Bush signs $700 billion financial bailout bill

Ive had a good life.
Im 32.
Im divorced with 2 kids.
Without that war I probably would be different.
My grandads wanted this for me.
So that I could help people instead of thinking about how I would kill people.
My Dad was in Vietnam.
Your people sold morgtage backed securities to foreign nations.
That were worthless.
Are you gonna man up with us?
We will stand next to you and die, anytime if you want.
Anytime.
Are you gonna be true to your promise to us?
Yes you are.
Because that's the American friends I will die for.

Here is my reply email from Georgia's Saxby Chambliss...

Dear Mrs. XXXXXX :

Thank you for contacting me regarding the turmoil in our financial markets and the actions taken by the United States Treasury as they pertain to several leading financial institutions. It is good to hear from you.

This is the most serious and critical domestic issue I have dealt with in my 14 years in Congress. We have been betrayed by many people and by abuse of the system. Now we have two significant choices to make - do nothing or take action.

I strongly believe that doing nothing will destroy the financial security of millions of Americans and possibly lead us into a depression. I just as strongly believe the bill as now negotiated will arrest the crisis and begin to turn our economy around.

The bill that I voted for is not a bailout. H.R. 1424, "The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act," is crafted to address the crisis; restore security for the American taxpayer; and return our nation to the strongest economic power in the world. And in the process this bill enables us to root out and punish those who cheated us all.

I know that my vote in favor of this package was not the politically popular thing to do, but this is not a popularity contest. This is about the future of our country and the future that my children and grandchildren will inherit. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind or my heart that my vote in support of this measure was the right thing for our economy, for Georgians, and for our country.

My first reaction was one of anger and frustration. How could this happen in the strongest economy in the world? How could the best financial system in the world fail? After calming down, I realized the seriousness of the situation and the consequences of Congress failing to act.

The Treasury Department submitted a proposal to Congress requesting authority to purchase troubled assets from financial institutions. This program was intended to address the root cause of the market stresses by removing these assets from the financial system.

I did not support the original proposal submitted by the Administration because it did not address the critical needs of the American taxpayer, community banks, retirees, and small businesses and it concentrated too much power in a small group to administer the plan.

As the conversations in Washington and across the nation continued over how to address the challenge before us and as the details of the problems in our financial sector were revealed daily, I became convinced that something had to be done and done soon.

Moreover, when the House rejected the plan, the economy suffered a $1.2 trillion dollar blow in the stock market, which only made more apparent the impact this credit crunch is having on Main Street . Specifically, in some cases, Georgia community banks are unable to make auto loans.

Below are details of the legislation:

TAXPAYERS ARE PROTECTED. In its current form, the legislation before the Senate protects taxpayers in many ways. Accountability, safeguards, and oversight measures are numerous. There will be transparency, public reports, and triggers to end the program if, for some reason, it is not effective or end the program early if it is more successful. Moreover, I worked to negotiate a mechanism to stop all transfers of taxpayer funds if necessary. That said , I believe this legislation will be effective.

NOT A BLANK CHECK. I opposed the President's initial request to simply give a blank check to Secretary Paulson. I also opposed the second version submitted by the President and Congressional Democrats that would have given taxpayer money to liberal groups such as ACORN. Let me be clear - this current bill, the bill in the Senate, is not a blank check for anyone. First, it allows the release of $250 billion to purchase these toxic loans. Then, Congress can release another $100 billion but only with Presidential involvement and certification that it is necessary. And only if absolutely necessary and again with Presidential certification and Congressional approval, the remaining $350 billion could be released. However, I do not believe the entire $700 billion authorized will be necessary or used.

NO GOLDEN PARACHUTES. CEOs and other executive officers who drove their companies into the ground will not be able to walk away with millions leaving taxpayers holding the bill. Those companies that choose to participate in the program will be subject to strict compensation limits

NO NEW GOVERNMENT SPENDING. The language is clear - all revenue generated through the repayment of any assets purchased and any sold must be used to pay down the national debt. No money will go to pork projects, new government spending, or liberal groups such as ACORN.

HELP FOR MAIN STREET . As this crisis continues, community banks are being affected more and more. Car loans and home loans, even to those with good credit, are drying up. People are losing their retirement savings. Small businesses are now having difficulty getting loans to make payroll or grow their business to create new jobs. If we allow this to continue, jobs will be lost, more retirement accounts will be impacted, and credit will get even tighter.

PUNISH CRIMINALS. The Federal Government is actively investigating cases of fraud and abuse. Where wrongdoing is found, the perpetrators, including, if implicated, members of Congress will be brought to justice. We have already seen subpoenas issued for records at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This bill demands cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and I expect we will see more subpoenas and criminal prosecution.

ADDRESS THE UNDERLYING CAUSE WHILE WE TREAT THE SYMPTOMS. We are seeing the symptoms now - lack of trust in the banking industry, daily tightening of the credit markets, losses in personal retirement accounts - and while this legislation addresses those issues, it also goes further to treat the cancer that got us here. This legislation authorizes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to modify the 'mark to market' accounting procedures that magnified this crisis by forcing banks to mark down the value of assets they had no intention of selling in the near future. This mark down of value caused a corresponding loss of value to the institutions. The SEC has already begun the process to modify this procedure.

RETURN TRUST IN THE BANKS. By increasing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) protection on bank accounts from the current $100,000 to $250,000, taxpayers and bank customers can once again trust that their money is safe in the bank of their choice.

DEBT REPAYMENT. Toxic loans will be purchased at a discount and 100% of the monies repaid to the government will go to reduce the debt we incur in this process. While we shouldn't expect full repayment, it is possible that all of the money expended will be repaid.

PROTECT OUR NATIONAL SECURITY. If we do not act and this crisis spreads like a cancer to every segment of our economy, it will destroy not only taxpayer savings but it will erode our ability to fund our military, supply our troops with the resources they need, and protect our homeland.

NO TIME FOR POLITICAL FINGER POINTING. There is plenty of blame to go around but now is not the time to throw stones, now is the time to address this crisis and get our economy moving again.

FOR THE COUNTRY; NOT POLITICAL POPULARITY. This is not a popularity contest, this is a crisis. And since this crisis began, I have had numerous conversations with economists, community bankers, small business owners, and taxpayers. I have weighed the costs of inaction versus the costs of unpopular action. I support this bill because it is good for the country, it is the right thing to do today for taxpayers and tomorrow for my children and grandchildren, and it is necessary to get our economy moving again.

Mod Edit: Added 'ex' tags
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[edit on 4/10/2008 by Badge01]

reply to post by SEEWHATUDO


Continued from above email reply from Georgia's Saxby Chambliss...

Strong capital markets are vital to a prosperous U.S. economy and given the renewed focus of our regulators and market participants, I remain confident in our financial markets and our overall economy.

However, history warns us against inaction by hard lessons learned. Delaying to act would be a repeat of the mistakes of the 1920s, when thousands of banks failed before significant confidence was restored to our financial markets.



If you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov . Please let me know whenever I may be of assistance.

====
Mod Edit: Added 'ex' tags
Mod Edit: External Source Tags – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 4/10/2008 by Badge01]

How many Georgians asked Saxby Chambliss to vote NO to the 1st and 2nd bailout?
How many received this standard reply email that is belittling and shows the unbelievable lack of respect for the voters?

The most hysterical thing about this entire repulsive bailout bs is that America DID COME TOGETHER, AMERICANS WERE BIPARTISAN, WE ALL SCREAMED HELL NO AND NOBODY LISTENED.

America woke up but it was way too late and now they will be lulled back to sleep.

You know what?
Your a part of the United States of America?
Do you not want to be a part of that anymore?
Hand in your card son.

Originally posted by ofhumandescent

We were robbed and our government condoned it.

[edit on 4-10-2008 by ofhumandescent]

[edit on 4-10-2008 by ofhumandescent]

It's worse than that.


We were robbed, and WE condoned it.


We Begged to be robbed, financially raped, and now we have been forced to agree to being either pillaged, or destroyed.


Not too many of us were complaining back when everyone was buying "McMansions" because "Homeownership is the Right of every American". And so what if the deals being made to buy and sell those homes were "a bit too good to be true"; everyone Knew that real estate "can only appreciate" (Hey, They're not making any more land, are they!).

So what if those "nothing down, incredibly low initial interest rate" ARM's were set to balloon in 3-5 years; by then the value of your castle would have risen to to keep you "fat and happy" by either re-financing or selling.


And we didn't complain, or even question, when the loans/mortgages kept coming because, in the brilliance of American ingenuity and inventiveness, those "bomb-shell" mortgages had been morphed into a new type of investment vehicle: "Securitized" mortgage "packages".

And, in the entrapenurial spirit that made America great, no one complained when banks and brokerage houses began offering these Securitized Mortgages to the World and anyone who would buy them.



Afterall, isn't it an axiom of American ideology that "The More Wealth you Spread, the More Wealth you Reap"?



Little did we realize, then, in our collective rapacious innocence and greed, that we sown the seeds of our own, eventual downfall. That, by making our assets and financial resources freely available to everyone, we were including those, beyond our borders, who would wish us harm.


And by basing a major portion of our national economy on the assets and resources we had willing sold out of our control, we were handing to our enemies the perfect weapon with which to conquer us.



This is the situation as it currently stands.


And if we choose to fight amoung ourselves, blaming our elected representatives (remember, WE elected them. We bought their flashy, "folksy" hyped campaign promises. Without question or verification) and /or Wall Street CEO's (whose companies many of us work for one way or another; and whose fortunes more or less tie directly into our fortunes)...


Then our enemies will have won, again.


For what they had set in motion (argueably at our niave behest) we will succede in finishing.

We will complete the destruction of our own society.

reply to post by Bhadhidar


Some of what you say is true, but unfortunately only to a maximum of 50%. Your hypothesis only supports half of the problem.

You want "We the People" to argue against something as complex as the derivatives market when the best economists don't understand it, let alone the counter-balances of it unravelling?

The "We the People", and I think I would have a 50-50 shot by professing that you, too, have no idea what the premise behind collaterlized debt or the derivatives market entails.

This was a premise based SOLELY, underscored, solely on greed at the behest of ONLY the investment bankers. These same "McMansioneers" that you identify could never even have begun to IMAGINE that the reason that their mortgage could even be GIVEN to them and then reset is based simply on the fact that a guy in Saudi Arabia actually owned the property that they resided in, that the amount of collaterized debt placed AGAINST that property thought to be insured for it's entire value was insured at only 10% of its value, and that the extension TO that CDO was placed more than once.

So sincerely, please tell me how a SIMPLE man, a farmer in Idaho who's sole reason for living and breathing may well revolve around potatoes, would even CARE to understand this, never mind have the cognizance enough to ask "Why the F__K are we doing this?".


Sorry, I'm not taking shot at you, but I just think you're only telling it half like it is, because I wholeheartedly agree with your first 50%.


AB1

Originally posted by Dock6
reply to post by secretstash

 

Why feel dumb when you drive on the freeway and can turn to police and utilize other tax-funded resources when necessary ? Who's supposed to pay for all the things people take for granted ? Would you genuinely choose not to pay tax and instead live and subject your children to a Mad Max environment ?

"Mad Max," is a perfect example. Most folks dont even know how to properly maintain a firearm, much less figure out how to feed themselves if they are ever out in the enviroment for more than a few days. We have a lot of things that we take for granted, seeing them go away will just make things harder on everyone. I should've just made my F'n screen name "DevilsAdvocte," Jesus Christ...

Originally posted by AussieTough
You know what?
Your a part of the United States of America?
Do you not want to be a part of that anymore?
Hand in your card son.

Congrats on being my new favorite member here.

Originally posted by The Revealer
you guys should watch this video!!! OMG

I'd like to thank you for posting this vid. Clearly the passion in this mans statements should linger as something to be taken seriously!

Although this is going on in the states, what ever happens in the next few years is certainly going to affect the people of the rest of the world. In every posible way...
Therefor I hope that my fellow European members will try to distribute this link on the web as I have done now after seeing it.

Should the American people ever need support in any way to keep themselves from being suppresed by it's rogue, extortionist government, I hope my fellow Europeans are ready to step in.
It's not just about the Americans... it's about the world now.

reply to post by alphabetaone



Let's take that farmer in Idaho.


On the occasion of Any given local or national election, who do you think he/she is more likely to vote for?



-The "Intellectual" candidate who stands by the motto "If you what More from your government You are going to have to pay for it in more/higher taxes!"


-Or the folksy, down home "Guy Next Door", who campaigns on the creed "The Business of Business is Business; The business of Government is to stay Out of Your Business!"




When that farmer gets a loan from the bank to plant his crop, is he going to complain, or even inquire, as to why the interest rate is so much lower at this big national bank than at the little regional bank down the street?


Is that farmer going to condemn the farmer down the way who sold his farm to a developer willing to pay above top dollar for the land? Or will our farmer begin to wonder if maybe it's time to think about a nice comfy retirement, maybe in Arizona where it's warm. Or Montana, for the hunting and fishing?


Self-interest before community concern is ingrained in the American psyche: "Enlightened" self-interest was one of the founding principles of ou country.

But the "Light" has dimmed, or perhaps, gone out altogether.
All that remains is the self interest.



The Chinese, for one, recognized this fact long enough ago to sieze the opportunity we presentd to them in the form of these "exotic financial investment vehicles".


In their society, the individual is only as valuable as his/her part of the whole. This was made evident to the world through the spectacle of the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.



I can accept 50% agreement.
I've learned my lesson, I won't be greedy!

I have watched people in this thread unite not just from the US but from all over the world and this makes me feel much better because not all is lost just yet.

I have witnessed patriotic statements, realisation over the years and a tonne of propoganda on tv. Still the people keep the torch of truth passing and for that I admire every single one of you who fights for truth and true justice.

I spent 10 years being ridiculed by my family, friends and collegues for speaking my views but now they ask me what is really happening in the world, I speak to members of the public to watch their eyes widen when they see the truth, that its all a farce and I try to keep myself as best educated as possible to the real knowledge of what is happening so that I can tell as many as possible.

There is no doubt in my mind that there are bad times ahead but just when I thought the American people had lost there path and submitted to ignorance I came across this thread.

I am cautiously optimistic despite all the negatives going on just now because i see more and more people made aware every single day. As long as people can speak the true America will never die.

Thank god for the internet for without it there would be no sharing of information and this makes me think about why it was ever allowed in the first place. The saying friends in high places springs to mind here and I think the people have more friends than they would like to think.

I really feel that America might just get its freedom back!

Good luck and god speed!

If you don't like the system, change it !
How ? Check out zeitgeist addendum
Plenty of ideas to consider...

/42qffr

Originally posted by zeeting
If you don't like the system, change it !
How ? Check out zeitgeist addendum
Plenty of ideas to consider...

I will not debase your suggestion because you seem to have joined solely to promote that film. The reason I won't is because I just saw it, and it indeed has merit.

But the final 'push' in the way of a promotion of the Venus Project has me wondering. What is it about man, that we must impose structural constraints to our interactions? The project is interesting, and certainly could be no worse than the devolution of society we see occurring under this 'profit' paradigm, however, it relies upon a base which is only achievable in the utter demolition of the system as it exists today..., a giant leap which could only be 'dictated' to a society.

reply to post by SEEWHATUDO


The letter is a nice touch, but it is full of complete deceptions. For instance, read section 17-Executive Compensation:
www.politico.com...

SEC. 17. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION.

20 The Secretary shall require that all entities seeking
21 to sell assets through a program established under this
22 Act meet appropriate standards for executive compensa23
tion and shareholder disclosure in order to be eligible,
24 which standards shall include—
1) limits on compensation to exclude incentives
2 for executives to take risks that the Secretary deems
3 to be inappropriate or excessive;
4 (2) a claw-back provision for incentive com5
pensation paid to a senior executive based on earn6
ings, gains, or other criteria that are later proven to
7 be inaccurate; and
8 (3) such limitations on the entity paying sever9
ance compensation to its senior executives as are de10
termined to be appropriate in the public interest in
11 light of the assistance being given to the entity.

That is the entire "guidelines" for executive pay. It says that it is up to the Secretary of the Treasury to determine what he/she thinks is excessive.
Remember, the current Secretary was the CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Here is what USATODAY says:
www.usatoday.com...



l

Bailout package unlikely to significantly curb executive pay
High pay and "golden parachutes" for poor-performing executives in finance and other industries still is a big issue, but the bailout bill passed Friday by the U.S. House likely won't rein in overpaid Wall Street moguls.
Compensation consultants who work with companies on pay packages say the bill's sections on executive compensation are so broadly and vaguely written that executives and companies will create dozens of new ways to boost leaders' pay anyway.

"This is tinkering around the margins, without really taking a fundamental look at executive compensation plans," says Howard Sherman, CEO of the Governance Metrics International,

Virtually every one of the "safeguards that is mentioned in the letter to you is in the same boat as this one. It is a total fraud!

Yeah I read somewhere that one of the loopholes it closes will supply $100 billion of the bailout, because it prevents middle-income taxpayers from paying too many ... taxes...? This really makes no sense. I think they should make cartoons about it and I would understand it better.

Here on ATS we Americans should have "buddies" and we should go live with our buddies in foreign countries so when the economy dies we have somewhere to go.

I read much of this thread, but not all. I agree we must vote the 'yeas' out.

Did everyone see this?

www.youtube.com...