Bailout Battlelines

So the $700,000,000,000 tab being sent to Congress by Treasury Secretary Paulson and George W. Bush calls for, surprise surprise, no oversight:

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Um...bullshit?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejects the lack of oversight:

"We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome. Democrats will act responsibly to insulate Main Street from Wall Street."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) joins Pelosi (yep, he must hate that headline).

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), once again, actually lays down lines in the sand:

First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.

Second, taxpayers shouldn't be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.

Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.

Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.

Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.

Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I've been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.

And finally, this plan can't just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street.

More details on the principles on his website, from Sunday in Charlotte, NC:



If you're a fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) better, here you go.

This is what's called an inflection point, and it's crucial that our representative leaders don't blow it. This is the moment of leverage and it won't come back if Paulson's plan is passed as is. Let history be the teacher: Bush and Cheney gave away half of our U.S. Treasury to private bigwigs with the Iraq War.

Don't let them use this crisis to finish the job.