Cities Get In Line For Bailout Dollars

This should really come as no surprise. The original bill allowed for Paulson's unchecked authority and discretion in distributing the money. Citibank, AIG - again, the Big 3 Automakers and now U.S. cities.

Yesterday Chicago warned of massive layoffs and cuts in services and now Philly, Phoenix and Atlanta are putting their hands out. My guess is they will get the money but still cut jobs and services.

There is no accountability structured into this bailout. This is just a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to power-brokers. Where does it stop?

www.reuters.com...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Three major American cities buffeted by the global financial crisis are requesting at least $50 billion in federal funds to help pay for infrastructure improvements, pensions and short-term borrowing.

Philadelphia, Phoenix and Atlanta are asking U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to release funds from the $700 billion financial bailout authorized by Congress last month.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter will hand-deliver the request to Paulson on Friday, spokesman Luke Butler said. Five or six other cities, including Chicago, may also sign on, Butler added.

Congress set up the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program to help banks and other institutions that were ensnared in the global credit crisis. But since President George W. Bush signed the bill into law, numerous other entities, including the U.S. auto industry, have lined up for help.

In recent weeks, some cities have announced layoffs and service cuts as slumping tax receipts create budget shortfalls. Philadelphia, for example, will eliminate hundreds of jobs and shut libraries and swimming pools to close a $108 million gap in its current $4 billion budget.

"We who run some of America's larger cities are dealing with the economic damage wrought by the credit and housing crises," the mayors' letter to Paulson said.

"The economic contraction precipitated by these twin crises is forcing us, and mayors all over the country, to dramatically reduce programs and services for millions of residents."

[edit on 14/11/2008 by kosmicjack]

YOu forgot about Detroit also asking for $10,000,000,000.

It is ghastly how thirty years ago, that would have been an absolutely unphathomable number for anything, let alone a 'handout' to ensure survival.

Un-freakin-believable. Based on Detroit's request, that's about $10,000 a person.

So, if you extrapolate that over a place like New York, they should be in line for $82 billion . . . Atlanta . . . $5 billion . . . Chicago . . . $28 billion . . . Philly . . . 14 billion . . .

Hell, lets just say based on $10,000 per person in any city . . . that leaves . . . hell . . . just fire up the printing presses, this is gonna take a while.

When I was in New Haven, CT I used to sit back and watch that city spend and spend and spend on all manner of frivolity. Heated bus stops costing in excess of $300,000 each for cryin' out loud.

I told myself it would all be worth it when the notes came due. That city and the state of CT have been bankrupt for over a decade and not once did anyone ever address it. They kept touting these fake 'surpluses' year after year than never went toward paying down the true debt of the state.

I've been sustained on the knowledge that one day all the idiots who overspent and never saved would crumble and crash and hopefully die and disappear. I was waiting for justice.

Apparently there is no justice.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I still don't understand how we can have a shortage of money at all, anywhere, at any time.

We print it, give it value, and that's that. It's not some precious resource that we are running low on.

Print it
Give it value by saying "this is money"
Problem solved

People are so effing DUMB. How can we have a crisis based on an imaginary value system? Time to scrap the system altogether. That's obvious.

Until then, what's the point in this imaginary "crisis". Send some trucks out to make sure people are fed and housed until they figure out a real economy.

GOD I can't believe I was born into this world... so pathetic

reply to post by bdswetty


That would only work the way you describe if we had a closed economy. It's the fact that we participate in a global economy that makes it not so simple.

If our dollar has no real or perceived value in other countries we'd be isolated.

Which I am not totally against mind you. But as long as our dollar is going to other countries the fed in all it's criminal glory cant just print endlessly and decree it to be of a certain value. I suppose we could go into a one world fake money system as another solution. Id rather be isolated than go into a one-world system.