Taxpayers Get the Shaft in "Bailout" Plan

Only Winners in This Plan Are Bankers and Lawyers

The Congressional "Keystone Cops" are at it again, now trying to save America from financial armageddon with a proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed chief Ben Bernanke. The level of fiscal irresponsibility in both the public and private sectors that has brought us here is almost unimaginable, yet taxpayers are on the hook with no seeming way out.

Paulson has asked Congress to "act quickly" to avoid turmoil in the markets and grant him almost limitless power to "fix" the financial markets. What planet is he from? Expecting Congress to act quickly on anything is an oxymoron onto itself. And how can Americans expect that a $700 billion infusion in Wall Street will actually fix anything? The government has no detailed plan of which assets and from whom they will underwrite. There is no way of knowing if the outrageous amount of money being sought will address and fix the systemic cause of the crisis and no one seems to be asking that question. We are simply supposed to trust the wisdom of these two financial geniuses that they have the answer!

This $700 billion number came from where? Paulson hasn't said nor has Bernanke. Where did that number come from? No one seems to have asked that question either. Even more absurd is the proposal the White House sent to Congress expecting quick passage in which all of the money would be under the direct control of the Treasury Secretary and none of his decisions could be reviewed or questioned. Seems like lawyers and bankers reviewing all this toxic paper would be the sole winners here as they rack up fees in "administrative" costs. Oh, and those would not be subject to review either!