«Дайте 6 летнему ребенку много много конфет, а потом поставьте 7-летнего за ним присматривать».
Exploiting the breakdown in US and global
financial markets, the financial aristocracy, which is responsible for
the crisis, is exercising its control over the government, both
political parties, and the media to implement policies of the most
far-reaching character without any genuine debate or discussion. As in
the aftermath of 9/11, it is seeking to utilize the crisis to push
through policies that would otherwise be considered entirely
unacceptable.
Make no mistake: The working people, who are the victims of the
financial parasitism of the ruling elite, will foot the bill to bail
out those who have enriched themselves by plundering the social
wealth. The massive expansion of budget deficits and the national debt
as a result of this plan will be used to justify a brutal assault on
basic social programs, education, housing and the wages, jobs,
pensions, and health benefits of the working class.
The government has pegged the cost of the program-by which the US
Treasury will purchase virtually worthless mortgage-backed assets from
banks and other financial institutions-at $700 billion. This sum
already represents the biggest corporate bailout in world history. It
is larger than the annual budget for Social Security and the combined
annual outlay for Medicare and Medicaid. It has been estimated that
such an expenditure translates to a cost for each US family of
approximately $10,000.
Combined with the stated cost of other corporate bailouts and related
outlays carried out over the past several weeks-$200 billion in the
government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $85
billion in the takeover of the insurance conglomerate American
International Group (AIG), $50 billion to insure money market funds,
and $200 billion in Treasury transfers to the Federal Reserve
Board-the $700 billion handout to the banks exceeds the total
allotment for all discretionary spending, excluding the Pentagon, for
fiscal year 2009.
The first provision establishes the unlimited and unilateral authority
of the Treasury secretary, an unelected official, to order the use of
taxpayer funds to purchase whatever «mortgage-related» securities, at
whatever price, at whatever amount and from whatever financial
institutions he chooses.
It states that the secretary-currently Henry Paulson, the
multi-millionaire former CEO of Goldman Sachs-is «authorized to
purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms
and conditions as determined by the secretary, mortgage-related assets
from any financial institution…»
The proposal states that the government will designate «financial
institutions» to operate the bailout program. This means that the
government will hand over management of the program to some of the
very corporations that are responsible for the crisis and which stand
to profit directly or indirectly from the bailout.