Bailout plan nothing but a 'supreme hustle'
Harry C. Alford/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 10/12/08 Section: Politics
P.T. Barnum once said that there is a "sucker born every five minutes." Well, the famous hustler would have been proud of the Wall St. lobbyists and Treasury Secretary Paulson as they shook down over 300 million suckers - the American taxpayers.
Not only did they get the $700 billion of quick money, but the opportunistic Congress decided to take the opportunity to pull out their wish list and add 16 earmarks to the bailout for an additional $140 billion dollars. That's right, the bailout - or rip off - totals $840 billion.
That is $2300 for every man, woman and child living in this nation. That equates to a family of four now increasing their debt by $9,200. Congress could have been more productive just passing that money out to the citizens of America and letting Wall St. pay for its own sins. Even "anti-earmark Sen. John McCain" went along with all of this pork. Our Congress was bought and sold.
Now, they have the money and the world is still in the same predicament. The economy is in the tank as much now as it was before the giveaway. They played the stock market to scare and fake out Congress. After the bailout was passed many assumed the market would increase. Silly folks - the stock market dropped over 400 points from a plus 250 to a minus 156. We are still in the fix but only about $1 trillion deeper in debt.
They have the money and now they must steal all of the big contracts that will come as a result of the supreme hustle. They will do this through No Bid Contracts. This form of deception was created in the early days of Iraq and perfected during the Hurricane Katrina recovery.
No Bids and severely inflated dollar amounts for work they will find someone else to do at predatory rates. This is done by declaring an emergency and waiving contracting law - Federal Acquisition Regulation, the FAR, thus eliminating affirmative action and minority participation requirements.
The Procurement Director for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) declared a waiver after Katrina for 90 days - all they needed to set all the inflated contracts for the political favorites all of whom were White. Corruption was rampant and even the OMB Director eventually went to jail for favors he did for the infamous Jack Abramoff who is also currently in jail.
Not only did they get the $700 billion of quick money, but the opportunistic Congress decided to take the opportunity to pull out their wish list and add 16 earmarks to the bailout for an additional $140 billion dollars. That's right, the bailout - or rip off - totals $840 billion.
That is $2300 for every man, woman and child living in this nation. That equates to a family of four now increasing their debt by $9,200. Congress could have been more productive just passing that money out to the citizens of America and letting Wall St. pay for its own sins. Even "anti-earmark Sen. John McCain" went along with all of this pork. Our Congress was bought and sold.
Now, they have the money and the world is still in the same predicament. The economy is in the tank as much now as it was before the giveaway. They played the stock market to scare and fake out Congress. After the bailout was passed many assumed the market would increase. Silly folks - the stock market dropped over 400 points from a plus 250 to a minus 156. We are still in the fix but only about $1 trillion deeper in debt.
They have the money and now they must steal all of the big contracts that will come as a result of the supreme hustle. They will do this through No Bid Contracts. This form of deception was created in the early days of Iraq and perfected during the Hurricane Katrina recovery.
No Bids and severely inflated dollar amounts for work they will find someone else to do at predatory rates. This is done by declaring an emergency and waiving contracting law - Federal Acquisition Regulation, the FAR, thus eliminating affirmative action and minority participation requirements.
The Procurement Director for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) declared a waiver after Katrina for 90 days - all they needed to set all the inflated contracts for the political favorites all of whom were White. Corruption was rampant and even the OMB Director eventually went to jail for favors he did for the infamous Jack Abramoff who is also currently in jail.
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