Cut the Wall Street Welfare Queens Loose!

Ronald Reagan was the best liar.

Yes, George W. Bush's lies have had far more dire consequences, and Karl Rove is master of the brutish smear campaign, but no one matches Reagan's stylized lies. He made you feel like you were the only other person in the room when he lied right to your face.

Take, for example, Reagan's famous "Chicago Welfare Queen" story that he used to illustrate the dangers of a socialized welfare system. He was loosely referencing a story about a welfare recipient in Chicago, who was publicly exposed in 1977 for having defrauded state welfare programs out of $8,000 by using two identities.

Never one to let the truth get in the way of a good yarn, Reagan turned the news report into a heartwarming tale of a "Welfare Queen" who cruised around in a Cadillac and collected an annual tax-free income of $150,000 by using "eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and...collecting veterans' benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands."

Reagan repeated this story to anyone who would listen. He did so with a folksy charm that put people at ease and many bought into the Welfare Queen smear. They ignored Reagan's legendary tendency to prevaricate. Like a quasi-racist relative drunkenly ranting at the Thanksgiving dinner table, Regan had everyone nodding along even though he was exaggerating some details to fit his preconceived notions of minorities.

If only the old bastard lived long enough to see the Bush administration's baby, the misshapen, inbred offspring of Cronyism and Deregulation. If Reagan's fuses blew at the first sign of a hungry black woman, imagine what would have happened to his Swiss cheese brain when the first CEO came knocking at his door for a hand-out.

Or maybe he would have been happy to lend his fellow rich, white people a couple (or 700 billion) bucks. After all, Neo-Conservatives are fine with Socialism as long as the right kinds of people are receiving the hand-outs. They love sharing, but only if the sharing concerns debt, and the taxpayers are the ones sharing it.

Yet they hoard profit among themselves, which is why they want Paulson to push through this bailout as quickly as humanly possible. Heaven forbid any kind of deal can be constructed that involves taxpayers getting their money back, or maybe even getting a slice of profit if the economy can somehow rebound from this disaster.

If Congress gets to debate this thing, they may...ya' know...remember they're working for the American people and try to stop the Wall Street crooks from raiding the Federal Reserve.

My advice to our representatives in Congress is to deliberate long and hard about this ridiculous scam Paulson is laughably trying to pass off as fiscal solvency. It's good for no one except the Wall Street Welfare Queens, who have come looking for a hand-out from the government.

Gee, but I thought the big, bad government was the thing repressing their entrepreneurial spirit by demanding regulation and oversight. Of course, a little accountability may have circumvented this disaster. What's the word for all that regulation and oversight and accountability in government?

Oh yeah! Conservatism.

Now, more than ever, we need the Republicans to flex that Conservative muscle they're always bragging about. Wall Street tycoons don't get to come in, borrow $700 billion, and run off without making some really specific promises. For example:

1. The taxpayers they're borrowing get to own some stock in the performances of the banks and companies they're about to save.

2. If our tax dollars go toward bailing out foreign banks, then foreign capital better flow back into our economy. I hear that's how the "natural" ebb and flow of the immaculate Free Trade agreements are supposed to work, but it may take some extra muscle from our government to ensure it actually happens.

3. No do-overs. We got to see unfettered Capitalism do its thing. It sucks, and it doesn't work. This doesn't mean everything switches to a Socialist regime, so that hysterical talking point needs to die. All we need is regulation.

While Reagan exaggerated the story of the Chicago Welfare Queen, there are real welfare leeches in our presence. They're the least needy, and they're in trouble now because of their shady economic policies. They don't get to set the agenda now that they're reaping what they sowed.

As Reagan would say: No Free Rides, people.

Follow Allison Kilkenny on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allisonkilkenny

Comments

[TexasDem0]

The worst that ever happens to the ultra-rich responsible for these GOP inspired failures is that they get to retire in aristocratic luxury that most of us will never know. We get stuck with the bill, yet the rank and file GOP cheerleaders are blissfully oblivious to it all.

[ajax2]

Isn't it past time to take Wall Street off of welfare, and the Treasury's teets.

[schatsie]

Exactly like Rush Limbaugh, but Reagan was canonized for doing the same thing..

BackLash by Susan Faludi chapter 2 published in 1992 nails the Republicans to a T, anyone who thinks that Bush Jr is different from those prior repugs is just dreaming... It is now time to clean them out..

Poor Dole is out there lying her ass off so she can get reelected and I would like to see her retired... The repugs talk out of both sides of their mouths and then to believe them is just ludicrous....

[ProudLiberalDemocrat]

The catalyst for the current economic circumstance came from folks who either 1.) could not afford the house they purchased, 2.) predatory lending practices. Wall Steet did not create the problem, Main Steet did.

Wall Street institutions are the one's left holding the bag from these other irresponible actions because they purchased bundles of mortgages (worth trillions) and now have to write-down the values that home buyers and real estate appraisers said homes were worth.

The capital requirements of these Wall Street firms that hold an asset that has been written-down is in question because the market for these 'toxic-assets' value them at $0. If our government buys these toxic assets and puts a price floor on them, the financial markets might unclog. Afterall, the value of these mortgages are worth something because the property is worth something....but the market still does not want these assets and values these assets at $0.

But to your point - equity holders of Wall Street should not be bailed out. Golden Parachutes should be eliminated for executives at companies run/owned by government. It is better to invest in a good job for someone who would otherwise be a Welfare Queen, then to give a handout to Wall Street. Barak Obama has the experience of helping folks get good jobs - that one way to be a community organizer.

[FalconerHK]

I agree with you aside from your first paragraph. This isn't main street's fault; remember that post-911 the administration kept telling everyone that buying stuff and homeownership were every Americans' patriotic duty.

I see it like this: if my drunken, uneducated, unemployed brother wanted to borrow 250k to buy a house with no collateral etc. and I gave him the money, I shouldn't be surprised when he tosses me the keys the moment it's convenient. Shame on me - the supposedly educated, certified, insightful, aware-of-t­he-consequ­ences-if-t­his-doesn'­t-work-out mortgage lender. I'm legally required to know better.

But ego and greed conspire to ruin everything. Greed in loaning money to anyone for the sole purpose of flipping the loan to some upstream sucker and making my commish. Ego to think the party will never end, despite the obvious consequences (which have been pointed out time and time again since, I dunno, 1999 when Phil Gramm pulled the plug on Glass act).

[WilliePilgrim]

Thank goodness that those trillions are now in Bush Pesos!

[PatCroft]

Great Post! Well of course the dividend of the fox guarding the hen house are no hens, logically. And as logically, overstuffed bloated foxes.

This has become great theater and we are about to see Congressional representation at its best despite that 99.999999 percent of this population did not benefit from the existence of any of the multi billion dollar corporation entities being rescued.

It is not even October yet but not like the mushroom cloud of previous October surprises, we are forewarned of a meltdown, which is sort've like a mushroom cloud, maybe. But it is a good thing it is not October yet, because the harvest must be in.

It is funny how adjectives such as meltdown and mushroom cloud are used to describe the performance of this current administration and how trickle down actually works.

[wagadog]

I suggest "Workfare."

ONE Wall Street CEO can get a less-than-­minimum-wa­ge wage IF he comes to my house clean my toilet once a week--and scrubs my floors, and does the dusting, and cuts the grass, takes out the trash, oh and I better not catch him stealing anything.

[schatsie]

you got to be kidding me, he would drive up with a UHAUL and clean out your house and then all of your accounts.....

[wagadog]

I know you've got to watch those people like hawks, don't you.

It's so hard to get good help these days. Sigh!

[CompetenceMatters]

Didn't Reagan also say: "Trust, but verify." ?

[schatsie]

Sure he did, but then he deregulated, the man was famous for saying one thing and doing another...
Where do you think Gingrich and Bush got their MO....

They increased the Payroll tax from 2 % to 7.5% and then took the Payroll Surplus and gave it to the RICH....

[jethrock]

A million seconds is 12 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.

A million hours ago was in 1885.
A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.

A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.
A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.

A trillion dollars is so large a number that only politicians
can use the term in conversation... probably because they
seldom think about what they are really saying. I've read that
mathematicians do not even use the term trillion!
Here is some perspective on TRILLION:

Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
The country has not existed for a trillion seconds.
Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds.
One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.

Million: 1,000,000
Billion: 1,000,000,000
Trillion: 1,000,000,000,000
Quintillion: 1,000,000,­000,000,00­0,000
Sextillion: 1,000,000,­000,000,00­0,000,000
Nonillion: 1,000,000,­000,000,00­0,000,000,­000,000,00­0
Centillion: 1 followed by 303 zeros

[dutt]

Heads, they win. Tails, we lose.

[schatsie]

Bingo!

[ohioan73]

Just the mention of Regan makes me think of nuclear bomb apocalypse. R.I.P. Mr. 1980s harbinger of childhood nightmares.

I think its accurate to call this bailout "Welfare for the rich". I say give it to them in increments of $167 a month and cover the health care of their families with a sucky HMO as part of the deal. Let's just hope they don't get sick and get that "wallet biopsy" in the ambulance and wake up in the unequipped inner-city clinic from hell.

[BassMonk]

Let's cut the Federal Reserve loose, as well.

[Pjbf]

Naming of the soon to be enacted legislation bailout in aid to the systemic failure of capitalism has got to go under the title of WALLFARE. A bit too honest for the powers that be perhaps--no "mission accomplished" this. Or is it?