Do you FEEL "Bailed out?" (II): Bailout trickles up, not down

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As I recall, we were told that much of the Bailout was based on the idea that the government would capitalize banks in exchange for primary equity positions and that, thus capitalized, the banks would again begin to loan money.

Great idea. Except, because of a lack of REQUIREMENTS to loan, banks are doing just the opposite: they're sitting on the cash.

So.... let me get this straight: We sent out checks like we have an unlimited number of trees to grind up into paper, and we placed zero requirements on the end user to do with it what they were supposed to do?

Shades of the Katrina Visa Cards.... $2000 handed out to "victims" for whatever they wanted to use it for.... no strings attached.

So.... where's the loans? Where's the cash flow?

And now, we're supposed to trust these same morons to get us out of this?

It seems to me that the issue is more one of getting out of this IN SPITE of them, instead of BECAUSE of them.

Westneat of the Times nails it here. After reading this, I felt, well, somewhat less "bailed out" than before.

Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 12:00 AM

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Danny Westneat

Bailout trickles up, not down

"You're good for it. " That's what most everyone has been telling Pam Pentz lately. You can slide this month, Pam. We know you're good for...

Danny Westneat

Seattle Times staff columnist

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"You're good for it."

That's what most everyone has been telling Pam Pentz lately. You can slide this month, Pam. We know you're good for it.

Everyone said that but her bank.

Pam's a horse trainer east of Woodinville. Last month the roof of her Olympic-sized horse-riding arena collapsed under the weight of the snow, all but shutting down her Derby Farms business.

The roof's insured so it will be fixed. But in the meantime she owes her hay man $1,300. The stall guy $2,000. The third-generation outfit that brings wood shavings for her 27 horses is due $1,800.

Don't worry, they all said. You're good for it.

It was nice to hear, but she fretted. How long can these others go without pay? So, to tide her over until her arena is back, Pam, 60, asked her longtime bank for a loan.

It was a pittance, really — a $15,000 line against a farm with at least a half-million dollars in equity. Where she's been in business for 30 years and has never missed a mortgage payment.

But the bank — Banner Bank, which likes to say that "you can take the bank out of the small town but you can't take the small town out of the bank" — said no.

You're not good for it, Pam.

The reason I'm telling you about a piddling $15,000 denied loan is that last fall Banner Bank got $124 million of your money as part of the bank bailout.

Yet Banner is not a troubled bank. It didn't need any rescue. The U.S. government gave the money on the theory Banner would turn around and lend it to people like Pam.

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Once again, the US Senate GOP blows the call: “McConnell says GOP could back stimulus.”

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I used to be a hard-corps Republican. GOP idiocy like this made it easy to leave a party that had left me a long time ago.

Michelle Malkin bangs it like a drum. Once again, my government will make me ashamed. Once again, I'll find myself wishing for a political fairy god-mother who could make all of the idiots disappear on both sides of the aisle who've led us into this moronic idiocy, and who are too incompetent to lead us out.

I have no political affiliation at this point. I completely support candidates based on what their vision and history is, regardless of the letter after their name.

Mitch McConnell provides no reason to support the GOP. He has no vision, no plan, no clue. He disgusts me, as does any elected official who supoports his brand of socialism. After all, why vote for fake demoicrats when there are so many of the real thing available?

H/T to Michelle Malkin, the Goddess of Conservative Blogging

Mitch McConnell gives us another head-banging-against-the-wall moment

By Michelle Malkin • January 4, 2009 06:16 PM

Take some Maalox before you read this headline from The Hill (via HA headlines):

“McConnell says GOP could back stimulus.”

The upshot, as I read it, is that the Republican Party is willing to entertain the Democrats’ massive stimulus so long as they get kabuki hearings and some nominal input into the package.

Here I was, gearing up this week for a united conservative front against the Obama boondoggle, and Mitch McConnell opens his mouth. Where’s my head-banging-against-the-wall graphic again? Oh, there it is:

Fellow conservative Twitter users, give Mitch McConnell your feedback here.

Posted in: GOP, Subprime crisis

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Idiots.
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Is he finally using his head? Bush may let Detroit go bust.

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I've had a word or two to say about what looked like the utter folly of Mr. Bush bailing out the United Auto Workers, the union equivalent of Iran as the GOP is the equivalent of Israel.

Bailing out the UAW makes absolutely no sense. Toyota sold 9.3 million cars and made $17 billion. As has been pointed out, last calender year, GM sold 9.3 million cars and lost $37 billion.

Bailing out such an organization makes no business sense at all.

Finally, apparently, Mr. Bush has figured it out: there is precisely no percentage; either business or political, in saving this particular political foe from committing fiscal suicide.

Bankruptcy would effectively break the UAW. And that would be best for the automobile makers specifically and the country as a whole.

Bush may let Detroit go bust
President weighs option of 'orderly' auto bankruptcy

By JENNIFER LOVENTHE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is looking at "orderly" bankruptcy as a possible way to deal with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry, the White House said Thursday as automakers readied more plant closings and a half-million new jobless claims underscored the deteriorating national economy.

With General Motors, Chrysler and the rest of Detroit anxiously awaiting a White House decision on billions of dollars in emergency federal loans, press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't simply a choice between government rescue and the disastrous collapse of a major industry.

"There's an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing," she said. "I think that's what we would be talking about."

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Michelle Malkin nails it: Road to GOP redemption: Roll back the bailouts, draw a line in the sand

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Why Republicans EVER supported this is beyond me. There is nothing "Republican" about a "bailout" by any stretch of the imagination.

To be a Republican is to SUPPOSED to include fiscal conservatism. It's SUPPOSED to include personal responsibility. How did caving to the left in the bailout issue reinforce either one of these Republican principles?

And then, we find out that the entire basis for the bailout, the so-called "purchase of troubled assets" was a lie, and we're not going to purchase those assets!

Well, I see "bailout as a strangely appropriate term here. And what's happened is that the leaders and pilots of our government from both sides of the aisle have bailed out of the "plane of state," leaving us without anyone to fly the plane... and leaving those of us who are passengers to sit and wait for it to crash.

This type of betrayal is why I've now become an independent. Why would anyone want to be a Republican when to be a Republican is to betray your core principles for political expediency?


Road to GOP redemption: Roll back the bailouts, draw a line in the sand
By Michelle Malkin • November 17, 2008 07:36 AM

While Republican strategists and Beltway blowhards convene VIP retreats and meetings and save-the-party parties, the road to GOP redemption starts right now. There is opportunity to be seized right now. There is a line in the sand to be drawn.

Right now.

The first step toward GOP redemption is to stop the automakers’ bailout and roll back the creeping conversion of the Crap Sandwich 2.0 into an all-purpose bailout bonanza for every last American industry and corporate special interest in financial peril. The second step is barbecue Naked Emperor Hank Paulson and the Federal Reserve over their refusal to disclose how they are dispensing billions of dollars in loans.

John McCain screwed this up. The out-of-touch Republican leadership in Washington screwed it up. And let’s be honest: Too many of the same tired old faces now trying to reclaim seats of power — like Newt Gingrich — crumbled on the massive banking bailout and capitulated to Reid/Pelosi/Paulson/Bush when steel spines were needed most.

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Like a broken clock, the Columbian occasionally gets it right: Bailout Bad Idea

I don't frequently agree with The Columbian editorials. But when they get it right, they get it right... and this time, they got it right:



In Our View Nov. 16: Bailout Bad Idea
Propping up dinosaurs is not a good tactic

Sunday, November 16 2:00 a.m.

This week, members of Congress are expected to consider a bailout of U.S. automakers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate will begin debate Monday on $25 billion in emergency loans and a test vote could be conducted on Wednesday. A bailout of U.S. automakers — at least as described so far in America’s murky economic crisis — would be a bad idea for at least five reasons:

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