Posts Tagged ‘George Bush’

A must for Obama

Monday, January 19th, 2009

A huge “must” for President-elect Barack Obama is cleaning up the corruption and cronyism so loved and embraced by the Bush administration.

And then he has to ensure that it doesn’t happen again on his watch.

This means that people will go to jail. This means that Obama will get knocked for being vengeful and partisan and it means that maybe the stimulus money doesn’t get, figuratively speaking, dumped out of an airplane to get lost in the wind like that first $350 billion did. If Obama doesn’t act — if no-bid contracts continue to be awarded to friends and campaign contributors, then corruption becomes institutionalized. We may never be able to recover from that.

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Posted in Barack Obama, Commentary, Federal government | No Comments »

The last Bush-backer

Monday, November 10th, 2008

My sister and I stopped in a West Allis pet store yesterday so she could buy a teddy bear dog (anyone looking for a pet can get a really good deal now because economic distress had led a whole lot of people either decide not to buy a pet or to give up the ones they had).

Anyway, as we were checking out with Harley the teddy bear, the clerk asked us if we liked the new president.

I said yes, I did, and she said she preferred President Bush, that she did not like the new president. I told her I did not want to have this conversation with her. She said the new president wanted to take away everyone’s guns and she especially did not like that he wanted to ban all hunting totally.

Yup, Bush still has backing among people who do not know what the hell they are talking about.

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Posted in Barack Obama, Commentary, George Bush, Politics | No Comments »

President Obama

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

A huge sigh of relief.

Can we have our Constitution back now?

Here’s an idea for a little betting pool: who will George Bush pardon on his way out? (An art semi-perfected by Bill Clinton.)

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Posted in Commentary, Politics | 5 Comments »

The more you know, the worse it is

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Just say “No” to the bailout in its present form. Not only has the reach of its rescue been expanded from mortgages to just about any type of financial instrument, but it would give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a Wall Streeter himself, godlike powers including immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Paul Krugman has more.

Another Bushie tries to put himself above the law.

No.

 

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Posted in Commentary, Economy, George Bush, Politics | 1 Comment »

Borrowing a bailout!!?

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

This is crazy — the Bush administration wants to borrow its way out of the financial mess it did so much to help create? No muss, no fuss — just put it on the balance sheet and pretend it’s not real, sort of like how the administration treats the cost of the Iraq war. No one has to sacrifice, not a single program gets cut. There’s just one little detail missing though — how does all that money get repaid?

Robert Preston, business editor of the BBC, puts the $700 billion Bush is seeking in start-up funds in perspective:

That $700bn is about 35 per cent more than the entire annual budget of the US defence department.

And to facilitate the funding, the statutory ceiling on US public debt is being raised from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion a rise of 6.6 per cent – which puts this ceiling at around a fifth less than the entire annual output of the US economy.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, formerly the hugely-compensated head of the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs, would have enormous discretion in using this money under the plan, according to the New York Times.

The administration’s proposal, laid out in a three-page plan, would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

Didn’t we learn our lessons about giving Bush broad powers in the Iraq/torture/illegal spying scandals that sprang from the broad powers he was given and claimed after 9/11? Haven’t we seen enough cronyism and corruption in this administration to make sure there are plenty of safeguards in place in how this money gets distributed?

This proposal needs careful review, but it’s more likely that Congress will again abandon its oversight role. From the Times:

Congressional leaders are hoping to recess at the end of the week for the fall elections, after approving the bailout and a budget measure to keep the government running.

This financial mess isn’t going to be easy to deal with. Moving quickly and blindly isn’t going to make things better.

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Posted in Commentary, Economy, Politics | No Comments »