Radical bailout plan has a jawdropping price tag

[harun]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration on Friday laid out a radical bailout plan with a jawdropping price tag -- a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions.

Congressional officials said they expected a request for legal authority to buy up the bad loans, at a cost in excess of $500 billion to the government. Democrats were discussing whether to try to attach middle class assistance to the legislation, despite a request from Bush to avoid adding controversial items that could delay action. An expansion of jobless benefits was one possibility.

Read more: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080919/financial_meltdown.html

---

Attach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.R._676">H.R. 676 to this nonsense and I won't have a problem with it.

[msongs]

1. this money WILL be paid back, right???????????????????? nt

[harun]

2. That is the question I am asking myself. I don't see how it would be possible

for much of this money to be paid back. Someone correct me if I am wrong but it looks to me like the taxpayer is basically now paying for these loans instead of the morons who took them and can't afford them.

[mbperrin]

28. Also the morons who issued them will be shielded from loss.

In fact, the same idiots who loaned too much to those with too little will soon have fresh new money to earn those "bonuses" they're so fond of.

Should have let them go. That's the free market, right?

[harun]

29. That is certainly the way it looks from where I sit (n/t)

[Indenturedebtor]

4. By your children. But don't worry, it will trickle it's way down to you

Well... maybe not. But who cares about you? :shrug:

[wanpete]

5. sure it will, for many generations to come, by the middle class of course.

[Kool Kitty]

13. What middle class?

[gravity]

14. The government could profit from it

The assets that the government is trying to buy do have some value, it is just that no one knows what it is, so they are afraid to trade it. Over time, the value of the assets will become clear, and the government will be able to sell them back when the economy stabilizes.

Essentially, the government is taking on the risks for these assets. They could make or lose money on this deal, but at least some of the money will be recouped.

[Zorra]

32. This plan is being put forth by the Bu*h administration. Should we trust them?

Has anything they've done been good for our country?

I smell a giant rat.

[Mari3333]

3. and how much did that illegal 'war' cost?

www.costofwar.com

[harun]

6. Between the Iraq war, increased military spending and this debacle B*sh has cost this

country roughly 4 trillion dollars we didn't have to spend. I guess that is what Republicans do to keep us from spending a few extra dollars a year on Childrens Health Care.

[Javaman]

7. so they by back the loans and the rich continue to get richer...

while those caught up in this mess that lost their homes, their jobs, their pensions, their 401s, will get nothing. sounds like a typical repuke bailout.

and given our do nothing congress they will try a vein attempt to attach help for the middle class only to be shot down by the repukes who will scream and yell over how the democrats are trying to wreck a plan to help out "america". the dems will sit on their hands and whine without attacking.

it's all in the cards folks.

[unkachuck]

8. Congress had....

....better be careful of following the recommendations, wisdom and advice of the Gang of Four, bush, bernanke, paulson and cox too quickly....

....this Gang of Four is the same Greed Incorporated click that brought us this financial mess in the first place....voting to squander trillions of taxpayer dollars on a new Resolution Greed Corporation should give all of you Congress-critters much pause....

....and to all you good Democrats in Congress: if you think your IWR vote was hung around your neck unfairly, you'd better watch how you vote on this one....complicity in destroying this country and it's economy over shitty wall street greed merchants will make the IWR vote look like childs' play....

....and to all you good Republicans in Congress: the Germans made the Nazi Party illegal, you and your Party may share the same fate....

....now! NOW! BEFORE you vote, is the time to make absolutely sure that your voting the public interest and not rushing into giving bushco another blank-check!!

[daleo]

9. Half a trillion - that could fund a war

I suppose that's a sort of silver lining - more money for bailouts means less money for wars.

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. Homeowners already lost 2 trillion in equity this year. But that wasn't "news".

[Trillo]

11. Gotta wonder if you'd have had more or less reccomends had you

put H.R. 676 in the subject line.

Ah, well, I'll rec it anyway!

[Maven]

12. Not half a trillion - try *at least* another trillion

At very least.

[Neshanic]

15. That's the real number. Correct, the very least. My thinking 3T if lucky.

[Hissyspit]

16. Radical Bailout Plan Has a Jawdropping Price Tag

Source: Associated Press

Radical bailout plan has a jawdropping price tag

By TOM RAUM and JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 3 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration on Friday laid out a radical bailout plan with a jawdropping price tag — a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions.

Relieved investors sent stocks soaring on Wall Street and around the globe. The Dow-Jones industrials average rose 368 points after surging 410 points the day before on rumors the federal action was afoot. A grim-faced President Bush acknowledged risks to taxpayers in what would be the most sweeping government intervention to rescue failing financial institutions since the Great Depression. But he declared, "The risk of not acting would be far higher."

The administration is asking Congress for far-reaching new powers to take over troubled mortgages from banks and other companies, including purchasing sour mortgage-backed securities. Administration officials and congressional leaders are to work out details over the weekend.

Congressional officials said they expected a request for legal authority to buy up the bad loans, at a cost in excess of $500 billion to the government. Democrats were discussing whether to try to attach middle class assistance to the legislation, despite a request from Bush to avoid adding controversial items that could delay action. An expansion of jobless benefits was one possibility.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080920/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

[Neshanic]

17. 500 B, Who are they kidding? We will be lucky to get our for less than 3 T.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Isn't this the same as nationalizing these corporations, and isn't that socialism??

omigawd. Do the repukes realize what they are doing? The next thing you know they will start to support socialized medicine!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Tunkamerica]

19. Only if the costs are percieved to be higher than the risk

to the wealthy. Maybe if all the poor people started dying and gardens went untended.

[Eric J in MN]

21. Nationalization is government ownership. This is corporate welfare.

The executives get to keep their multi-million dollar salaries, and the rest of us pay the price.

[Eric J in MN]

20. "The goal is to have something passed by Congress by the end of next week"

Less than a week deciding whether to spend a trillion dollars of tax money.

[boomerbust]

22. Not Socialism

It's Fascism plain and simple

[harun]

30. At first look you think wow this is Socialism, then as a number of good

editorials have pointed out it is much closer to Communism. As one digs deeper in to what this accomplishes and the end result, unfortunately this is pure Fascism. Won't be hearing that from too many Corporate Media pundits, but it is true.

[Turbineguy]

23. This is the result of bad government policy

allowing and driving bad business practices. The fallout wasn't supposed to come until well after Bush left and the Democrats could be blamed for the crash.

While this may look like the "Bentley and Rolls Royce Dealer's Relief Act of 2008", It's best for all of us. The alternative would have too horrible to contemplate.

As for the price tag, it won't be all that much considering what the Bush Administration has already cost us. 2008 will simply be more expensive than the other years which I calculate averaged $2 trillion anyway.

[aquart]

24. What are we using for collateral? The White House?

[BearSquirrel2]

25. but the virtue of the private sector is that it can fail and go out of business ...

These guys aren't against government. They're against a PUBLIC government!!

These guys want to privatize the government into their own hands. This is an effort to foist bad debt on the public. This is bushies friends taking their cut and then giving away all their bad debts.

[BearSquirrel2]

26. Why "buy" it ???

Why "buy" it??? It seems at this point they should be giving it away.

[high density]

27. The press is really concerned about the price tag of this

But we have heard very little about the ongoing price tag of our war machine.

[Zorra]

31. This fascist administration is deliberately destroying our country.

They want to muscle this plan through before Congress gets a chance to read between the lines

If there is one thing that we should have learned by now, it is this: If the Bu*h administration does it, you can be sure there is a malicious, anti-democratic purpose, fascism-promoting behind it.

[BrklynLiberal]

33. All theBush ancestors and their minons were pro-Nazi..so it should not come as a surprise

that they are pushing Fascism...and trying to disguise it as something palatable to the public.

I have felt from 9/12/01 that prez shit-for-brains was acting to intentionally destroy this country's govt. He and his cronies could not have done better if they were paid agents of an enemy nation.

Sinclair Lewis said, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

There are certainly rather frightening elements of fascism that seem to be coming quite rampant throughout the US.

There are many average Americans whose regular US patriotism has mutated into an ugly nationalism, the fault of which lies squarely at the feet of the current administration and it's politics of fear. A certain well known fascist commented on the governmental manipulation of it's people some 60 years ago -

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
~ Hermann Goering

Sounds a little familiar to a current situation, personally.

[bemildred]

34. Get rid of the middle man. nationalize the banks.

Then the US treasury can aquire the profit - and it needs it - and we won't need to worry about greedy assholes trashing the real estate market over and over again.