Parting Gifts
In 1763, during the siege of Fort Dix by the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee nations, American colonists bestowed a parting gift of two winter blankets and one handkerchief on the Delaware's diplomatic delegation. Small-pox infected blankets and handkerchief. The Bush men, elder and Shrub, seem to have a similar sense of how to manage uncomfortable political moments.
America's democracy stands or falls on peaceful transitions of power. We can all be proud of our nation that, after the vitriol of the last eight years and a brutal presidential campaign, President Bush is cooperating in the transfer of power. We should expect no less. It is, however, worth remembering that it is on such transitions that democratic government in world history has often foundered.
But 77 days is plenty of time to loot the mint and wreck the house.
After the 1992 election and before Bill Clinton's inauguration, the Bush I administration sent American troops to Somalia and revised its budget deficit projections upward by a third--some $60 billion. When mutilated American soldiers were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, President Bill Clinton, not George H. W. Bush, was held responsible. Compelled to clean up the fiscal mess bequeathed to the nation by 12 years of trickle-down economics, Clinton had to shelve his promise of middle-class tax relief, public investment, and a $60 billion educational program.
Different judgments about the intentions of Bush senior in the transition period can be reached. In the sequel, however, it is becoming ever clearer that Bush junior is devoting his last days in power to a final orgy of cronyism.
A 34-year old Texan named Jeb, who worked for Karl Rove in the White House, is in charge of the Treasury's disbursal of the first $350 billion of the bailout package. He's been shoveling out the bailout money to a legion of lobbyists and there's hardly any left, according to a report by the New York Times' Mark Landler and David D. Kirkpatrick Now Jeb might be a stand-up guy who has only the nation's best interests in mind as the lobbyists pound down his door. But what about this picture, given the last eight years, gives you that confidence?
The Washington Post's Amit R. Paley reports, in "A Quiet Windfall for Banks (November 10)," that the Treasury changed an obscure provision of the tax code while Congress was occupied with the bailout bill. (WP registration required) Even more alarming is the stealth ploy by Henry Paulson's subordinates at the Treasury Department. The result? An early holiday gift of $140 billion in tax breaks to America's banks for the public service of gobbling each other up, to be paid in full by the American taxpayer.
This article should be required reading for everyone still celebrating and catching up on their errands after months of obsessive-compulsive election watching. Here are some of the most important revelations:
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill.
....The change to Section 382 of the tax code -- a provision that limited a kind of tax shelter arising in corporate mergers -- came after a two-decade effort by conservative economists and Republican administration officials to eliminate or overhaul the law, which is so little-known that even influential tax experts sometimes draw a blank at its mention. Until the financial meltdown, its opponents thought it would be nearly impossible to revamp the section because this would look like a corporate giveaway, according to lobbyists.
Subtract that from the revenues the government will have available when President Obama takes office. Or just pencil out that campaign promise of a $150 billion clean energy investment and the 50 million green collar jobs it was designed to create.
The reports of such last-minute attempts to institutionalize Bush's conservative economics and tie President Barack Obama's hands are multiplying. Kudos to the many MSM investigative journalists who are breaking these stories. But what about us, the legions of Obama supporters and activists? Where's the outrage? Here's a modest suggestion. Call your representative (phone numbers here) and your senators (phone numbers here) and tell them to do all in their power to rescind the illegal change to Section 382. Let them know that you are watching as the bailout money is paid out and that you will hold them acountable for any give-aways that occur on their watch.
Rep. Charles Rangel: August Was a Sideshow, September Is for Progress
The August recess, which was supposed to be all about health care, ended up being about anything but health care. And now, Republicans are intent on making the focus about me.
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The bailout, the bills that were not implemented until last minute, Bush is truly not only the worst president in America's history but the worst person in America.
Sounds so petty but I'm so furious yet fill so helpless.
We must be prepared to contest the blanket pardons that Bush will issue. Despite assertions to the contrary, the President's pardon powers under the US Constitution are not "plenary", that is, unlimited. No provision of the Constitution is limitless, such as free speech; we all know you aren't permitted to cry fire in a crowded movie theatre unless there actually is a fire.
Although the Supreme Court has not spoken on this subject, we should expect that the President's power to pardon a crime doesn't extend to those crimes to which the President is a co-conspirator, since the pardon itself would be a criminal act and thus "ultra vires", outside the scope of his authority. Such a limitation could also be extended to a pardon granted in return for compensation (possibly such as the Marc Rich pardon granted by President Clinton, supposedly in return for certain "contributions").
"Blanket" pardons should also be impermissible, based on the principle that the pardon power must be implemented with particularity, arising from the 4th Amendment right of "Due Process", which extends to the general populace for their confidence in a fair criminal justice system, not only to the accused.
The Democratic leadership, States' Attorneys General, and leading "good-government" groups should be on the record that all such pardons will be vigorously opposed.
Our congressional representatives (with the notable exception of a few) and the mainstream media (with fewer notable exceptions) believed and trusted the bush misadministration when it misrepresented its intentions with regard to Iraq. Now we put the same characters (with a lack thereof) in charge of disbursing tax payer funds.
Don't we ever learn?
Great post and it's a true call to action.
Democracy and accountability are stolen just a few sentences at a time. This bailout is nothing but the largest shell game ever played against an unwitting public.
The first thing President elect Obama needs to do is have the 1000's of lawyers at his disposal to round up all of the most egregious signing statements, executive orders and law that he can immediately change with a signature, and secondly, he should let it be known through back channels and then vocally, that Bush and Cheney better get their papers in order for some sincere legal challenges to all of their rightwhacko thinking on the war, torture and free speech. Let the DC rumor mill do its job by increasing the heat and paronoia on Bush and his staff until they start leaking within and for, an inch in their political lives. Let americans know that it will be getting to hear (finally) and see the truth for themselves. Make Bush try to issue a blanket pardon, (I dare him), for which the people will surely be frothingly angry. The american people will be even more grateful for Obama, once this stuff comes tumbling out.
Can a President pardon himself?
No one "on the outside" is surprised with this! The repubs have started the scorched earth policy! leave nothing standing and in a year blame Obama! Well, we have seen this before, this time it is "W" march back to Texas!With political criminals like "BARNEY" rewarding lobbyists that have been loyal to the party. We are faced with the fact that the president never intended to bail out anyone! just parting gifts. GM, and Chrysler, and Ford will fail and, then maybe we will get the direction changed! SUV and Pick/up trucks are not Fuel saving vehicles! Union labor and 1950 thinking has cost many their job, and, it will cost many more jobs. Bush's presidency will continue to hurt America long after he strips the white house ,and steals the drapes! Democrats have a big job ahead of them! The republican party will be remembered for a long time for this fiasco. Sarah in 2012? only on Saturday Night Live!
HMMMM. What about all the W's removed from keyboards? I bet all the "O's" will remain intact! Can anyone say major tax evader, HUGE contributor to Clinton and other Democrats now a pardoned-man-Mark Rich?
The Republicans and the Democrats both have people in their parties to be ashamed of, but the Bushes have shown grace and dignity. They will not be crass and grasping as the Clintons were. I will say that President elect Obama will receive all the respect due the office, but the beauty of America is that we can respectfully disagree with him without resorting to the hatefulness and vitriole that flows freely on this website.
The bailout was necessary due to the CRA that was established by Carter, expanded by Clinton and fostered by Maxine and Barney...r
Ahhh. Wrong, wrong, wrong and once more you Rethugs are wrong again. Your pimping another of the Rethug myths.
CRA has nothing to do with this economic melt down. It is all due to Reagan De-Regulation and Rethug No Regulation. CRA occurred a long time ago and is NOT related in any way. You have been listening to Limbaugh or Hannity or O'Reilly, all of whom are as dumb as a bag of rocks.
And the biggest refutation of your ignorance is the fact that the CRA banks and S&L's are in fact doing fine. The CRA banks are among those banks which are NOT involved in the meltdown. To the contrary they are doing fine and are solvent because they are not carrying the toxic paper.
You've been getting your info from Hannity, O'Reilly and Buchanan for too long.
I would argue that as succesfull as those three are...they can't be dumb.
That is completely false. The neoncons have been spinning that line for a while. Try getting your information from real news sources, if you can find any. "Grace and dignity"' do NOT apply to anyone in either Bush administration.
I love your phrase, "the Bush's have shown grace and dignity."
Makes me think of a torturer sipping tea and daubing his lips with a silk handkerchief while he pulls out your fingernails one by one.
Grace? I think it's spelled C * R * A * S * S.
A cogent and very depressing summary.
OK, who's getting pardoned ? Scooter Libby ? Jack Abramoff ?
Don't forget though, both parties are to blame for things like this...
Look at what happened to the White House wehn the Clinton Administration left it...many many acts of vandalism.
Neither side is innocent of this
Actually, one side is innocent. Most of the charges made against the exiting Clinton admin were both trivial and later found to be false in the first place. No hundred billion dollars disappearing anywhere or troops thrown into an ill conceived mission.
There is not only no equivalence here, there are only GOP crimes.
What hundred billion dollars and where are troops being thrown in at the last minute?
ANOTHER phoney spin. The story about "acts of vandalism" has long been discredited. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that anyone still believes it.
EVERYTIME THERE IS A BUSH IN THE WHITEHOUSE WE HAVE A BANKING COLLASPE !!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT ABOUT BUSH AND TEAM PUSHING THROUGH A LIST OF TERRIBLE 'RULES' -- NOW?
Evidently Bush et al. are also trying to push through many, many 'rules' dismantling good laws, like protecting the environment (no dumping poisons in rivers and streams, for instance) and others; basically, they add up to deregulation for the benefit of corporate cronies. See DEMOCRACYN
The picture part of this was totally unnecessary. Anyone that doesn't figure bush and CO. will be doing everything they can to pillage and plunder the nation. Lighting fuses all over the world , and working like mad to destroy the evidence of what they are and have been up too. Is a fool. . The only thing a great many people involved with the Bush administration deserve is jail time.
I just heard on the local TV news, that in California, banks now own 1/3 of all the houses. Hmmm, is this correct? I think we have a semantics problem here too. Since the, taxpayers, you and I, have bailed out these people, DON'T WE the people, OWN these houses? Wow, I'm a homeowner without a house! This does now get a little tricky, since I know that Congress, and the president are supposed to work for us ( public servants and all) but exactly, what is my relationship to the banks?. Are the banks in a debtor relationship to us? How fun. When are they supposed to pay back the taxpayers loan? Please provide the specifics, because if they are one day late, we should be able to raise the interest rate of these debter-borrowers, don't you think? PLUS, this unique relationship will also creqate jobs. All of us unemployed and underemployed people can now become collection experts for those DEBTOR banks. There's nothing like Citizen Power, to level the playing field of DEMOCRACY!
so because you don't like the way this guy looks in this photo means he's not to be trusted?
Yeah, Clinton's last day in office was scandal free.
Well there was that thing with Clinton handing over power to a Usurper that day.
Exactly. Bush and Cheney have ripped off the
American people and rewarded all their cronies.
They are all laughing on their way to the bank.
oh come on. Clinton didn't rip off the
country like these clowns have.
We've barely scratch the surface on the
mess this administration has made.
Well maybe Clinton's team took as many "W's" as they did out of the White House because they understood there wasn't going to be a difference between Bush Sr. and Bush Jr., except they were wrong. He tried to play daddy with Nixon's neo-con's team's guidance, which happened to point it's loaded, desperate greed and treasonous insensitivity, if not purely murderous, ideological barrel right at America's foot. Now we have a persistent damning limp and are lucky to have a leg to stand on in the world. His father had made "strides" to that imperialist end, but never got that far (save indirectly through his son), but had orchestrated and harnessed that ill will down to a science before him, laying down the tools and crew members for the ensuing melee. Bush Sr. foresaw this all, of that i am certain. Note she mentions in the context of the last eight years, his picture draws a conclusion by itself without much help from one's imagination, not just the picture of the guy dummy.
The scandal around Clinton is not even in the same league as the crimes against the country and the Constitution perpetrated by the Bush administration. You're a Marine? What exactly do you think you're fighting for?
I am sure its something he believes in. Otherwise he probably wouldnt be doing a service to this country.
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