The bailout has been designed to keep stealing from the Treasury for years to come.
In the final days of the election, many Republicans seem to have given up the fight for power. But that doesn't mean they are relaxing. If you want to see real Republican elbow grease, check out the energy going into chucking great chunks of the $700 billion bailout out the door. At a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, Republican Senator Bob Corker was fixated on this task, and with a clear deadline in mind: inauguration. "How much of it do you think may be actually spent by January 20 or so?" Corker asked Neel Kashkari, the 35-year-old former banker in charge of the bailout.
When European colonialists realized that they had no choice but to hand over power to the indigenous citizens, they would often turn their attention to stripping the local treasury of its gold and grabbing valuable livestock. If they were really nasty, like the Portuguese in Mozambique in the mid-1970s, they poured concrete down the elevator shafts.
Its Friday and Peacenik is feeling mellow. Paulson is ripping everyone off; giving $70 billion of public funds for bonus money to the same incompetent, corrupt bankers who caused this crisis. Bankrupting the U.S. treasury so that social security and medicare can be cut back or eliminated. And Harper no doubt is eyeing the same playbook in Canada. Whatever. Time for a couple of beers.
