OK, wait a second. I thought after last week’s theater in Washington that we were now looking for accountability and plans if any more government funds were to be pumped into private companies. Right?
Well, apparently if a financial institution that was part of creating this economic mess gets in trouble, a bailout can be worked out in days.
the Treasury will make a fresh $20 billion investment in the bank. The government has already injected $25 billion into Citigroup as part of the $700 billion bailout passed by Congress in October.
No congressional hearings. No “come back with a plan.” Maybe the message to GM, Ford, and Chrysler last week was really, “come back and prove to us that you are a bank.”
If only there were a best-selling author and journalist who would do a better job than I could putting my feelings into words. Wait, what’s that? A column by Detroit’s Mitch Albom! (emphasis mine)
And the rest of you lawmakers. The ones who insist the auto companies show you a plan before you help them. You’ve already handed over $150 billion of our tax money to AIG. How come you never demanded a plan from it? How come when AIG blew through its first $85 billion, you quickly gave it more? The car companies may be losing money, but they can explain it: They’re paying workers too much and selling cars for too little.
AIG lost hundred of billions in credit default swaps — which no one can explain and which make nothing, produce nothing, employ no one and are essentially bets on failure.
And you don’t demand a paragraph from it?
At what point do “We the taxpayers” stand up and say “ENOUGH!!”???
Heaven forbid the government help a company that actually employs blue-collar, union workers… in a way that’s pennies on the dollar compared to the bailouts we’re heaping on the banking industry (including to those companies that don’t even need it!).