Member of Congress warns “My message to the American people don’t let Congress seal this deal..."

[Irish Girl]

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) warns the American people about Constitutional enemies of the Republic and the fraudulent trillion(s) dollar bailout…

“My message to the American people don’t let Congress seal this deal. High financial crimes have been committed.”

“The normal legislative process has been shelved. Only a few insiders are doing the dealing, sounds like insider trading to me. These criminals have so much political power than can shut down the normal legislative process of the highest law making body of this land.”

“We are Constitutionally sworn to protect and defend this Republic against all enemies foreign and domestic. And my friends there are enemies.”

“The people pushing this deal are the very ones who are responsible for the implosion on Wall Street. They were fraudulent then and they are fraudulent now.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAADyc6t4nY">Marcy Kaptur warns "there are domestic enemies to the Republic"

[liberalmuse]

1. I think she was the person I heard on the radio...

the other day, and she made damn good sense. We can't let this pass. I'm becoming more and more convinced. Not as the proposal stands now. It's not acceptable. And there is that chance that McCain will steal the election, and Gramm will have absolute power as Sec. of Treasury. No, they didn't exactly take all of that shit out of the original Paulsen plan. God in heaven, I don't even want to think about that.

[Jamastiene]

2. Democrat, meet backbone...

:wow: Why the fuck can't ALL of our representatives in the Democratic Party just speak up and say the truth like that? :shrug:

I would be jumping on the couch and squawking like a monkey hopped up on chocolate if they all actually finally took a stand. It would be better than all my Christmas mornings from childhood combined.

God, it has been way too long since we have truly been represented in this country...way way too long.

:thumbsup:

K&R too, btw.

[loudsue]

25. I'm gettin' a visual.

:popcorn: That'd be pretty rad.

[Dover]

29. I can think of two reasons - fear of consequences or they are complicit

It's a bipartisan trough.

[scarletwoman]

3. k&r -- damn straight there are domestic enemies to the Republic! Go Marcy! (nt)

[Irish Girl]

4. is there any hope still?

I can't believe the evil we've allowed to penetrate through Capitol Hill. Even Draino couldn't mask the stench of these dill pickles who've utterly destroyed this country :(

[Jamastiene]

5. I keep waiting for the rest of the party to finally get fed up

enough to say enough is enough and just stand the fuck up, but they keep "playing it safe." Well, we see what that has gotten us for the last 8 years. Has anyone ever said, "No" to GW Bush? I think not.

[still_one]

6. Representative Kaptur is mostly liberal except for a woman's right to choose

I don't agree with her on the bailout bill. Too many innocent people will be hurt if this doesn't pass

I also believe it will pass

[FlyingSquirrel]

7. If it does,

There better not be a SINGLE REPUBLICAN allowed to vote against it. NOT ONE.

This was their mess, they need to be on the hook for the (supposed) solution to it.

[Spike from MN]

19. I take a slightly different view of it.

If the Dems need Republican "cover" to pass it, that's because they know the bill is a sham, it won't work and it's nothing more than a handout to their Wall Street buddies. If it was a GOOD bill, no "cover" would be needed. For example, if after Katrina, they said the damages were $700B and they needed to pass a spending bill to cover that, do you think that would have sparked this kind of outrage? Probably not, as long as the $700B figure was accurate and wasn't just a handout to their contractor buddies. But if the bailout bill passes with all Ds and Rs voting for it and then everything goes to hell, what are the Dems going to do? Point at the Republicans and say "But Mom, they did it too!" like a damn second-grader? That might work for some but it doesn't work for me.

The way I see it, if this damn bill (as it stands today) passes AT ALL, I'll vote against ANY incumbent running regardless of which party they're with and/or how they voted on the bill. If they're in the House, they either need to fight like hell against it or, if it passes the House anyway, they need to get off their butts and have a Senator or two lined up to filibuster. If they're in the Senate don't filibuster it, they have no excuse. If the bill goes through, I'm putting it on the shoulders of every damn one of them. None of them are getting a free ride from me. If they want my vote, they're going to have to earn it.

[ShortnFiery]

14. Gee, I thought the most liberal rep was Nancy "Impeachment's off of the table" Pelosi?

:crazy:

[cui bono]

8. I sent her an email last week thanking her for her rant on the floor.

Even though I am no where near her district. I think we should send her more emails of encouragement and let her know we're listening and appreciating her speaking out.

[tazkcmo]

9. I agree

If ANYBODY gets ANY money it should be the home owners.

[AzDar]

10. That gave me chills.

Jeebus.:scared:

[JDPriestly]

11. Representative Kaptur is right.

I can't believe that Congress is considering handing that kind of money, that kind of power to a president who has instructed his closest aides to ignore congressional subpoenas. That is idiocy. Karl Rove and Harriet Meiers should appear before Congress and answer all questions before this Act is even brought to the floor.

[FreakinDJ]

12. Given the overwhelming public opinion Against this bill

I would be surprised if it passed

Since they declared agreement on key issues late Saturday night, I am sure they have retreated to their offices to weigh public opinion and asses the political fall out

Keep those emails and phone calls coming

[Irish Girl]

15. down the road

When this doesn't work as the magic bullet, people are really going to feel hosed. I watched CNBC this morning and they said "Well then we'll have to do ANOTHER bailout plan" and the anchor laughed nervously and said "But we can't afford it! But I guess we'll have to..." wtf

[girl gone mad]

32. I don't think congress and the bankers have considered those repurcussions..

Bankers and members of congress who foisted this turkey on us will have a lower public approval than pedophiles.

My banker friend who works in Japan told me he's already working on a back story. He plans to say he spent the last 10 years on a Japanese whaling boat when he gets home and people ask what he was doing over there.

Welcome to DU, btw!

[lynnertic]

16. 'assess'

the verb is 'to assess'
the plural noun is 'asses'

this message brought to you by the spelling police...

[FreakinDJ]

23. There is 1 in every crowd

[lynnertic]

28. And yet we need another half-dozen.

Americans are getting ever lazier and ever uglier in their arrogance. Freaking take a minute to learn your native tongue! I was trying to help.

[debbierlus]

13. This needs to be on the front page - the video didn't should be put on the top of the page

[chill_wind]

17. K & R n/t

[chill_wind]

18. The whole transcript..

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Congress is being pushed to pass a Bush administration plan to write a blank check to white collar criminals of the highest order. Instead of prosecuting those who stole from us, Secretary Paulson wants us to reward his former colleagues for their bad decisions, abusive and unlawful practices.

While my constituents are struggling to pay their gas bills, we should recall fondly the record annual bonuses Secretary Paulson's alma mater, Goldman Sachs, gave less than 2 years ago. In 2006, that investment house alone paid $16.5 billion in compensation to its employees averaging more than $600,000 per employee. In fact, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got $53.4 million that year. And Bear Stearns chief executive officer, the company that the Fed just bailed out with our money, James E. Cayne, got a stock bonus that year worth $14.8 million. Merrill Lynch chief executive officer Stanley O'Neal, he got $35.4 million. Think about this America.

Now 2 years later, those houses are demanding that our taxpayers bail out their companies, despite the fact that the real median household income of a middle class family in our country is about $50,000 a year. That doesn't matter to the people drafting this bailout.

In 2006, Forbes Magazine estimated Secretary Paulson earned $16.4 million as CEO of Goldman Sachs, not counting all his other perks. His net worth is estimated somewhere over half a billion dollars. Indeed, that tidy amount alone would make a real dent in what is owed to the American people in this proposed bailout.

So why would our middle class taxpayers be asked to bail out billionaires? Some of them should be doing time for insider trading and fraudulent accounting rather than lobbying down here in Washington for us to bail them out.

American taxpayers were forced to lay out $30 billion to help Bear Stearns.

And then we were asked to shell out the first $200 billion, and that could rise to $2.44 trillion, for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And now, $85 billion to rescue AIG Insurance Company.

Who ever heard of the Federal Government rescuing an insurance company that was already paying, get this, civil fines in New York for its wrongdoing of over $1.6 billion on proven charges of serious accounting fraud and misconduct.

Why send our hardened paychecks to the very people who caused these problems?

Americans don't need to write checks. We need investigations, and we don't need just investigations, we need prosecutions. White collar crimes of this magnitude cannot go unpunished, nor can they get rewarded.

First, investigation. We need the American people's voices to be heard, not just the voices of those who perpetrated these crimes against us, the taxpayers. We need real congressional investigation and oversight in each of the committees of jurisdiction which seem strangely silent here, using their subpoena power, the Judiciary Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Budget Committee, the Financial Services Committee, which is having a perfunctory hearing tomorrow, I guess, and Government Oversight. The silence is deadening.

The crimes of Wall Street will make Watergate look like penny-ante thieves.

Second, campaign reform. Get the Wall Street money out of congressional and presidential races. Wall Street is now the Number 1 top source of Federal campaign money to Congress and in those presidential races. And guess who's the Number 1 Wall Street giver? Goldman Sachs. And guess where our last two Treasury Secretaries have come from? Goldman Sachs.

Whether it's a Democratic administration or a Republican, not one lawmaker or candidate should be accepting Wall Street money. Wall Street is so broke as to beg for our help, but somehow they have millions of dollars to drop into political coffers.

I think the American people are beginning to get the picture. In fact, I'm putting in the Record tonight an article from the Wall Street Journal called Wall Street Top Source of Campaign Money, and also a list of the biggest donors on Wall Street.

Mr. Speaker, I will continue tomorrow evening to talk about justice and empowering the Department of Justice to institute a major investigation.

And let me also, in closing say, I'm going to be placing in the Record tonight some remarks from Americans who have ideas about what should be done.

I want to compliment the American people. You're doing a lot of thinking on your own. We need to hear from you.

This Congress shouldn't be closing down and going home. We should be
taking care of America's business, not going home to campaign.

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=290&Itemid=51

Preach it Marcy! (bold emphaisis mine)

[chill_wind]

27. (from yesterday) n/t

[Laelth]

20. k&r

:dem:

-Laelth

[depakid]

21. From an Ohian, no less

As if communities in her state haven't been devastated enough- she'd risk compounding that exponentially.

[Vanje]

22. Amen!

Marcy Kaptur isnt the only one speaking out strongly against the big bail.

I heard Peter DeFazio (D-OR)On Public Radio this evening, with an equally impassioned , if more pragmatic view.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/09/29/plan_b_q/

Excerpt:
So I think there are practical proposals out there that just weren't heard.
And in addition to that, Paulson didn't at all get, in my mind, to the underlying part of the economy -- the problems in housing and the declining housing market. There are credible economists who said: Hey, if you don't deal with housing, you may be taking care of this week's bad securities, but guess what? Next week, if housing goes down another 5 percent, there's gonna be a whole batch more bad securities out there. You've gotta deal with the underlying problems in housing and the underlying problems in the economy.


Excerpt:
Look, you know, they were handed a really bad starting point. They shouldn't have accepted the premise. Henry Paulson sent down a three-page insult to Congress, saying: You let me either borrow or give me $700 billion -- authorization to print it -- and you get out of the way. That was what he sent down. People said, oh, he's just a tough bargainer. And I said no, that is not a bargaining position, plus I reject the basic premise. We should have put his plan up for a vote on Tuesday last week. It would have gotten zero votes, then we would have been in the negotiating position to push him back. They then started negotiating with him, and, you know, you just can't get very far starting from a failed premise.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

24. They have become so damned powerful, they can threaten to KILL this nation.

That is too much power.

What would be better: being prepared to struggle in overthrowing absolute power or giving into it?

What would be better: enabling further abusive/oppressive/predatory behavior or stopping it?

[BrklynLiberal]

26. K&R

[Dover]

30. If some of the fearless Dems and Repubs know that the people have their backs

then maybe they will be more emboldened to take on the 'enemies'. We shouldn't ask them
to do something unless we're prepared to back them up.

[Waiting For Everyman]

31. Well I bet our enemies out there in the world will be noticing how

easy it is to hold a gun to our head and get what they want too. Smart move, caving to Wall Street.

All the support for this bailout says is, the American public is weak and so is its government.

[depakid]

33. An Ohian who's communities are devastated should know better than to risk crashing the economy

over her hatred of Wall Street.

Through her demogoguery, she may end up making conditions in her district exponentially worse.