The
Establishment was hoping to rewrite the preamble to the
Constitution:
"We the
little people of the United States, having given up on the perfect
union, establishment of justice ... and maybe even the common
defense, not to mention general welfare and blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do hereby allow Big Government and Big
Business to use us for their latest bailout and increase the
national debt on said posterity by another trillion dollars, in
order to hold onto the illusion of domestic tranquility for a little
bit longer."
I have
always objected to any citizens using the phrase "little people" to
talk about themselves. This country was founded by and for The
People of the United States who, by definition as voters, should be
Big. But I have been feeling little. Things are out of control and I
don't know what to do.
Jim
Braude, whose coverage of the bailout on New England Cable News has
been superior, captured the problem during his commentary after the
first presidential debate. On the screen we saw a poll showing some
percentage of voters opposed to the original bailout bill, a lesser
percentage supporting it, and 12 percent categorized as "don't
know." Jim muttered, "Actually 100 percent don't know," and he was
right.
Like
many little people I have followed the discussion in the media. I
talk with those whose advice I've valued in the past. But as always,
on subjects about which I have no expertise, I determine my opinion
by noting which proponent or opponent is insulting my intelligence
more.
Look,
there's Congressman Barney Frank, leading the Democratic support for
the bailout, blaming Bush, Republicans, and lack of regulation. But
I've seen a YouTube video from 2004 that shows him arguing against
Republican efforts to regulate Fannie Mae, insisting there is
nothing wrong that needs more oversight.
We were
told last week that the initial package, giving $700 billion and
total control to one man, had to be passed immediately or the
economy would fail. But the "little people" started calling their
congressmen, who then sensed a need for amendments.
The
"little people" were angry about golden parachutes for the
executives of the bailed-out businesses, so the newer version put a
limit on executive pay — as if contracts can be nullified by this
bill. Some Republicans preferred a loan to a bailout, so language
was added allowing part of the bailout to be a loan, whatever that
means. And look, they've added language that if the bailout makes
money in the future, it will be given to the taxpayers.
How dumb
do they think we are?
Here's a
Wall Street Journal "Review and Outlook" editorial with a new idea:
Use the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "to put public capital into
the banks while protecting taxpayers... The FDIC has long had the
power to handle failed banks. But in 1991, Congress passed the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA) that
limited the FDIC's ability to provide assistance to struggling but
still solvent banks."
Hey,
Wall Street: There was a reason to limit this risk-taking. The FDIC
is the "little people's protection" for our little bank accounts in
our own little banks. Why on earth would anyone want to risk the
funds that insure up to $100,000 of our savings?
My
partner, Chip Ford, made an educated guess: The "little people"
clearly don't want to bail out the fat cats, as they are being asked
to do with the bailout bill. But if the FDIC was involved, suddenly
we — fat cats and little people — are in the same boat, and
resistance to a bailout dies. Clever, huh?
Now I'm
getting angry.
When I
asked my friend, Anne, back home in Pennsylvania what she thought of
the presidential debate, she said she wished that Ross Perot had
been part of it. I do too; because neither of the candidates, and
almost no one else, is talking about the basic problem as he did.
Robert
E. Kelly, author of "The National Debt of the United States," has
warned that our huge debt level "has become a national security
issue. It stands as an immovable barrier between the problems that
besiege the nation (energy independence, internal security,
infrastructure, etc.) because it has put the nation in a situation
where it can do nothing substantial about known problems without
further weakening the dollar through expanding debt."
The
current economic crisis could have been addressed with the new debt
proposed last week, if the existing debt were under control. But the
bailout plan required that our government borrow more.
Think
about this: We were told by the Bush administration and both the
Democratic and Republican leadership in the House that the greatest
capitalist nation on earth needed another loan from communist China
to keep itself solvent!
On
Monday, rank-and-file congressmen in both parties voted against the
bailout, some because of conviction, but most because they heard
from "the little people." So it's back to the drawing board for a
better solution.
I guess
we the people aren't so little after all!