USA - Profit Be(for)e People ?!(5)
- 00:10:49
- YouTube
USA - Profit Be(for)e People ?!(5)
September 24, 2008 - Bush Admin Faces Congressional Skeptics on $700B Wall St. Bailout Both Democratic and Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee lambasted the Bush administrations proposed $700 billion bailout plan Tuesday. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke repeatedly clashed with almost every senator on the committee, all of whom focused on Wall Streets culpability for the crisis. Many also brought up executive pay and emphasized the need for oversight of the Treasury. Barely seventy-two hours ago, Secretary Paulson presented a proposal that he believes, and others do as well, is urgently needed to protect our economy. This proposal is stunning and unprecedented in its scope and lack of detail, I might add. It would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to intervene in our economy by purchasing at least $700 billion of toxic assets. It would allow the Secretary to hold onto those assets for years and to pay millions of dollars to handpicked firms to manage those assets. It would do nothing, in my view, to help a single family save a home, at least not upfront. It would do nothing to stop even a single CEO from dumping billions of dollars of toxic assets on the backs of American taxpayers, while at the same time do nothing to stop the very authors of this calamity to walk away with bonuses and golden parachutes worth millions of dollars. And it would allow the Secretary and his successors to act with utter and absolute impunity, without review by any agency or a court of law. After reading this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not just our economy that is at risk, but our Constitution, as well. Wall Street didnt care one bit what it was doing to neighborhoods. It didnt see the devastation. It didnt feel the pain. And my question for each of you is, do you think that—do you think Wall Street owes the American people an apology?
YouTube | October 1, 2008
