Robert Scheer: Sucking Up to the Bankers, part 1

[brentspeak]

http://www.thenation.com/article/155034/sucking-bankers-i

Sucking Up to the Bankers, I
Robert Scheer
September 27, 2010

After the inauguration, the new Obama administration made it clear from day one that pleasing Wall Street rather than distraught homeowners would be the focal point of policy. On February 10, 2009, new Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, rising to what he termed “a challenge more complex than any our financial system has ever faced,” committed to give up to $2 trillion more to the very folks who profited from that malignant complexity. For all the brave talk about transparency and accountability in the banking bailout, he gave the swindlers who got us into this mess yet another blank check to buy up the “toxic assets” they gleefully created.

According to the Congressional Oversight Panel created by Congress to monitor the bailout, the Bush Treasury Department had already overpaid by $78 billion of our money in the first ten purchases of those assets. Yet Geithner insisted that “Congress acted quickly and courageously” in throwing that money at Wall Street. At the same time, there was still no commitment to directly help the millions of homeowners already foreclosed out of their homes, with millions more to come.

snip

In the fall of 2008, while Bush was still president, taxpayers began bailing out AIG with more than $140 billion, and then it went and lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter, more than any other company had ever lost in one quarter. Now in 2009, Obama was president, and it was on his watch that government officials huddled late into the first weekend of March and decided to reward AIG for its startling failure with thirty billion more of our dollars. Plus, they sweetened the deal by letting AIG off the hook for interest it had been obligated to pay on the money taxpayers previously gave the company. That’s money, as it turned out, that was passed on to Goldman Sachs and other financial giants that had hedged their bets with what would have proved to be AIG’s worthless credit default swaps, had U.S. taxpayers not been forced by their government to come to the rescue

snip

For all of its (Treasury Dept's special inspector's report) criticism of the original program, designed by the Bush administration, the report was equally severe in denouncing the Obama administration’s plan to partner with hedge funds and other private capital groups to buy up the “toxic” holdings of the banks. Charging that the plan carries “significant fraud risks,” the inspector general’s report pointed out that almost all of the risk in this new trillion-dollar plan is being borne by the taxpayers. The so-called private investors would be able to put up money they borrowed from the Fed through “nonrecourse” loans, meaning if the toxic assets purchased proved too toxic and the scheme failed, the private investors could just walk away without repaying the Fed for those loans.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProSense]

2. Hmmm?

"After the inauguration, the new Obama administration made it clear from day one that pleasing Wall Street rather than distraught homeowners would be the focal point of policy."

Bush enacted TARP. President Obama simply ensured that it worked, minimizing losses to the government. In fact, some reports indicate that it will result in a profit.

One of the first things President Obama did was enact the stimulus, which created and expanded numerous programs to help see Americans through the crisis he inherited.

I don't understand it, either. The stimulus included not only the broad Making Work Pay tax cut that gave most families an $800 refundable tax credit but also the child tax credit and the earned-income tax credit, which were especially helpful to lower-income families.

If the child tax credit isn't extended, 7.6 million children who get the benefit through their families would lose it entirely, and the credit would be reduced for an additional 10.5 million children. The biggest losses, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, would be among families earning $12,850 to $16,333, many of which include a parent working full time for minimum wage. Also set to expire are expansions of the earned-income tax credit that have helped working families that include 14.9 million children.

more

In 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will provide a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns.

This tax credit will be calculated at a rate of 6.2 percent of earned income and will phase out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income in excess of $75,000, or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly.

For people who receive a paycheck and are subject to withholding, the credit will typically be handled by their employers through automated withholding changes. These changes may result in an increase in take-home pay. The amount of the credit will be computed on the employee's 2009 income tax return filed in 2010 and the employee's 2010 tax return filed in 2011. Taxpayers who do not have taxes withheld by an employer during the year can also claim the credit on their 2009 and 2010 tax returns.

link

There was also the $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition, the $1,500 expanded earned income tax credit and more.


New tax credit for workers $116.2 billion
Extend patch for the alternative minimum tax $69.8 billion
Expand eligibility for Child Tax Credit $14.8 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals Expand higher education tax credits $13.9 billion
Incentive for first-time homebuyers $6.6 billion
Increase Earned Income Tax Credit $4.7 billion
Increase tax credits for residential energy efficiency improvements $2.0 billion
Incentive for alternative vehicle $2.0 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals Incentive for car buyer $1.7 billion

Total above stimulus benefits: $232 billion

Total complaining: $0

The "sucking up to Banks" meme sucks.

[brentspeak]

3. "Bush enacted TARP"...with Sen. Obama's enthusiastic support

How did you fail to point that out?

"President Obama simply ensured that it worked, minimizing losses to the government"

It "worked"? In what way? The article cited AIG's colossal, historic losses. Is that what you meant by "minimizing losses to the government"?

"One of the first things President Obama did was enact the stimulus...

And this has to do with this article concerning Obama and Wall St....how?

Do you ever get the awful feeling that all your spin attempts here on DU have gone for naught, and that no one's mind has ever been changed by them?