Bernie's Better Bailout

[Naturyl]

Bernie Sanders has a plan for a *better* bailout:

http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/?petition=Financial_Crisis_1

1. Ensure that middle income and working families are not the ones who are paying for this bailout by

* Imposing a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue over five years;

* Ensuring that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and

* Requiring that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the taxpayers’ assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.


Taken together these three provisions will substantially reduce the likelihood that this bailout will end up on the backs of average American taxpayers.


2. Include a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Further, we must protect our must vulnerable families from the very difficult times they are experiencing.

3. Repeal the disastrous de-regulatory legislation that facilitated this crisis.

4. End the danger posed by companies that are “too big to fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We need to determine which companies fall in this category and then break them up.

[droidamus2]

1. Go Bernie

Though I only recent moved to Vermont Bernie makes me proud to live here. His points are a good start at looking at what Obama calls and I paraphrase 'a bottom up bailout'. These are the kind of position papers that each side should be coming up with (and even people not on either side) then congress would have a chance to put together a bill that uses the best of the best ideas.

[Naturyl]

2. Vermont is a wonderful state.

Neither the scenery or the political climate can be beat.

I hope to find a way to move there someday.

[droidamus2]

12. Good Luck

As long as you can handle lots of snow in the winter (I moved here from California took me awhile) you will do fine here.

[TBF]

3. Bernie's plan is good; as is Dennis Kucinich's. They are much more

concerned about the average taxpayer in this country.

[avaistheone1]

6. There should be public hearings on Sander's plan, Galbraith's plan

and others.

"Bail out in haste, repent at leisure"

[shireen]

13. i agree, i wish Bernie got more media coverage. He's a very smart thoughtful person. nt

[Chulanowa]

4. B-b-b-but that's SOCIALISM!

Go Bernie :)

[Naturyl]

5. Nah, it's not quite that good. :)

But close enough for government work. :)

[TBF]

9. Heh. :)

If we're gonna do socialism we need to do it for everyone, not just Wall Street Billionaires. I think George Bush missed that day in Poli Sci 101.

[VeggieTart]

11. Yeah, well, we already get the crappy part of socialism

It's about damn time we benefited from socialism. If they're going to socialize the risk, they damn well better socialize the profits.

[yurbud]

7. Bernie should be the next Secretary of the Treasury

[Karenina]

8. . .

[dhpgetsit]

10. Add to that a Securities Turnover Excise Tax

This will discourage the short term trading.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/26