How sweet do you like your tea?
As southerners, most of us like our tea sweeeetttt. However, most of us do not like it sweet to the taste of an extra $100 + billion. The Bailout or Rescue plan (or if you are Senator McCain) that the House Republicans struck down on Monday cost the economy $1 trillion (that’s a lot zeros folks). The tentative plan that the Senate approved late last night cost tax payers an extra $100 billion dollars on top of the supposedly much needed $700 billion. Both Presidential hopefuls voted yes for the Bailout/Rescue Bill, both decided to play Russian Roulette with our money, in hopes of heading off impending doom. A doom that I am not entirely convinced was imminent.
Quite possibly my age is coloring my view. If I was close to retirement age, I might be screaming TO pass the bill already so my 401K/403b would stabilize. As it is now, I DON’T plan on opening my quarterly statement. I have enough years left to work that whatever I've lost I should be able to recoup by the time I hit retirement age.
The revised Bailout/Rescue bill is intended to aid Main street as well as Wall street, but I don’t really see it happening. I did not see an amendment for mortgage moratoriums that would aid homeowners in keeping their homes by lowering their interest rates/payments in order to keep them out of foreclosure.
I’m not one to shy away from democratic socialism, As I see that as the natural progression of any developed nation. But I find it disturbing that so many Bills are floating as amendments and have absolutely nothing to do with the original premise of the Bailout/Rescue plan. Do you know what’s in your tea? Here are just a few of the sweeteners that were added to the Bailout/Rescue plan:
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
Prohibits a group health plan from requesting or requiring an individual or family member of an individual from undergoing a genetic test. Provides that such prohibition does not: (1) limit the authority of a health care professional to request an individual to undergo a genetic test; or (2) preclude a group health plan from obtaining or using the results of a genetic test in making a determination regarding payment. Requires the plan to request only the minimum amount of information necessary to accomplish the intended purpose.
Prohibiting Employment Discrimination on the Basis of Genetic information
Miscellaneous Provisions - (Sec. 301) Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to lower the percentage of a borrower's student loan payment made under the Federal Family Education Loan program subsequent to default that a guaranty agency may retain for deposit in its operating fund if the Secretary of Education has already reimbursed it for such default.
Please visit the following website for your own edification.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01424:@@@L&summ2=m&
Update
And the sweet of all sweetsCourtesy of From the Left
• Manufacturers of kids’ wooden arrows get $6 million
• Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum producers get $192 million
• An undisclosed amount for Wool research
• Auto racing tracks (think: NASCAR Nation) get $128 million
• Corporations operating in American Samoa will receive $33 million
• Small-to- medium budget film and television productions get $10 million
• Relief for litigants in the Exxon Valdez oil spil
I wish, I wish and I wish, this pork fest would be the panacea needed to help the economy out of the doldrums but the fact is, until the Feds act to buy up the bad mortgage paper and get it off the books, banks won't begin lending again.
@Urban Yes, yes and yes, Thanks for the link to the org.
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