No Bailout Without Penalty.

By Todd Vachon

The President has unveiled his plan for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street; a move that equates to nothing less than big-time welfare for big-time capitalists. Looks like the free-wheelin' free market privatizers have come to the same conclusion as their predecessors 80yrs ago: unregulated capitalism works only for the richest few and only for so long.

Unfortunately the corporately owned media is treating this like just another big bailout, necessary to "save the middle-class." Missing is the fact that this current economic crisis is not simply the result of a few greedy "bad apples", but was in fact a very predictable result of 3 decades of deregulation by Republicans and Democrats alike.

There is also little mention of the very unique and distinct nature of this bailout plan. Beyond the enormous amount of money being fronted by the public there is some rather shocking language in the White House's bill which would hand over unprecedented power to the Secretary of the Treasury Paulsen (former CEO of Goldman Sachs): "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." In simple terms, this gives Paulsen, who is personally tied to the financial industry, an enormous bank account and the ability to cut checks at his discretion with no accountability.

All of this from the administration that could not find it in their hearts to spend $7 billion to fund SCHIP healthcare for uninsured American children. This can be attributed to a very clear ideological agenda which can be summarized in one cliche' statement: "class warfare." The capitalist class gets government aid when it deems necessary, the rest of us are on our own and if we make a bad decision...bye bye house. The tyranny of the very few must be checked and there is no better time than now to stand up as working/middle-class Americans and state our demands: No more trillions for endless war. No more billions for irresponsible Wall Street gamblers. We want infrastructure that doesn't collapse or flood. We want top-quality healthcare for everyone. We want better pay for us and considerably less for the job-cutting CEO's.

This bailout must not be a blank check that investors come running to receive like kids for candy. It must be punitive; something that financiers will not be motivated to pursue unless absolutely necessary. The blatantly irresponsible behavior of these high rollers must be penalized, not rewarded. The Bush administration is bullishly trying to bulldoze their bill through congress like the PATRIOT Act. This is because it is robbery, and given the opportunity to digest it the nervous public and congress would come to this obvious conclusion.

Any bailout for reckless behavior must be punitive. There should not be people lining up to get a piece of it. The fact that there are tells us that this is not a serious bailout and much more like a handout. Capping executive pay and putting a moratorium on home foreclosures are a good starting point when writing an act of this nature. Re-instating a much larger corporate income tax and giving the public a share in the bailed out institutions is the next big step. The notion that the people who made out like bandits while being engaged in incredibly reckless behavior should now get billions of dollars from the American taxpayer is ridiculous. If you are outraged, you should be. Furthermore, you should share your outrage with your elected representatives. While your at it, share your thoughts about the war and the broken healthcare industry as well.

TELL CONGRESS "NO BAILOUT" NOW!