Lucia

de Vernai

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September 22, 2008

Wall Street Bailout: Let’s All Rescue the Privileged

Bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: $14,000 per household

Bailing out AIG: $726 per taxpayer

Hearing politicians say that deregulation will not raise taxes: Priceless

Maybe it’s the drainage, but the tax cuts to the wealthy have been taking their sweet time trickling down. As we patiently wait for the money that’s probably propelling Asian economies by now, we are going to have to make some unforeseen expenditures.

Famous for fighting tooth and nail to keep those nasty feds the hell away from their God-given right to laissez faire practices, no one made a peep when the Federal Reserve acquired 80 percent of AIG to save it from collapsing. Maybe because the Fed is going to get that money from regressive taxing practices that already have people struggling to stay afloat – Republican, Democrat and in-between.

In all the current election and economy excitement, we seem to have forgotten how our military presence in the Middle East factors into the equation. As things stand now, we do not have a clear deadline for withdrawal, lots more to do to keep the promises we made and one hell of a budget deficit as a result. While busy solving the problems on the other side of the world, we ignored domestic policy to the extent that the past two weeks has been witness to three biggest bailouts in U.S. history. 

Now those who did not reap the benefits of corporate and speculator greed are the ones who will be paying the price for it – paying with their children’s educations, their retirement funds, their access to medical care. And if any one of you pauses to say, “Wait a minute, I’ve been getting ripped off on my mortgage for years, now I have to pay for it again?” you will be called unpatriotic.

So will our congressmen if they reject the package the administration is ready to put up for a vote. No matter the party affiliation, they are all stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they say yes to it, they are rising taxes. If no, they are ruining the American economy. The focus is on the symptom, not the cause of Americans bleeding themselves dry to counteract corporate thoughtlessness. If, like before, the Congress rubberstamps the administration’s plan fearing election-year repercussions, what we’re going to get is high taxes and more of the same system.

This is particularly frustrating when compared to how the scenario translates for individuals. When you or I miss a credit card payment, we get a $50 late fee. Get a few months behind on the mortgage payments? The foreclosure letter is on its way. No one has compassion for the American people when financial mistakes happen, intentional or not. This is a nation of independence and freedom, which is to say it is a nation of responsibility. It’s time big business got with the program.

To commit generations of American people to pay for the lavish yet predictable mistakes of the private sector is a betrayal of our public schools, failing Social Security system and lagging national disaster response agencies. Leaving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to their devices may prove to be impossible if our housing market is to survive. But if we each have to pay thousands of dollars for their mismanagement, the government owes us a major change in regulation practices so that money that should be going to Teach for America does not bankroll another disaster like this.

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