The Looting of America by Bush and Congress’s Wall Street Cronies

The Looting of America by Bush and Congress’s Wall Street Cronies
By Gil Villagrán, MSW El Observador, San Jose, Dec. 18, 2008


It’s been said of our justice system that if you “steal a loaf of bread, they send you to the penitentiary, if you steal a railroad, they send you to the U.S. Congress.” But why steal a railroad in this era of decaying infrastructure, even with Amtrak subsidies? Similarly why steal from a bank when one can steal the whole bank, especially if you are the bank CEO?

But why steal or embezzle depositors’ funds, when President Bush and Congress have devised a vastly more effective plan for looting not only depositors’ savings and retirement funds, but also the vastly greater funds of the American people—our taxes today, tomorrow and into several generations?

The Wall Street bailout, rescue, looting spree, give-away, toxic paper exchange--whatever we call it, is a slow-motion robbery of the American people designed by the Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a billionaire former CEO of Goldman Sachs, with personal earnings of $38 million in 2005 as reward for profits of $5.6 billion that year. Paulson’s former employer is one of the fallen financial giants, called too big to allow to fail, that he is now rescuing, and first in line for the multi-billion dollar corporate welfare. Last month Goldman Sachs got a $ 9.8 billion in bailout, and paid $11 billion in bonuses!

So as American workers are locked out of factories, many sent home without pay for unused sick leave, vacation or severance, without so much as a “thank-you for your years of labor,” their company CEOs lobby Congress for taxpayers’ billions, tax write-offs, additional subsidies, and eliminated environmental regulations. And as the CEOs private-jet to ski vacation homes for Christmas or Hanukah, the laid-off workers pack up their foreclosed homes, hoping for low-income apartments in not too rundown crime-ridden neighborhoods, hoping for that rare good school district.

Middle-class Americans fearfully open their bank statements to find their retirement 401(k) nest egg disappearing with tens of thousand dollar losses. Can it get any worse? But the answer seems to be: it can, it is, and it will get worse as our nation’s economy slowly twists in the wind of a dissipating American Dream.

This slow motion bank robbery, brewing for years of lobbyist driven legislated de-regulation, but surfacing just months ago; continues gradually with nightly news reports of Congressional hearing and Treasury Department multi-billion dollar payouts, yet the nation pathetically watches with only mild outrage toward massive Wall Street banks?

Curiously, there is focused outrage toward the big three automakers. Congress scolded the Detroit CEOs, demanded specific restructure plans, required their salaries reduced to $1 per year, and to give up their corporate jets. But why no such scolding for the big bankers? Could Congressional campaign contributions have convinced legislators of the ethics and fiscal wisdom of their Wall Street cronies, but missing from Detroit CEOs?

Perhaps there is a lesson for us in the story of Hitler, in his last days, saying, “If I had a ‘do-over,’ I would announce my intention to kill six million Jews and seven postmen. 'Why the seven postmen?' someone naively asked. 'You make my point for me,' he replied. 'Everybody would be so curious about why the seven postmen that they'd never notice the six million Jews killed.'”

In a similar fashion, Congress and the nation are so focused on a bailout for the big three auto companies seeking a combined $ 15 billion loan, that they have accepted the grotesquely greater banks bailouts ballooning beyond one trillion dollars.


It's been said, "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."
It appears that in front of Wall Street’s great fortunes, Congress is eager to allow the continuing slow motion great crime of robbery of the American people.