Progressive Portal

Senate Passes Bailout 74-25

2008-10-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Senate has just passed a revised $700 billion "rescue" or "bailout" plan [Acrobat PDF, 712K]. The vote was 74-25, including "yes" votes from Senators Obama, Biden, McCain, and Clinton. Numerous "sweetener" provisions added to the bill were intended to ensure the lopsided Senate vote and to help garner the additional dozen or so votes needed in the House, expected to vote again Friday (after that chamber narrowly rejected a bailout Monday).

Where'$ MY Bailout?

2008-09-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Click to order: 1 Sticker $1.49 + S/H 3 Stickers 99¢ ea. + S/H 10 Stickers 89¢ ea. + S/H 30 Stickers 79¢ ea. + S/H	Click to order: 1 Sticker $1.49 + S/H 3 Stickers 99¢ ea. + S/H 10 Stickers 89¢ ea. + S/H 30 Stickers 79¢ ea. + S/H
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Action Alerts are near the bottom of this post.

Seven Hundred Billion Dollars. It's impossible to wrap one's mind around such a figure. But that's the amount of money Congress is being asked to commit to bail out the giants of Wall Street, collapsing under the weight of their disastrous loan policies, including millions of failing home mortgages. As we write this blog, it's difficult to predict what will happen. A tenuous agreement in Congress may fall apart, or legislation may be adopted any time now — perhaps even before you read this message.

And get this: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants all that money handed over to him with no strings attached — no Congressional or Administration oversight, no court review, nothing.

In short, he wants to be King Henry. As Sen. Chris Dodd said in response, "It is not only our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution, as well."

It gets even crazier: Paulson insists that the sky is falling, yet if the deal includes provisions to prevent the bailout from enriching the CEOs who screwed everthing up, they won't take the money. He's saying they will literally destroy the (economic) world if they can't keep their golden parachutes! (So far, Congress isn't buying that load of you-know-what.)

And if it the bailout includes protections for homeowners facing foreclosure, he says Wall Street will balk.

That's so outlandish it can't be true — can it? If it is true, it's even more outlandish!

Where'$ MY Bailout?

We rushed these bumper stickers into print not to just be sarcastic but to raise a real issue. The $700-billion bailout averages out to $175,000 for each of the 4 million households in foreclosure or behind on their mortgage payments. Hey, here's a concept: Why not use that money to help those families pay their mortgages and keep their homes? Voilà — people keep their homes, lenders get their money.

Debt to America

In darker moments, it looks to us as if the Bush Administration, on its way out the door, is trying to steal every last dollar in the country — and some dollars that don't even exist yet: The Treasury will have to print more money for this bailout (and of course there won't be anything left for the nation's other needs). And they're demanding this authority from Congress on the strength of a three-page memo. As Rachel Maddow points out, that's one rich document — worth $233 billion per page.

Thankfully, the phones on Capitol Hill are ringing off the hooks with people outraged at this bailout, slowing things down a bit. The public's outrage is having an impact on the shape of the bailout, but in the end, Washington is still more likely to infuse billions of dollars into Wall Street than Main Street.

Take Action Now

Even after the plan is adopted, we'll need to keep the government's feet to the fire in the days and weeks ahead. Here are the top Action Alerts we've culled from the many that have arrived in our in-box during the past few days:

If you oppose the bailout as an illegal grab of power and money by the wealthy, send a letter HERE.

If you don't entirely oppose the bailout but agree it must meet organized labor's conditions for assisting and protecting average citizens and taxpayers, take action HERE.

If your position is different from the two above or you want to write to George Bush and Secretary Paulson as well as your members of Congress, compose your own message HERE.

Bring It To Main Street

To keep this issue visible on Main Street as well as Wall Street, especially during the remaining days of this election season, we've rushed these bumper stickers into production.

The second one is intended to call to account the party whose failure to regulate their fat-cat buddies over the past eight years got us into this mess. That message should give pause to every voter as the Bush White House insists on handing over the U.S. Treasury to the big banks that caused the problem. And, at the bottom of the sticker is the link to this action page.

We want to get these stickers displayed in hundreds of communities all across the country, so we're offering them at the minimum we can charge to cover costs of rush printing and distribution. Please order a bunch now, to keep asking the question: When do we get relief from the economic policies of the past 8 years?

These stickers make a statement, and they point people to this Web page, where they can take action on this outrageous situation. Please help us spread the message far and wide.

(Links to more information are below).

Click to order: 1 Sticker $1.49 + S/H 3 Stickers 99¢ ea. + S/H 10 Stickers 89¢ ea. + S/H 30 Stickers 79¢ ea. + S/H	Click to order: 1 Sticker $1.49 + S/H 3 Stickers 99¢ ea. + S/H 10 Stickers 89¢ ea. + S/H 30 Stickers 79¢ ea. + S/H
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"The Bodacity of Hope"

2008-04-11T23:59:00.001-07:00

← This sticker, and this discussion, are not about Barack Obama. While I'm not one of those uber-cynics who claim there is no difference between Obama, Clinton, and McCain, I also happen to believe that not much social change comes from the White House. I believe it's axiomatic that a "leader" finds a parade and then gets in front of it. We (the grassroots, the people) must first create the parade.

What we're inviting you to discuss in this posting is how to build the "Yes We Can" parade.

The actions of leaders sometimes provide clues about what's happening in society -- about where the parade is headed. On that score, I think there's something significant and encouraging to be gleaned from considering the Obama phenomenon. But I'd like to suggest a viewpoint that does not see the candidate, or even his candidacy, as the central element of that phenomenon.

"Change" is the buzzword of the 2008 Presidential race, and it has appeal because the people of the U.S. are in broad agreement that the last seven years under George W. Bush have been one horror show after another (and not the good kind). It isn't just platitudes about change that are exciting people; something many on the left tend to forget is that people are excited by a compelling vision of where we are headed, not just what we oppose. Rev. Martin Luther King knew that his "I Have a Dream" speech needed to catalog the wrongs of racist oppression, but it couldn't stop there; Dr. King also needed to offer his "dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice ... that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Many of us hold little hope that the fundamental ills of society will be cured by electing the right person, no matter how right (or how left) the person.

That doesn't mean the 2008 election is meaningless -- far from it. The policy differences (PDF/240K) between Clinton, Obama, and McCain will have huge impacts on people's lives (including, for many, whether they even have lives: presidential policies can be fatal, as we've seen to our deep chagrin these past several years).

If we're looking for fundamental change, we need to go beyond presidential politics.

How do we begin? How do we slingshot off of the "got hope?" energy of the political campaign to give momentum to broader progressive change?

Look, there are 23,000 of us in the ProgressivePortal community. A group of 23,000 activists is a powerful resource. I believe that if we step up, we can change the game.

We're launching this blog to start a conversation with you about how we can change the game. What would a new hope-based, inspiring progressive activism look like? What issues lend themselves to such an approach, and how do we get it started? How can online activism play a part?

These are not new ideas. There are numerous examples of "yes-oriented" activism. We've linked to some of them in this essay, and we hope you'll submit your favorites too.

For many reasons, positive-oriented approaches rarely get much attention from mainstream media and culture in the U.S. The Obama "got hope" campaign, we believe, has opened the door for something broader. Our job, as we see it, is to prop that door open and let some much-needed fresh air in.

Now it's your turn to offer information, strategies, ideas. Got doorstops?
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