Also writing on the Huffington Post, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) offers his own take on our financial crisis and the federal government’s reaction to it:
This is the most extreme example that I can recall of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor.
And when it comes to socialism, Sanders knows what he’s talking about, being the former socialist mayor of Burlington Vermont.
But Sanders offers more than just criticism, and doesn’t outright dismiss the notion of some sort of financial market bailout. Sanders notes that it is the wealthiest Americans who have prospered most from our recent anti-regulatory policies, while middle class Americans have seen their incomes steadily decline. And since it is the wealthiest Americans who benefit most directly from a huge government bailout—and are most able to afford pay for it—a large portion of the cost of the bailout should fall directly on their shoulders.
Specifically, to pay for the bailout, which is estimated to cost up to $1 trillion, the government should:
a) Impose a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue;
b) Ensure that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and
c) Require that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.
Honestly… tell me… are these three concrete proposals any more “socialist” than our rush to nationalize troubled Wall Street firms? In fact, I’d guess that the majority of Americans would find these proposals fair, reasonable and common sensical.
In addition to the principle that bailout should be paid for by those who benefited most from the policies that created the crisis, and who can thus afford to pay the costs, Sanders puts forth three other principles that should be seriously debated in discussing any bailout plan:
(2) There must be a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy…
(3) Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999…
(4) We must end the danger posed by companies that are “too big too fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist…
Again, reasonable proposals all, that deserve serious discussion as we rush to write Wall Street that giant blank check. Sanders is not arguing against a bailout, but rather against a bailout that doesn’t have conditions attached that the protect the interests of US taxpayers, help working families struggle through the resulting economic slowdown, and takes concrete steps toward preventing a similar crisis from happening again.
Huh. That doesn’t sound all that radical, now does it? So as long as our two major parties are embracing the principles of socialism, shouldn’t we at least listen to the advice of a real socialist?
Again, reasonable proposals all, that deserve serious discussion as we rush to write Wall Street that giant blank check.
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On this subject see: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider
Sounds good to me!
Where are we going to get all that money???? I guess President McCain will probably get it from reduced spending on liberal socail programs. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. hehehehe
Dog @3,
So what you’re saying is, you think it’s a good thing that spending should be reduced on programs that help working and middle class families, so as to prevent wealthy Wall Street executives for suffering the losses of their own poor judgment?
Huh.
Good grief. Commie-fascism – it’s coming, I tell ya, it’s coming!
@4
That’s what it sounds like to me.
@4: Yup goldy, that is what the pathetic dog is saying. The republican philosophy is to ruin government so that no one can get it to work again. They sure are doing a good job of making a awful mess of foreign and domestic issues.
I have to give some kudos to a republican: Rob McKenna.
I disagree with McKenna on most issues, particularly his hands off view of how the AG office in Washington should work. However, he has filed a lawsuit against the BIAW, his political allies, over their illegal campaign ads. Now, he could have ignored it or postponed it – the evidence was clear that is was illegal and the PDC had a unanimous vote against the BIAW groups – but he did the right thing. So – here is a republican that at least repects the laws. Good job on this one McKenna. I still will not vote for you – but in my book you have shown some integrity.
@ 8
However, he has filed a lawsuit against the BIAW, his political allies, over their illegal campaign ads.
Egads. Now we’re giving kudos to people for not being so corrupt as to ignore the law when it comes to their political allies. What on earth have we come to?
I think Congress should impose a tax on the directors and officers of these failed corporations equal to 100% of the federal money being spent on these bailouts. The tax would be jointly and severally payable by all persons who are subject to the tax. The U.S. Supreme Court once said that “the power to tax is the power to destroy”. The folks who have financially plundered America should be financially destroyed by the imposition of these compensatory taxes.
Richard @ 10
This might be a semantic quibble, but I don’t you’re talking about a tax. You’re talking about a fine, which would make it an ex post facto law.
To expand a bit on the idea at 11, I think there’s been entirely too much emphasis on who we should blame and not enough examination of exactly what happened and why.
This entire mess is an ideological failing. I’d like us to put a stake in the heart of that philosophy. Should someone in the future, of whatever party, run on a platform that says deregulation is universally a good thing to do, we should all collectively say, “Thanks, but no thanks. We’ve done that before. We don’t want to do it again.”
McCain has a current article outlining how he wants the healthcare system to be like the banking system. Ouch. I guess he didn’t see this coming.
http://www.contingencies.org/septoct08/mccain.pdf
He even writes, “My friends,…”
Oh Lord, sometimes this is all just a little too much.
Wow, great to see everyone (read- MSN, Wall Street titans, etc) cheering wildly at this latest proposed bailout. But as I look at this, I see a few elements missing from what I have seen of this bailout package.
One, is that this mountain of bad debt and what me mostly worthless paper is being dumped on the taxpayers without one single change being made to stop it from happening again. Two, is of course nothing is being done to help the homeowners and families who are caught in foreclosure and in danger of losing their homes, except for “encouragement” to restructure loans.
At least when we bailed out Wall street in the S & L crisis, we were getting real assets, like buildings, office parks, homes, etc. They were going to have some value again. Now the tangible assets stay mostly one step removed and we pick up a lot of what we can suspect is mostly worthless paper, of unknown quantity and quality.
No wonder Wall Street is cheering. They just dumped all their garbage on us, they get to keep their ill gotten gains, and now they are plotting as we speak to make money on the rebound. And if their next scheme falls apart, they will still be too big to fail. Not one step has been taken to prevent this from happening again, and their lobbyists and media flacks and msn mouthpieces are poised to protect this new found corporate socialism.
Don’t get me wrong, we had to act. But now we have to have the guts and fortitude in Congress has to step up and insist on permanent changes to keep this from happening again, while also stepping up to help keep families, homeowners, and millions of displaced workers on their feet. They have to take on the lamest of lame ducks as he slurs his way through another stupid speech about taking “aggressive action…”
But we won’t do that, horrors of horrors, because that would be…. socialism.
God save our Republic.
Bernie makes a lot of sense, as usual.
The administration plan is nothing but a gigantic bailout of Wall Street, the geniuses who got us into this mess. If taxpayers get to foot the bill to clean this mess us, we should get ALL of the upside potential. This “nationalization” has hardly gone far enough.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO READERS OF THIS BLOG
I just spoke to a coordinator for Obama in my area. She said that the national campaign has always considered Washington an iffy proposition.
I couldn’t believe my ears but yes she’s right. Obama and McCain are pretty much neck and neck in this State right now.
And if the election was held now: DINO ROSSI WOULD WIN.
She could have been saying this just to scare me but everything I’m reading confirms what’s she said to me.
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Volunteer. Volunteer. Volunteer. Call the Obama and/or Gregoire campaigns and sign up to register people to vote.
We’ve only got till October 4th to register people. Between voter laziness, Sam Reed and the County election offices’ incompetence many have been dropped off the rolls.
All it takes is taking the time to help your Dem precinct captain walk your precinct.
Get out the vote, GOTV, GOTV, GOTV
Right we have to support the Dems so that Patty Murray won’t support deregulating the banking industry because that could lead to a banking crisis.
YLB,
Are you saying king co can’t fix the Election?
@17,
I don’t see Obama losing in WA in November. The Republicans have been handing victory to Obama for at least the past four years, and this is the bluest of the blue Western states.
I criticize the Dems for not being very bright, but I fully expect Obama to carry WA in the election. If he doesn’t, then the Dems will have done a wonderful job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Quite tedious, John. You picked the venue, presented the case, and lost.
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winnah!
McKenna sued BIAW? Good for him. It seems he’s a professional who happens to be a republic and actually does his job.
19 – King Co’s election department obeys the law and records votes and posts the results.
In the 2004 election the Republican federal State’s Attorney could find no evidence of wrongdoing by King County. Over 2 million dollars of Republican money could not convince a hand-picked Republican Judge of a Republican County of any wrongdoing that warranted overturning the results of the election.
There was circumstantial evidence of wrongdoing in Snohomish County where voting machines were heavily used. There were many errors in the other Republican counties that made King County’s mishaps look squeaky clean by comparison.
Can we start by confiscating all that ill gotten money the foul mouthed “Roger Rabbit” made in the evil markets? By his own admission he has made ill gotten gains. Time for the bourgeois to do his patriotic duty and hand it all over!