Some thoughts on the BIG BAILOUT

James Moore's posting on the Huffington Post, called 'A Nation of Village Idiots' has this frightening fact:

"The public bailout of insurance giant (becoming a dwarf) AIG is estimated at $85 billion. According to one report, that's more than the Bush administration spent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children during his entire time in office. That amount of money would also pay for health care for every man, woman, and child in America for at least six months. "

Credo Action (Formerly Working Assets) sent the following information in an e-mail today:

Congress is on the brink of making a one-sided deal to give George W. Bush a blank check to bail out his pals - offering nearly (or perhaps more than) a trillion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street to cover its bad debts. That works out to somewhere between $2000 and $5000 from every American family.

So what do the taxpayers get in return? Nothing. No new regulation or oversight to help avoid this kind of crisis in the future. No public interest givebacks to help people whose homes are in the hands of the banks. Perhaps most shockingly of all, the taxpayers get absolutely no share in the profits if and when these finance giants bounce back, even though we are now assuming a great deal of the risk.

This is worse than a bad deal - this isn't a deal at all. This is a blank check to some of the richest companies in the world. There is some good news, though: Congress doesn't have to agreet to a blank check. Instead, it can choose to impose a few sensible conditions on the bailout to ensure that it will be used responsibly.

Why should we lose our homes so the CEOs can keep theirs? If Wall Street doesn't like these conditions, then it is welcome to find private investors to help it out of this debacle. But if the American people are going to take this hit, then we must have a say in the terms of the deal - even if we don't have an army of high-paid lobbyists at our disposal like they do. Congress must take swift and prudent action to avoid making a burgeoning crisis that much worse.

Here is the link where you can sign the petition to make your voice heard to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Finance Chair Barney Frank, Senate Banking Chair Chris Dodd, and the de facto leaders of the two parties: Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. As elected officials, these people are all responsible to the taxpayers, not the Wall Street firms who line their campaign war chests. Please take action today.