Here's Your Blank Check

September 25, 2008

Just kidding. Only Wall Street gets to write itself a check – and a $700 billion one at that. Yep, that's $700,000,000,000 (11 zeroes!). That's what the Bush administration (i.e. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, himself a former Wall Street executive) is trying to ram down our throats. The Bush administration allowed Wall Street firms to act irresponsibly and do whatever they wanted. As a result, we now face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Now the administration wants to hand over $700 billion dollars. What? Wall Street firms got rich beyond belief in an era of deregulation and freewheeling greed. Now, average folks like you and me are being asked to foot the bill – and with no structural changes to the system that allowed for this to happen and with no oversight provisions. What's more, there's been no help to our states and local communities that are facing historic budget deficits. Where's our bailout? No bailout for Wall Street without help for Main Street! The massive state budget deficits that will mean severe cuts to services and infrastructure that will affect all of us. Congress must not allow the Bush administration to bail out Wall Street without bailing out Main Street and helping working families. Any bailout legislation passed by Congress must include some very basic, common sense principles:

• Aid to the States – An economic recovery and jobs package, including extended unemployment benefits, fiscal relief for state and local governments and a major investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
• Fairness – A moratorium on home foreclosures that gives homeowners a chance to stay in their homes by restructuring their loans;
• Protection – Strong public oversight and transparency at the agency created to oversee the bailout and ensure no purchase of assets at inflated prices.
• Accountability – An immediate strengthening of current financial regulations and a commitment to increase corporate accountability to protect the public’s money when it is given to private companies;
• Transparency – An independent public agency must administer the bailout plan;
• Restrictions on CEO Pay – No golden parachutes or rewards for the CEOs who caused this crisis.

To join AFSCME's effort to stop the no strings bailout, go to: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/blank_check