The original 3 page proposal from US Treasury Secretary Paulson has grown to a monumental 450 pages of pork-barrel amendments and additions. In true upsdie-down style, the US Congress is considering committing US taxpayers to a $700 billion bailout package while using the legislation itself to give almost US$100 billion in tax cuts to all manner of special interests, including a company in the state of Oregon who make wooden arrows as kids toys. Similar measures would be enacted on other states in the hope of winning the support of mainly Republican representatives for the bailout measure.
Cutting taxes while blowing out the deficit by a trillion dollars seems an odd way to show commitment to addressing the real problems with the US financial system.
If ever there was a sign that the whole thing is going to turn into a feeding frenczy for the already well-connected, this is it.
Voting the thing down is looking easier by the minute until these thieves GET IT.....that this bailout - if it happens at all - isn't about filling THEIR pockets.
Daily review 15/09/2025
6 hours ago
Truthseeker,
ReplyDeleteI agree that cutting taxes, combined with new handouts, is a strange way to manage an economy with a large fiscal deficit.
One thing which the U.S. government could certainly do right now is set an example to the rest of America by getting its own finances under control.
Andrew: They were under control - sort of - until Bush took office in early 2001. Since then, crony capitalism has been the overriding regime with the mates of the Republican Party stuffing their pockets with taxpayer cash and running $500 billion annual deficits to do it. The US is heading for a credit crunch quite separately from the bank system. This $700 billion bailout will be funded by money from other countries lent to the US. I wonder if anyone will be silly enough to lend it? Interest rates could become quite high to attract those funds....driving more people over the edge. I think we may be seeing just the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong....millions of people will working hard to avoid the worst. They may manage to avert it.