In the words of Public Citizen Communications Director Angela Bradbery, pictured above, “It felt good to yell at the White House.” I wonder if President Bush, John McCain, Barack Obama and the other big wigs meeting inside the White House heard us standing outside in the drizzle. And if they heard us, did they care?
It seems the White House and Congressional leaders have reached a general agreement on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. The Washington Post is reporting that the deal seems to include some of the provisions that Public Citizen, Consumer Watchdog and other public interest groups have pushed. This is from the WaPo article:
The agreement also includes a strong oversight board for the bailout program, a ban on golden parachutes and other excessive compensation for executives at participating firms and protections for taxpayers, including a provision that would require participating companies to give taxpayers equity in their firms. In addition, the package would provide relief for community banks that own now worthless stock in mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were taken over by the government.
There’s still a sense that this deal — the biggest blank check handed out in U.S. history — is coming together too quickly with too little public input. The amazing thing is how this bailout has angered and galvanized people from all sides of the political spectrum. So, while Congressional leaders talk about reaching some sort of bipartisan solution, there is a more significant bipartisan rumbling from Main Street against this billionaire’s relief act. This is from a New York Times article on constituent calls and emails to their members of Congress:
“I am hoping Congress can find the backbone to stand on their feet and not their knees before BIG BUSINESS,” one correspondent wrote to Representative Jim McDermott of Washington.
“I’d rather leave a better world to my children — NOT A BANKRUPT NATION. Whew! Pardon my shouting,” wrote another.
Mr. McDermott is a liberal Democrat, but his e-mail messages look a lot like the ones that Representative Candice S. Miller, a conservative Republican from Michigan, is receiving. “NO BAILOUT, I am a registered republican,” one constituent wrote. “I will vote and campaign hard against you if we have to subsidize the very people that have sold out MY COUNTRY.”
Meanwhile Arianna Huffington is calling for Barack Obama to take a stand and not follow the pack. She writes on the Huffington Post:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: bipartisanship in service of bad legislation is not a good thing.
And, make no mistake, this bailout bill — at least if the details that are trickling out are accurate — is going to be very bad legislation indeed. And by that I mean very bad for the American people, whose interests are by no means identical to Wall Street’s.
If Barack Obama goes along with it in the name of post-partisan comity, he’s making a big mistake. Washington is not lacking political leaders willing to go along with the flow. It’s lacking political leaders willing to lead.
You can see more photos from the rally on our flickr stream.
Another Dead Canary » What’s a few billion dollars between friends?
[...] blogged about Thursday’s bailout protest over at Citizen Vox, where I write as part of my day gig. The turnout for the protest was light — the rain [...]
September 25, 2008 at 11:56 pm
john dube
Heres a thought !!!
The Robin Hood effect … the rich steal from the poor – then (force them) or steal the money back !! You cant have(keep) what wasn’t yours in the first place !! Capitolism and Corruption , its not the new America , the Kennedys were doing this the same to us in the 30′s !!!! Lets get the biggest Wall St crook to regulate this AGAIN !!!
September 30, 2008 at 6:57 am
Brother WilliamX
Why should billioniares on wall street get help from the general public? I think that the thought is a bunch of bs.
These are the same individuals who look down on the
middle & poor working class as low lifers, but now they are raising holy hell in Washington to get a bill passed to help them.
As a Activist in all struggle areas these rich individuals
should be allow to suffer. Let’s look at the useless amount
of billions & billions of dollars that has been spent on the
dumb war in the middle east, and believe it or not this is
money that the poor could use here in America.
Those guys on wall street was smoking them $50.00 Cigars
when everything was going good, but now they want the same people that has losted their homes to foreclosures to
lobby the Congress, Senate, and the House to sign a bill
that would help them out….Hell no.
My group The Citizens Against Corrupted Politicians is in
battle against law makers in our local, county, state, and
federal levels of governmentwho is thinking like these clowns
on Wall Street.
Here is one of the latest issues that involves our Federal government. The Big Bang nuclear program. This scientific program involves over 30 countries in the world, and they have joined the CERN in Geneva to create a program
that’s like a time machine. They have discovered a theory
that the beginning of the universe started when this massive
ball (20 times as big as the earth) blew up billions of years
ago, and this is what created Earth (the universe).
In closing. Right here in the states is a laboratory that’s called
Brookhaven, and 600 million dollars later (8 years). They have a particle accelerator called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider,
and this machine. For more details visit http://www.space.com
But these clowns is asking to be bailout of their financial problems.
September 30, 2008 at 9:50 am
mark thompson
If they truly want to solve the problem and get this country back on track give the bailout at the bottom of the line ,you and me.give each american 200 grand ,this would do the job,the funds would support jobs,create jobs,save billions,think about it no more food stamps no free housing,or free medical,that alone would save tax payers,now the money would buy homes,pay off loans,money would be invested,auto would be bought,the funds would go through the channels alot better and we all would see it at work
December 11, 2008 at 3:32 pm