Don't Make Working People Bail Out Wall Street
This country faces many serious problems in the financial market, in the stock market, in our economy. We must act, but we must act in a way that improves the situation.
This bill does not effectively address the issue of what the taxpayers of our country will actually own after they invest hundreds of billions of dollars in toxic assets. This bill does not effectively address the issue of oversight because the oversight board members have all been hand picked by the Bush administration. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of foreclosures and addressing that very serious issue, which is impacting millions of low- and moderate-income Americans in the aggressive, effective way that we should be. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of executive compensation and golden parachutes. Under this bill, the CEOs and the Wall Street insiders will still, with a little bit of imagination, continue to make out like bandits.
This bill does not deal at all with how we got into this crisis in the first place and the need to undo the deregulatory fervor which created trillions of dollars in complicated and unregulated financial instruments such as credit default swaps and hedge funds. This bill does not address the issue that has taken us to where we are today, the concept of too big to fail. In fact, within the last several weeks we have sat idly by and watched gigantic financial institutions like the Bank of America swallow up other gigantic financial institutions like Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Well, who is going to bail out the Bank of America if it begins to fail? There is not one word about the issue of too big to fail in this legislation at a time when that problem is in fact becoming even more serious.
This bill does not deal with the absurdity of having the fox guarding the hen house. Maybe I'm the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the Secretary of the Treasury, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem. Now, maybe I'm the only person in America who thinks that's a little bit weird, but that is what I think.
This bill does not address the major economic crisis we face: growing unemployment, low wages, the need to create decent-paying jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and moving us to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
There is one issue that is even more profound and more basic than everything else that I have mentioned, and that is if a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, whose money should it be? In other words, who should be paying for this bailout which has been caused by the greed and recklessness of Wall Street operatives who have made billions in recent years?
The American people are bitter. They are angry, and they are confused. Over the last seven and a half year, since George W. Bush has been President, 6 million Americans have slipped out of the middle class and are in poverty, and today working families are lining up at emergency food shelves in order to get the food they need to feed their families. Since President Bush has been in office, median family income for working-age families has declined by over $2,000. More than seven million Americans have lost their health insurance. Over four million have lost their pensions. Consumer debt has more than doubled. And foreclosures are the highest on record. Meanwhile, the cost of energy, food, health care, college and other basic necessities has soared.
While the middle class has declined under President Bush's reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush's tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. That is just 400 families, a $670 billion increase in wealth since Bush has been in office.
In our country today, we have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth, with the top 1 percent earning more income than the bottom 50 percent and the top 1 percent owning more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. We are living at a time when we have seen a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest people in this country, when, among others, CEOs of Wall Street firms received unbelievable amounts in bonuses, including $39 billion in bonuses in the year 2007 alone for just the five major investment houses. We have seen the incredible greed of the financial services industry manifested in the hundreds of millions of dollars they have spent on campaign contributions and lobbyists in order to deregulate their industry so that hedge funds and other unregulated financial institutions could flourish. We have seen them play with trillions and trillions dollars in esoteric financial instruments, in unregulated industries which no more than a handful of people even understand. We have seen the financial services industry charge 30 percent interest rates on credit card loans and tack on outrageous late fees and other costs to unsuspecting customers. We have seen them engaged in despicable predatory lending practices, taking advantage of the vulnerable and the uneducated. We have seen them send out billions of deceptive solicitations to almost every mailbox in America.
Most importantly, we have seen the financial services industry lure people into mortgages they could not afford to pay, which is one of the basic reasons why we are here tonight.
In the midst of all of this, we have a bailout package which says to the middle class that you are being asked to place at risk $700 billion, which is $2,200 for every man, woman, and child in this country. You're being asked to do that in order to undo the damage caused by this excessive Wall Street greed. In other words, the "Masters of the Universe," those brilliant Wall Street insiders who have made more money than the average American can even dream of, have brought our financial system to the brink of collapse. Now, as the American and world financial systems teeter on the edge of a meltdown, these multimillionaires are demanding that the middle class, which has already suffered under Bush's disastrous economic policies, pick up the pieces that they broke. That is wrong, and that is something that I will not support.
If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people. I introduced an amendment which gave the Senate a very clear choice. We can pay for this bailout of Wall Street by asking people all across this country, small businesses on Main Street, homeowners on Maple Street, elderly couples on Oak Street, college students on Campus Avenue, working families on Sunrise Lane, we can ask them to pay for this bailout. That is one way we can go. Or, we can ask the people who have gained the most from the spasm of greed, the people whose incomes have been soaring under president bush, to pick up the tab.
I proposed to raise the tax rate on any individual earning $500,000 a year or more or any family earning $1 million a year or more by 10 percent. That increase in the tax rate, from 35 percent to 45 percent, would raise more than $300 billion in the next five years, almost half the cost of the bailout. If what all the supporters of this legislation say is correct, that the government will get back some of its money when the market calms down and the government sells some of the assets it has purchased, then $300 billion should be sufficient to make sure that 99.7 percent of taxpayers do not have to pay one nickel for this bailout.
Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in three years, as did Henry Paulson, the current secretary of the Treasury, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past five years as did Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers. Most of my constituents did not cash out $60 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns after that failing company was bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O'Neill, former CEO Merrill Lynch did.
Last week I placed on my Web site, www.sanders.senate.gov, a letter to Secretary Paulson in support of my amendment. It said that it should be those people best able to pay for this bailout, those people who have made out like bandits in recent years, they should be asked to pay for this bailout. It should not be the middle class. To my amazement, some 48,000 people cosigned this petition, and the names keep coming in. The message is very simple: "We had nothing to do with causing this bailout. We are already under economic duress. Go to those people who have made out like bandits. Go to those people who have caused this crisis and ask them to pay for the bailout."
The time has come to assure our constituents in Vermont and all over this country that we are listening and understand their anger and their frustration. The time has come to say that we have the courage to stand up to all of the powerful financial institution lobbyists who are running amok all over the Capitol building, from the Chamber of Commerce to the American Bankers Association, to the Business Roundtable, all of these groups who make huge campaign contributions, spend all kinds of money on lobbyists, they're here loud and clear. They don't want to pay for this bailout, they want middle America to pay for it.
The bailout package is far better than the absurd proposal originally presented to us by the Bush administration, but is still short of where we should be. We can do better.
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Why has anyone not seized bankers' bonuses? They should be prosecuted for fraud.
I too, don't understand why this $$ HAS to be given to a Bush/Cheney surrogate to "save" the economy. It seems as tho they are getting their own "golden parachutes b4 they leave office.
As I understand the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, it is entirely possible that Wall Street did a nifty little dive on command and the banks did a followup by tightening credit, People with stocks are now grabbing any hanging branch they see to save themselves; what if it turns into a snake hanging there?
The people who WILL pick up the tab for this will be the folks dependent on social services which will be eliminated in their entirety. But, like the right sez, these people WANT to be homeless!
And why Now? Right in the middle of the most important election this country probably has ever had? What's Bush doing while we freak out about the only thing that could get our full attention....MONEY!????
No, this is a last minute dollar grab by the Neo Cons to give them a happy retirement. A VERY happy retirement. Either that or funding for the takeover of America and implementation of NSPD 51. The whole thing smells.
Get ready for the future; it is murder.
No legitimate reason to hurriedly impose major economic domestic policy,
despite widespread popular opposition,
without hearings, without proper debate, without considering alternatives.
NO, to the bailout.
Not simply because the proposed measure is faulty, and held in low regard by most economists.
Not simply because there have been no hearings, no real debates, no alternatives considered.
Not simply because there is widespread public opposition.
NO, because the rush to stampede an economic bill of such magnitude, with such far-reaching consequences, in the face of such widespread public opposition, would strike a blow against the heart of democracy.
The House of Representatives was designed by the Constitutional founders to protect the general public against assaults by the few, and the privileged.
The alleged need for immediate action is contested by hundreds of economists who have petitioned Congress to hold hearings, and proper deliberations.
Implementing the proposed measure would take months, and the effects are admitted to be uncertain, even by its proponents. Alternatives have been advanced, by both political parties, which would arguably have more immediate effect, and be more effective.
NO, because such a bailout, taken against the will of the people, would signal the loss of public voice in domestic affairs, just as it has been lost in foreign affairs.
The case was not made for urgency I believe because the Government failed to report in full the massive runs on U.S. financial institutions that took place recently.
Are you implying that multi-millionaires don't work? I'd wager that most of them work a lot harder than "the working man".
Working the phones, working the press, working the boardroom, working the par-tays, working the Congresspersons, working the mayors...yup, pretty busy.
schmoozing at the country club
Yep must be rough
AMEN SENATOR. WHAT HAS PLAYED OUT IN THE SENATE AND WILL IN THE HOUSE IS A FREE PASS TO THE WEALTHY ROBBER BARONS OF OUR TIME. I DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BAILOUT AND FEEL WE THE PEOPLE AND ESPECIALLY THE DEMS HAVE BEEN SUCKERED IN AGAIN BY THE BUSH FEAR TACTICS. I HOPE THIS MEASURE IS NOT PASSED,BUT WERE NOT A NATION FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE,WE NEVER HAVE BEEN,THE WEALTHY HAVE ALWAYS RUN OUR COUNTRY.
"The wealthy have always run our country."
Not during FDR, the real Democrat.
Amen!
( I know Franklin came from a background of wealth, but he is my working class hero!)
Both Roosevelts were considered "traitors to their class"
yet both looked after the real interests of the people
TR with the trust busting
FDR with the New Deal
we need a New New Deal, and this "crisis" should be just the catalyst to make it happen - that is if congress doesn't p!ss away their leverage
Maybe JFK would have prevented this also.
He tried to get rid of the Federal Reserve and he tried to have all U.S. troops out of Vietnam by 1965. http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/thefederalreserve.htm
I bet the neocons will win again and this bill will eventually pass, after some eye wash and window dressing is applied in order to pacify an outraged public. Given the current polls, it looks like we are about to elect Obama, someone whose only experience seems to be in getting elected to office. Wow! Its really time to vote Nader!
www.votepact.org
www.campaignforliberty.com
from the right or left, vote third party. you have four choices: nader, mckinney, barr and baldwin.
they've ALL agreed on four AMERICAN principle policies: foreign policy, monetary policy, civil liberties and process change.
this isn't about left or right anymore (it hasn't been for some time). it is about the New World Order vs. the Constitution of the United States.
It's Bush's fault.
Yes. Third Party. Send a message.
do you even know what a neocon is?
Thank you, Senator Sanders, and God bless you. Please excuse me for my surprise that one of our Senators has such intelligence and integrity, but we don't see much of that.
We the people don't want to bail out the addicts to greed on Wall Street or Washington ANY LONGER or EVER AGAIN. Surely these fatcats could take up a collection and bail their own butts out of their own jam - sell a mansion, clean out a couple off-shore accounts, stop paying each other off for a couple months, quit the whores, fly coach, stay home and watch TV - you know, tighten their own belts over their own hyper-inflated egos. They have 90% of the cash - it's only sensible that they should pay for their own errors with money now and with their time later, as we investigate little aspect of their lying schemes for the next few years.
Please God, help us with our Wall Street/Washington intervention. We are asking that You INTEVERVENE on our behalf. Amen.
God?
How about YOUR government?
I agree with this post.
The Senate bill should be amended to change the name of our country to
"The People's Republic of Wall Street"
Senator - please address Kaptur and DeFazio Proposal - No BAILOUTS Act
Link:http://www.kaptur.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=297&Itemid=1
Representatives Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Rush Holt (D-NJ) proposed an alternative measure, the No BAILOUTS Act, to address the financial situation without bailing out Wall Street and corporate executives.
What's your perspective on this plan? The corporate media continues to fail us and we deserve ALL sides of the financial bail out or rescue.
I agree with most of Sanders' points except blaming everything on Bush and his years in office. Granted he and his clique have pushed us over the edge, but this is the fault of both parties. Each has had opportunity over the years to make sure regulation was put in place or not taken away. Please stop trying to make this a purely Republican problem with the Democrats coming to the rescue.
I hate partisans. Partisans give me a headache. I do like issues and ideas. Too bad.
Thank you for taking the time to explain why this legislation does not help and may actually exacerbate the financial crisis currently facing our nation.
I believe that the privatization of people's retirement accounts (401k) lead many people to support this ill-advised bailout package. The Republicans were smart when they convinced Americans to become "part of the investor class". Not only did this benefit employers who no longer had to offer employees full retirement packages, it was the beginning of the end for most American workers - lost retirement packages, degraded wages, and skyrocketing healthcare costs.
The conservative's push to privatize America tricked Middle Class and blue-collar workers into voting against their own best interests and, unfortunately, we're seeing the ramifications today. The effect of Monday's 777-point drop in the Dow scared (shock and awe) many of these individuals into supporting the first piece of proposed legislation, despite how badly flawed it was.
I, much like you, believe that this package doesn't come close to addressing Wall Street's greed and outright corruption, nor will it offer relief to the millions on Main Street who were exploited by these firms. However, the upper class has manipulated the middle and lower classes for centuries - until people wake up to this fact, we'll continue to get exactly what we deserve.
Gee, I remember when Grover Norquist and his pals kept telling us that the legacy of George W Bush would be the "ownership society". Well, looks like the ownership they're talking about is over 10 trillion dollars of National Debt! WHAT A LEGACY! Thanks, Grover and George! Thanks a Lot!
YOU ARE A TRUE AMERICAN HERO!
Thank you Senator Sanders for your landmark speech during the Senate debate on this issue. I believe this will be long remembered and may come to play a big part in waking up the citizenry.
If Bernie believed a word of what he said, he would have filibustered. What don't I understand about filibustering?
Bernie alone could have held up this atrocious bailout bill until after the elections, using the rules of the Senate.
I don't know if it is because he is a rookie, or he is trying to have it both ways, like most politicians.
you are right! The fox guarding the he house...GS Treasury link scares the hell out of me!!!!
There's a lot more than that going on that should scare you even more....
I love ya, Bernie Sanders, man! The genuine People's Candidate. If you werent in this country to tell the REAL story, I couldnt bear it here. Ive said if they install McCain/Palin I will leave this country. But maybe I will move to Vermont. It must be a whole 'nother country, a Vermont state of mind. Keep truth telling and raging against the Machine. You're keeping me sane!
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