — and I could be wrong — but I just think he’s less corrupted than McCain. I know we’ll get left holding the bag. Even as the bailout bill has been up in the air, over the past couple of weeks the Federal Reserve has pumped $630 billion into the financial system — money created out of thin air with nothing of value behind it. So, I agree, we are already holding the bag, because $630 billion more dollars in the system is going to send the value of the dollar plummeting, which means my current pay check will stay the same but in reality I’ll be taking a big cut in pay as far as what that money will buy. Also, even if my 401K doesn’t drop another dollar in value, it will also be taking a big drop in real value. Still…I’m glad we’re making them work for it a LITTLE bit…at least with no bailout, we’ll take down some of the wreckless banking bastards with us. I think saying no to this bailout sends the same signal as punishing the whole class for one clown cutting up…not fair, but the clown suddenly realizes that when the punishment is over, some of those who were undeservedly punished are going to come beat the crap out of ‘em. I think saying no to the bailout is going to lead to some much-earned, behind-the-scenes, peer-to-peer butt kicking a few months down the road…
Indigobusiness: Thom Hartman has a good head on his shoulders…I’m convinced of that after reading Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. I’ve seen several proposals on the blogs in the comments from people with ideas that seem pretty darn good…but Congress seems to only be considering ideas that funnel money through handpicked oversight organizations which we know are going to have to be paid, and which will probably be stacked with friends and which will probably also skim billions off the top….see Iraq, see Halliburton, see KBR, see Cheney. Pelmo’s right…we are going to be left holding the bag. But, if we don’t stick our heels in the ground, I fear the bag will only be bigger next year.
Amazing how except for Lou Dobbs who had her on his show explaining her position on solving this mess, all the other news outlets have gone out of there way to ignore her comments.
All we hear is the same partision backers bashing and accusing the other side for the failure of this idiotic bail out. Nobody even mentions this as a good or bad alternative.
In all my years I have never seen such a media controled election. Wouldn’t it be nice if all four candidates were scrutinized and questioned as much as Palin. The media is taking to big a part in trying to sway our opinions. Then we wonder why we are in such a mess.
Yes, of course, Joe, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise, lots of insight by the voices here. My take is that the good people know there is blood in the water from the abject corruption of this boondoggle, and there will be a reckoning.
Catherine Austin-Fitts, who knows this story from the inside (HUD) -and only spoke out after being threatened- says there has been years of systematic fraud perpetrated under official auspices by the very agencies meant to serve the people. If the criminality can’t be exposed and prosecuted, it will mean the banksters (etal) have successfully conquered America. It will mean the people are entirely impotent and at their mercy. Hard to imagine what sort of remedy there’d be for all the misery inflicted by these bastards. America will be hard-pressed to ever recover from the Bush era.