There is one thing Republicans and Democrats in Washington apparently can agree on - spending $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue corrupt and inept Wall Street investment institutions. There should be no celebrating the apparent deal struck in our nation's capital this weekend.
There also should be no illusion that the bailout deal expected to be approved today by the U.S. House and Wednesday by the U.S. Senate will improve the economic standing of the average American. It will help Wall Street, no doubt, while perhaps only making sure things don't get immediately worse on Main Street.
And how cynical of House Republicans to use the opportunity to promote tax refunds and lower taxes for corporate America. A dissident group of House GOP members didn't want taxpayer dollars to fund the bailout. But they also wanted capital gains taxes to be reduced retroactively, and a lowering of the corporate tax rate. Never mind that most U.S. corporations pay nowhere near the actual corporate tax rate - if they pay corporate taxes at all. House Republicans should be condemned for using this economic crisis as an opportunity to reduce even further the tax burden of big corporations.
Yes, the bailout agreed to in principal this weekend should stem the bleeding in financial markets both at home and abroad. It should prevent some bigger banks from collapsing, and some businesses from failing. It should protect, at least for now, the retirement investments of average Americans. Again, it won't help those Americans, only prevent things from getting even worse for them. For that reason, the bailout probably was a necessary evil, hard to swallow and, hopefully, hard to forget.
And, yes, the bailout package on the table now is better than the one the Bush administration initially opposed. At least on paper, there is oversight in how bailout dollars will be spent, and a promise that taxpayers will receive returns on their investment should there be any. But we all know how promises in Washington end up working for the average taxpayer. The federal government has given us no reason to believe that the promises of regulation and returns on investments will come to fruition.
Even if they do, the financial bailout does nothing to address the real problem of the U.S. economy - that people on Main Street are drowning financially with no apparent lifelines or allies in Washington. The skyrocketing cost of health insurance, medical procedures and prescription drugs is crippling individuals and families in the lower and middle classes. The steady, uphill climb in the cost of gasoline and home energy will continue to punish the pocketbooks of most Americans. And the increase in incomes of those average Americans continues to slow, while those of the richest Americans grows in leaps and bounds.
When Washington politicians are finished patting each other on the back for the hard work of spending your tax dollars, they must apply the same sense of urgency and effort into bailing out the average taxpayer. Seven hundred billion dollars would go a long way toward reforming health care, making much-needed repairs to our nation's infrastructure, providing energy-cost relief, or, better yet, making a significant investment in alternative energy production that could end our reliance on foreign oil.
But our guess would be that there isn't nearly enough bipartisan political will to invest your tax dollars in any of these ways. Neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party seems particularly interested in the deeds that would back the pledges made to average Americans on the campaign trails.
Over the past few weeks, poll after poll has shown that Main Street is angry about the prospect of a bailout of financial institutions with their money. The politicians and their parties are banking on that anger to subside. It's up to you to determine whether that happens.
There also should be no illusion that the bailout deal expected to be approved today by the U.S. House and Wednesday by the U.S. Senate will improve the economic standing of the average American. It will help Wall Street, no doubt, while perhaps only making sure things don't get immediately worse on Main Street.
And how cynical of House Republicans to use the opportunity to promote tax refunds and lower taxes for corporate America. A dissident group of House GOP members didn't want taxpayer dollars to fund the bailout. But they also wanted capital gains taxes to be reduced retroactively, and a lowering of the corporate tax rate. Never mind that most U.S. corporations pay nowhere near the actual corporate tax rate - if they pay corporate taxes at all. House Republicans should be condemned for using this economic crisis as an opportunity to reduce even further the tax burden of big corporations.
Yes, the bailout agreed to in principal this weekend should stem the bleeding in financial markets both at home and abroad. It should prevent some bigger banks from collapsing, and some businesses from failing. It should protect, at least for now, the retirement investments of average Americans. Again, it won't help those Americans, only prevent things from getting even worse for them. For that reason, the bailout probably was a necessary evil, hard to swallow and, hopefully, hard to forget.
And, yes, the bailout package on the table now is better than the one the Bush administration initially opposed. At least on paper, there is oversight in how bailout dollars will be spent, and a promise that taxpayers will receive returns on their investment should there be any. But we all know how promises in Washington end up working for the average taxpayer. The federal government has given us no reason to believe that the promises of regulation and returns on investments will come to fruition.
Even if they do, the financial bailout does nothing to address the real problem of the U.S. economy - that people on Main Street are drowning financially with no apparent lifelines or allies in Washington. The skyrocketing cost of health insurance, medical procedures and prescription drugs is crippling individuals and families in the lower and middle classes. The steady, uphill climb in the cost of gasoline and home energy will continue to punish the pocketbooks of most Americans. And the increase in incomes of those average Americans continues to slow, while those of the richest Americans grows in leaps and bounds.
When Washington politicians are finished patting each other on the back for the hard work of spending your tax dollars, they must apply the same sense of urgency and effort into bailing out the average taxpayer. Seven hundred billion dollars would go a long way toward reforming health care, making much-needed repairs to our nation's infrastructure, providing energy-cost relief, or, better yet, making a significant investment in alternative energy production that could end our reliance on foreign oil.
But our guess would be that there isn't nearly enough bipartisan political will to invest your tax dollars in any of these ways. Neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party seems particularly interested in the deeds that would back the pledges made to average Americans on the campaign trails.
Over the past few weeks, poll after poll has shown that Main Street is angry about the prospect of a bailout of financial institutions with their money. The politicians and their parties are banking on that anger to subside. It's up to you to determine whether that happens.
