Massive bailout gets even bigger (NYT)

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, New York Times
Last update: September 20, 2008 - 10:51 PM

... The proposal was stunning for its eye-popping cost -- $200 billion higher than lawmakers had been told Friday to expect -- but also for its stark simplicity: It was just 2 1/2 pages long.

To accommodate the bailout, the proposal would raise the national debt ceiling from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, allowing the Treasury to buy and resell mortgage debt as it sees fit ...

The plan, an ambitious effort to transfer the bad debts of Wall Street into the obligations of American taxpayers, was put forward after a series of bold interventions on behalf of ailing private firms seemed unlikely to prevent a crash of world financial markets.

A $700-billion expenditure on distressed mortgage-related assets would be roughly what the country has spent in direct costs on the Iraq war and more than the Pentagon's total yearly budget appropriation. It represents more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

http://www.startribune.com/business/28700829.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUHPYDiaK7DUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Scared that there really is nothing our Democratic leaders can do but go along with the plan; scared that the gutting of the middle class and further consolidation of wealth to corporations and fat cats has taken a gigantic leap in a matter of weeks.

Pissed that they've been able to get away with it. Criminals running the country; most unpopular president ever and he'll get half a trillion without question and without being held accountable.

Check-mate.

the terms of "no oversight" they can add protections for the homeowners, they can add ways to rewrite the mortgages from adjustable rate to fixed rate, they can add monies for main street projects, etc. If bush vetoes it he takes the flack.

But if those are the numbers being announced publicly something tells me the true amount for the bailouts will be several multiples of that.

That's what this is plain and simple.

...given the wealthiest slime mold speculators of Wall Street $700 billion which U.S. taxpayers will pay for.

So the test will be how much will trickle down, how quickly will that trickle be and how many Americans will be trickled on?