Bailout Bill Loops In Green Tech, IRS Snooping

by Declan McCullagh - October 3rd, 2008 - CNet News

Last week, the Bush administration proposed a three-page bill to bail out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion. It died in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week.

On Friday, though, the House approved a far bigger, broader, and beefier version of the bill--which has ballooned to a remarkable 442 pages. The vote was 263 to 171, with the bulk of the opposition coming from Republicans. Because the Senate already approved the measure, it immediately went to President Bush, who signed it into law.

TWO TRILLION DOLLARS! If you thought the announced price tag of $700 Billion was bad, the truth is going to stagger you. This article by Declan McCullagh adds up all the hidden costs in the bill and discovers it is a staggering two trillion dollars, give or take a hundred billion.

The real kicker. IT DOES NOT STOP THE GOVERNMENT PRACTICES THAT LED TO THE SUB-PRIME CRISIS.

This crisis was government created and nothing has been done to stop the abuses that blackmailed our home mortgage institutions into granting millions of bad loans over fear of criminal prosecution.

My favorite story is the one about the Clinton official who was leading the enthusiastic bureaucrats charged with increasing home loans to minorities. In the zeal of his department to find racism when actual evidence did not exist, they claimed that using the phrase "master bedroom" in the ad for a house was proof of racism and grounds for criminal penalties. A memo had to be sent out that this phrase could not be the basis for criminal charges against a lender to stop the government bureacrats!

Wonder why these loans were made? Do you doubt that the new provision to guarantee (after the fact) a loan in default will not have government officials guaranteeing loans for these same minority beneficiaries of no down payment loans? People who pay their mortgages are about to be taxed to pay the mortgages for their neighbors who got a house they cannot afford on terms the taxpayer could not get. Welcome to America in the 21st Century.

This law is a two trillion dollar pork riddled joke . . . which does nothing to end the abusive government practices that caused the problem in the first place.