Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson, member of the House Financial Services Committee, said that "AIG blew up because it was a casino that dabbled in insurance on the side."
To date, AIG has received $173 billion -- billion -- and we've got no idea what they did with it. Now we're being told that Citigroup needs a "bad bank" too to buy up their toxic assets, after they already received $250 -- billion -- in guarantees for their losses in exchange for the low, low price of $7 billion in preferred stock for taxpayers.
And what are Americans--who are losing their jobs and their homes because AIG acted like a casino and taxpayers paid off all their gambling debts--getting?
21% of Americans scramble to pay medical, drug bills
Denise Prosser, 39, has battled cancer since she was a toddler.
Yet Prosser can't afford her next cancer treatment -- a radioactive therapy that she's supposed to receive once a year -- because she and her husband lost their jobs in December. Without insurance, she has postponed the radiation indefinitely and is taking only half of her asthma medications -- sacrifices that often leave her gasping for air and could allow her cancer to come surging back.
She's dying because she lost her job and she can't pay her medical bills. She didn't steal anything so she could get taxpayer money so she can pay lobbyists to get her more taxpayer money--that's AIG.
Nobody will tell us who the AIG counterparties were, all we know is that they were a bunch of degenerate gamblers who got rich on taxpayer money. Meanwhile Ellen Tauscher is bragging that she and her New Democrat Coalition come from Wall Street, and work as henchmen for bank lobbyists. Of course they are -- the New Democrat's Executive Director, Adam Pase, was a lobbyist for predatory lenders. And bank lobbyists love them back, cooing about how the New Dems will keep Congress from "punishing" banks with new regulation of the financial system.
Because lord knows, that's the real danger here.
But don't think Tauscher and the New Dems are completely cold to people who can't pay for healthcare. Tauscher voted for the bankruptcy bill that made it more difficult for people with bills from catastrophic illness to file for bankruptcy, saying it "encouraged personal responsibility." I'm sure Denise is touched by Tauscher's concern for her moral fiber. And the power of the New Democrats is only growing -- yesterday, Obama proudly identified with them, saying "I'm a New Democrat."
We keep shoveling money to banks that are "too big to fail," but there's no money to help Denise Prosser. Watching her die while Ellen Tauscher and the New Democrats scramble to lick the boots of lobbyists, it's hard to resist the idea that everything else is just window dressing so we won't notice while the banks fleece us.
Arianna Huffington asks: "So who, exactly, has our money -- and why don't we know?" That is a very good question.
Tell Congress to tell us where all the money is going, and why Americans must die so bankers can get even richer.
Jane Hamsher blogs at firedoglake.com
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I don't know how to contact Jon Stewart. Could someone who knows how to, please pass this on to Mr Stewart and perhaps he can attack it as strongly as he has wiped the floor with Bing-Bang-
Thank you very much.
Then "Insured" those leveraged bets with leveraged leases from Con Artists such as AIG and others.
We are paying off the banksters gambling losses, even as they continue to gamble.
2 steps to rid ourselves of 600T$ in Fraudulent
Step 1: invalidate all swap contract, return any outstandin
Step 2: force the Insurers like AIG to pay whatever they have to satisfying outstandin
These 2 steps will wipe out 600T$ in Debt, but barely touch the rest of the market.
Just a thought
There are many stories like this in the asphalt jungle and it is because of years of supply side economics which is just another term for highway robbery. I don't know what's going on with the "New Dems" I thought we had plenty of these types with the Blue Dawgs.....
The notion of giving money to banks that are already insolvent is a little too Reaganesqu
But Dems and Independen
We have hit our zenith of corruption
Look at my profile and you will see that since the '05 anti-bankr
As an RN, I see first-hand the gawd-awful effects wrought by Bush and his henchmen. The republican 'throw 'em to the wolves' mentality, is diametrica
Investigat
See the thing is no one likes the bailouts but they are necessary. It's delusional group think to think letting the banks fail will help getting health care passed more quickly. Conversely it will scuttle any attempts for any real change.
When you hear them talk about banks that are 'dead men walking', it is helpful to remember that DEAD is the operative word here.
To hell with sick people. There will never be "nationali
Taxpayer dollars will continue to fill the pockets of the bankers while the US sinks deeper into the shithole it dug for itself.