$81,884 per U.S. taxpayer - cost of the bailout

Source used: Associated Press, JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and DEB RIECHMANN Sep 20 2008.

Remember when I was outraged that the AIG rescue would cost each American taxpayer $279?

That the rescue of the failing insurance agency which got greedy and colluded with investment banks to defraud us would cost $279 per person?

Well, worry not America!

The Bush administration asked Congress on Saturday for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression.

The rescue plan would give Washington broad authority to purchase bad mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions for the next two years.

The government is now in business of purchasing those shitty loans from banks.

The loans that no one will repay.

And by "government", I mean us, the American taxpayers.

Hooray for us.

Congressional aides and administration officials are working through the weekend to fill in the details of the proposal. The White House hoped for a deal with Congress by the time markets opened Monday; top lawmakers say they would push to enact the plan as early as the coming week.

Don't blame Bush for this - this is bi-partisan. Both parties are guilty, and this whole deregulation shit started under Saint Clinton, he of the NAFTA infamy (granted, it was three republicans who proposed and pushed the law that deregulated the financial industry).

"The American people are furious that we're in this situation, and so am I," the House's top Republican, Ohio Rep. John A. Boehner, said in a statement. "We need to do everything possible to protect the taxpayers from the consequences of a broken Washington."

Words, words.

If American people were furious certain people - lets name some names (what the fuck is up lately with this no accountability crap and the media running memes called "blame game", as in it's uncool to name the guily) - Bernanke, Paulson, SEC folks such as chairman Christopher Cox (R), Kathleen L. Casey (R), Troy A. Paredes (R), Luis A. Aguilar (D) and Elisse B. Walter (D)) would be swinging from trees or running for their lives, say, to Abu Dhabi or the Emirates (Cheney already is way ahead of many as the Emirates are practically his second home by now).

I love the Ohio Republican's fake outrage and his ""We need to do everything possible to protect the taxpayers".

Yeah, dickhead, good job protecting us, by saddling each of us with over 80 thousand dollars debt. Per taxpayer.

Signaling what could erupt into a brutal fight with Democrats over add-on spending, Boehner said "efforts to exploit this crisis for political leverage or partisan quid pro quo will only delay the economic stability that families, seniors, and small businesses deserve."

Yes.

I agree.

Those families, seniors and small businesses need to be 80 thousand more in debt.

Obama said. "And we must also ensure that the solution we design doesn't reward particular companies, or irresponsible borrowers or lenders, or CEOs, some of whom helped cause this mess."

Funny - the "solution" rewards exactly those irresponsible borrowers or lenders, or CEOs, who caused this mess.

It's not like their salaries or golden parachutes were affected.

They still made millions - 10, 20, 50.

I guess it's gonna be tough for those folks on their private islands...

If enacted, the plan would give the treasury secretary broad power to buy, manage and sell the mortgage-related investments without any additional involvement by lawmakers.

Laws? Oversight? Not needed here.

Let the biggest scam in the history of the world commence!

I don't know whether to pity or to laugh maniacally at us, the dumbest of the dumb, the stupidest of the stupid, the idiots.... us, Americans.



There are three kinds of countries in the world.

There are third world countries, where the punishment for those lying con men, the CEO's and CFO's who swindled the world with their (pretty idiotic, really) financial tricks would be to hang them from a steel meat rack - by their ribs.

Or perhaps a bullet to the back of their head.

Their families' properties would be confiscated - all of it, so that no one else would get any funny ideas that big time crime pays.

That is the third world way.

The more "civilized" countries, such as France, Spain, Norway, etc etc., would place those people on trial, find them guilty, and put them into jails. For a long time.

But, in America, we have a third option - you are rewarded for being a good con man.

You get your multi million salary, your bonuses for "good performance", your golden parachute for getting let go...

And us, the citizens?

We get "rewarded" with $81,884 that each of us has to pay.

Post Scriptum
Those are optimistic numbers, by the way.

You are probably familiar with government budgets - they tend to be lowballed and then grow at a fantastic rate.

Any new government program, especially one that is pitched to the taxpayers, will have a ridiculous low cost - say, war in Iraq was supposed to pay for itself, because the Iraqi oil fields would cover the cost.

Or a new sports stadium, or a construction project, which somehow always costs more than the original prediction.

So that $81 thousand per each tax paying citizen/household?

That is the optimistic number.

Be advised.