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As if we did not know that the friends of Bush wouldn't be making out like bandits at the taxpayer expense.
Too big to fail. Or to pay taxes. Or to be identified.
by SusanG Mon Nov 10, 2008
So. Quite the morning for bailout revelations.
First, we learn that nestled into the Paulson bailout was a secret windfall of $140 billion in tax breaks for the banks. A tax break, mind you, that it looks like the Treasury Department didn't have the authority to grant:
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.
..."Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no," said George K. Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. "They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks."
Then we learn that the tax break isn't the only secret the feds are keeping. Apparently, it's now none of our damn business which banks actually laid their hands on the stash:
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.
Of course, there was other more open news ... like that AIG got its umpteenth cash infusion, bringing its total thus far to $150 billion. Don't even think of complaining. It's the one piece of news you're allowed to know. So shut up and be grateful for the crumb of information you're financing.
You are not allowed to know where your money is going, fellow citizens. You are not permitted to know where $2 trillion of your money has gone, fellow taxpayers. Just shut up, pay up and quit whining about your job losses and your lack of health insurance and your petty little home foreclosures. When banks are bailed out and CEO's are rewarded, it's patriotic. When the taxpayer wants some relief, it's chiseling. You see, you're small enough to fail, so they're going to let you. And if you think you're ever going to know where all that $2 trillion went ... forget it. You're asking for information way above your station in life.
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