Bush defends bailouts past (and future?)

This article had as many points of humor as it does interesting lines. I am sure W will be RUNNING off the stage!

I would like to know what is happening in the upper eschelons of the pug party. There is some real strategy being played here. On the surface, everyone says that Bush is a wack and not a true conservative. On the second level, it is clearly the pug party hedging their bets on history. And it is the thrid level that I do not understand. Something here stinks likes last months milk, but I can not quite figure it out. There is some serious coordination going on in the pug party though. Anyone have some thoughts?

There's no defense for these bailouts. Bush has opened the door to socialism and OhBummer will happily lead his delusional followers through it.

All President Bush is trying to do, is appear to be cleaning up the mess he allowed to happen on his watch. With the abysmal record he has, he had no other choice, but his record is beyond repair. He has failed America, in historical terms and even in departing, he is still allowing ideology to prevent him from taking the right course. Believe it or not, with him still in Office, lame though he may be, the national atmosphere has already improved, even before President-elect Obama has taken Office. It is a brighter day in America, knowing that President Bush is on his way home and President-elect Obama is poised to take the reigns of the Office of the President.
Good luck to both men, President Bush and President-elect Obama.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Heckuva job Bush...

The Republican brand is in the crapper. It went from big spreads in both the House and Senate and a dream of a "permanent republican majority" to a close to 20 seat deficit in the Senate (with more likely to come in 2010) and around 80 in the House. It lost the White House. Badly.

Its' core philosophies (and I am not buying this "the Bush year policies weren’t really republican or conservative" because when you have control of the entire government, you enact what you want) have destroyed our economy on a scale not seen in close to 100 years. Its aggressive and arrogantly ignorant foreign policy has ruined our credibility around the world (and nearly bankrupted us). The levels of cronyism have led to billions of dollars being "misplaced" or sent to friends on no-bid contracts for crappy work. The culture of corruption has led to indictment after indictment after indictment of republican Congressional officials, the politicizing of the Justice Department and the burrowing of wholly unqualified people into major policy, leadership and civil service roles.

It has presided over a crisis that has lost more jobs in decades, has fattened corporate wallets at the expense of We the People, has seen a decline in our educational standards (and scores), has enriched the pharmaceutical and insurance companies at the expense of affordable access to healthcare. It has let a major American city drown in what was nothing short of criminal negligence.

It allowed for the murder of thousands on 9/11 with the careless disregard for warning after warning. It allowed the deaths of many rescue workers, the death of close to 1,000,000 Iraqis for a "mistake" and the death of hundreds (if not more) in the Gulf Coast. It has failed to do anything meaningful about the root cause of terrorism and has made us less safe.

When finally in the minority in Congress, the republicans merely set a record for most filibusters of all time. And they did it in just one year.

It has alienated entire races of people, it has alienated immigrants, it has alienated same sex couples, it has alienated the lower class, the middle class and much of the upper class. Its members have lied, blown off subpoenas, have been convicted of sex crimes (many times over), covered up for sexual predators who were in charge of underage Congressional Pages, were convicted of election fraud and have tampered with elections on the Congressional and Presidential level in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. And during the past six years, culminating with the recent Presidential campaign, it has thrived off of fear and loathing. Fear of anything that isn’t precisely like them, and loathing of anything that isn’t, well, precisely like them.

It is a party that felt its best way to win is to use violent rhetoric (at the worst possible time, of course) to rile up its base – based on lies and the most tenuous of "guilt by association". Most of all, it has shown that it has no vision, no ideas other than hate, and has demonstrated exactly what it would do if it could control all of government.

This was the third straight cycle (2004 and 2006 as well) that young voters came out for Democrats. And generally speaking, if someone votes for the same party in three straight cycles (especially their first three cycles), they pretty much stick with that party for life. The timing couldn’t be better for a long stretch of Democratic party dominance.

Is there anything that Bush and Cheney haven't destroyed the last eight years?.....oh yeah I forgot the fastest-selling armament in the world since Sunday: - semi-automatic shoe launchers.

Shoe salesman around the world rejoice, W has bailed you out.

Lucy, is that a "permanent Democratic majority" you're talking about?

We'll see. In this country, we vote for the Democrats until we can't stand them any more, then we vote for the Republicans until we can't stand THEM any more, then we vote for the Democrats again. The pendulum swings. When we discover that one party can't lead us to Nirvana, then we vote for the other. Time will tell.

Y'know who I think is going to miss Bush the most? Al Qaeda. They couldn’t have asked for a better poster child to goose their recruiting efforts ("I Want YOU to Bring It On!"), or a better operative within our borders to wreak havoc with our infrastructure, our economy and our morale. I bet they even chipped in and got him a farewell present: a watch that freezes for seven minutes every morning.

Bush and the Democrats are on the wrong course with the auto bailout. Detroit is hurting because of outmoded technology, disastrous employee benefit packages, resistance to change, and a dismissal of concern over quality, all of which combine to gouge the purchaser of one of their cars. Think Detroit is concerned about the buying public when $20,000 has become the benchmark, $600 a month payments? Detroit deserves a kick in the festerus, not billions of dollars.

DaveB,
That's true, but union busting while at the same they're giving out cash hand over fist (no strings attached) to the white collar wall street criminals isn't going to help the Repubs electoral prospects anytime soon.

Don't do it, Bush. Americans do NOT support the Detroit bailout. Bankruptcy is the best thing that could happen to the big three since it would let them out of the ridiculous "jobs bank" contracts they signed back in the early 00s when they thought they could sell SUVs for more and more money forever.
All polls show that the American people do not support the auto bailout and with Obummer planning to hand out $850 billion in "stimuluis" as soon as he takes office the last thing we need is more socialist bailout money being printed and further devaluing our currency.

" Its members have lied, blown off subpoenas, have been convicted of sex crimes (many times over)."
Was that sentence about the republicans or the democRATs? With Blago, Edwards, Tim Mahoney, etc. it's hard to tell. There's no way Obama can fire Patrick Fitzgerald with the Illinois corruption mess being exposed for all to see. Absolute power is already corrupting the national democrats absolutely, just like it did with the republicans. Jimmy Carter had a majority, too.

Lucy, I think that the auto unions are going to be busted either way.

If the Detroit 3 are bailed out by the Feds, the bailout will likely be conditioned on givebacks by the unions. In particular, the lifetime employment negotiated a few contracts ago will disappear; if there's no work for people, they will go straight to layoff and unemployment benefits.

If the companies go bankrupt, the union contract will be modified from the bench in bankruptcy court. Same result, different route.

While the $73 an hour that's been bandied about does not represent what actually goes to workers in pay and benefits, it's nevertheless true that Detroit 3 workers receive more compensation than do workers at the transplants, and far more than workers in the Far East. If we don't want to see our domestic auto industry go the way of, for instance, the British auto industry, that has to be adjusted; the Detroit 3 can't survive if they have to pay their workers an uncompetitive wage.

the Detroit 3 can't survive if they have to pay their workers an uncompetitive wage.

Posted by: DaveB | December 18, 2008 5:09 PM

Right on- Thats the whole ball o wax -
Any solution that does not address the cost structure now is only pushing the problem away... which seems to be the goal of the current admin..

Rationalizing a Detroit bailout on the " You bailed out Wall Street" logic is like saying since I already stole half of the cookies in the jar, I should be able to steal the rest.

Obama will fix this nation, unlike our current president who was happy to spend over 160 billion in july to help Iraq. Because as he said, the Iraquis have a better way of life now. Isn't that wonderful? But they are mulling over whether to help our country out of a crisis that they are responsible. That's what happens when you are in charge for 8 years. You get the blame. and as far as the auto workers outlandish wage... they released that they only get 3 dollars more an hour than Toyota workers. that's it. everything else is smoke and mirrors.

He is trying to build a positive legacy and scrambling every step of the way no matter what. Spin, spin, spin like the Tasmanian Devil...

The Republicans can kiss Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, good-bye forever. I don't think those voters will have much use for the Republicans, if they torpedo the Democrats' attempt at salvaging the ( Not so) Big 3 !! They can blindly throw $700 Billion Bailout for their Buddies in the Banking Scandal, but not the a cent for the 3 Million workers and their families !!? No wonder, the Republicans were trounced in the general election !!

The brainless Republicans haven't learned a thing from the election! Sure bail out the richest sectors but not the middle class. I would also like to add that your Republican adminsitration for the past eight years gave no push for the auto industry to have incesntive to comeup with new and better ideas. Not to mention that the auto industries best performing cars are not even introduced into the American market! You guys only care about the rich companies that dont give a damn about the average American!

Republicans are willing to put hundreds of billions into bailing out the financial sector but they say no to helping the auto industry that will put tens of millions out of work and push us into a depression. It's that the GOP hates the auto unions with a vengeance and they are willing to send the economy into a tailspin to accomplish their goal. Republicans say OK to billions to AIG without any oversight and then give them billions more when they ask for it. But labor must be punished in the GOP play book the way Reagan destroyed the air traffic controllers. They want to put the government in the bathtub and drown it and leave the banks to rip us off. They conveniently forget it's the government that's bailing out the banks and that's sacred. But labor is evil and expendable.

"Is there some...coordination going on in the pug party?" asks xcellentform.

Possibly. Possibly Paulson & the other masters of the universe decided the game of musical chairs would be brought to an end when they saw they were about to be voted out.

They just made sure they were the ones who ended up with seats.

Bailed out their friends.

The rest of us have to "take the medicine".

Naw. They wouldn't be that conspiratorial, would they??

That would be like suggesting Bush & Co would use 911 as an excuse for a big executive branch power grab with extraconstitional powers to tap your phones & e mails and launch an invasion for the benefit of their friends down in Oil Patch.

That sort of thing could never happen!

Still in all, it will be interesting to assess, in a few months, who the "winners" are in the current "crisis".

Friends of Goldman?

What with two failed wars, a deep recession, the collapse of Wall Street, the collapse of the banks, the collapse of AIG, the SEC's blind eye to Bernard Madoff $50 billion scam, Blackwater, Katrina, and on and on and on. After eight years that have cost us trillions, and will cost us trillions more to emerge from this economic armageddon, and eight years that have cost millions more their jobs, and hundreds of thousands their lives in Iraq and elsewhere .....this is how Republicans respond?.....take down Big Auto and bust the union?

The GOP is going to be the minority party for a loooooong time.

The Nite Before Bailout Christmas
(The Night Before Christmas)
WilliamBanzai7

Twas the nite before Bailout Christmas, when there came to the House
A cadre of Detroit clowns doing a sad bailout grouse.
Their company's were hung by years of inept stupidity and greed,
Now there they were standing, the last of a dying breed.

The union ranks were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of hybrids and plug-ins danced in their greedy heads.
And John Dingell with his big auto ‘kerchief, that old Detroit hack,
Had just settled his brains for some more motown crack.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
It sounded like a vehicle powered by reverse anti-matter.
Away to the window all flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

There on the pavement without snow
With the lustre of well designed objects below.
What to their wondering eyes should appear,
But a brand new Toyota Prius powered by eight tiny Japanese reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
All knew in a moment it must be Bailout St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Toyota! now, Nissan! now, Daihatsu and Honda!
On, Isuzu! On, Suzuki! on, on Mistubishi and Mazda!
To the top of the market! while the big three all fall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before old hurricane Katrina fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the rotunda the coursers they flew,
With the hybrid sleigh full of Bailout Toys, and Bailout St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, there was heard under the Capital roof
The silly prancing and gnawing of each Big 3 auto goof.
As all shook their heads, and made a skeptical frown,
Then through the hearing room doors lept Bailout St Nicholas with a bound.

He was dressed all in red Texaco overalls, and black harley boots,
And his clothes were all tarnished with 10W40 and soot.
And billions of TARP bailout dollars he had flung in his bailout sack,
And he looked suspiciously like Hank Paulsen the Wall Street bailout hack.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the bailout stockings, then turned to those three Big 3 auto jerks.
Laying his fingers to cover his nose,
and while giving a nod, all the taxpayers got hosed!

He sprang to his Bailout sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like one big Detroit bailout missile.
But they heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Bailout Christmas to all, see you next year good-night!"

“On the surface, everyone says that Bush is a wack (sic) and not a true conservative.”
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Posted by: Xcellentform | December 18, 2008 1:54 PM
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Figure it out yourself. Among other things, a conservative is supposed to be someone concerned about not allowing government to spend more than it must. Tell me when Duh’bya has ever fit that description? I can’t think of a single significant instance where he has. And you think he’s a conservative? He’s a freakin’ changeling, that’s what he is.

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Posted by: Lucy Renick | December 18, 2008 3:01 PM
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Please post something original. I’ve seen this same little essay at least once before, if not more. It was BS before, and it still is. Anyone who believes any of it hasn’t a clue what conservatism is about.

To: E=mc2 and Zappo Dave:
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If you want to blame someone for the Wall Street Bailout, then you can start blaming your own Democrat politicians in Congress, including Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Your Savior, Barack Obama. It would not have passed were it not for their avid support. More Democrats voted in favor of the bailout than Republicans. More Republicans voted against it than the Dems. The bailout actually failed the first time through the House of Representatives because of Republican opposition. In addition, I have to tell you: Most conservatives out in voter land were hoping the bailout would fail both times through.
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All bailouts are dumb. Instead of supporting healthy competition, bailouts make businesses sloppy and undisciplined. When the government has to pass out the means of production to faltering companies to make them competitive, the federal government, and not the market, becomes the arbiter of who will be competitive and who won’t. When that happens, there is not only no free market, there is no motivation to work hard, innovate, or exercise due caution in one’s business practices. It only encourages companies to incorporate a trip to the hill to ask for handouts as part of an emergency procedure in their business plans. Also, propping up a bad business is just throwing good money after bad. It denies to good businesses in the same field the market share needed to grow, hire more people and pay more in taxes. It also results in the misallocation of valuable resources to unproductive or less productive concerns. That’s a loosing proposition for the market, the government and taxpayers. Another bad consequence is that the practice of providing operating capital to companies turns the government into the central directorate of a command economy. That’s not a legitimate, constitutional function of the federal government. You do care about the Constitution don’t you (he asks, knowing the answer is really no)?
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On top of all of this, there is no way of guaranteeing that businesses, with coffers freshly filled by the government, are going to do the right thing or even what the government asks of them. We have poignant examples of this already. We gave hundreds of billions of dollars to the financial houses to break up the credit gridlock and get banks to function as lenders again. And what have they done? They have taken all of that money and used it to decorate their balance sheets. The American public has gotten nothing from them but The Big Weenie. So, what makes you think the Big 3 are going to use any of Duh’bya’s bailout more wisely or rebuild their businesses to a point that they can wean themselves off of government life-support? How is it that they aren’t just going to come back three months after Obama’s inauguration and ask for more, pleading the same dire cost to the economy if Congress fails to act? You might think they’ll do okay, but I consider that hopelessly wishful thinking.
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I have to tell you that I am glad the Big 3 bailout failed. I just wish the Wall Street Bailout had failed too. Needless to say, I am totally ticked off that Duy’bya went ahead and pledged billions of dollars to support the Big 3. Congress said we weren’t going to do it. So what business does he have unilaterally countermanding Congress’ vote? (Sigh.) He’s a tin horn dictator to the very end.

Dave B and Lucy, interesting string of comments. I'd tend to agree somewhat more with Dave B, especially as regards the "Permanent Democratic Majority" than with Lucy, but she's certainly not without her points.
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In the long run, we'd be no better served by a "Permanent" Democratic Majority than by a "Permanent" Republican Majority. Both are delusions, and both are just code-words for "one-party dictatorship." That's something I think we really need to learn from the recent Republican debacle. If we don't learn, then we'll do as the Republicans did, spending the next four to eight years slathering ourselves with doo-doo despite blatant warnings that doing so isn't such a great idea, swearing the whole while that it's Chanel No.5, and then wake up some morning when it's too late wondering why we don't smell so good. Hopefully WE at least will have the spine not to try to blame it all on the Republicans.
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People DO tend to run in cycles where political parties are concerned. While we hold the reins of power now (and hopefully will do some good with it), sooner or later the cycle will turn and some form of Conservatism will be on the ascendent. Whether that Conservatism is in the form of the Republican party (as we know it) remains to be seen. I'd like to think that the party will splinter and that some intelligent, responsible body will arise from the debris while the rest gets tossed somewhere to the desert to dry up and blow away. Time will tell. I can remember a time when Republicans actually WERE decent, caring, level-headed people; so, at least theoretically, a spark of that should remain somewhere. I'd be thrilled to see them find it.