Think about it: Huge bailouts for Wall Street & the Banksters - then, quick, change the subject

[scarletwoman]

to health care "reform".

I'm thinking, wait a damn minute! Where is the discussion about reforming our financial system? What kinds of laws and regulations are being crafted to make sure that the scam artists of the financial sector don't get to play around again with the unregulated derivatives and credit default swaps and assorted other hoo-doo financial "products" that almost brought the entire global economic system to total collapse?

It's like our government just tossed shitloads of money into the hands of these totally irresponsible gambling addicts, and then just turned away and changed the subject. Look! Over here! We're gonna do health care now!

As I watch in dismay as this supposed "reform" morphs into little more than a new welfare project for Big Insurance and Big Pharma, I'm beginning to feel like we've been pwned big time.

I don't think it was time to change the subject at ALL. There's some major unfinished business with reforming the financial system, and now NO one's paying any attention to THAT. Move along, nothing to see here.

Health care -- yeah it would be nice, but obviously the deck is stacked (as always) in favor of profit over people. Maybe if we had been doing what really needed to be done in the first place -- confronting the money powers on Wall Street, and by extension, the whole friggin' capitalist rip-off that's been making the rich richer and the poor poorer, we might have ended up in a place where REAL health care reform could actually happen.

But no. The protection of the moneyed class comes first and foremost. Which is why it wasn't even remotely possible that we'd get single payer out of this stupid mess.

So, while we ponder which provision of which bill might end up as the final version -- knowing already that every care is being taken to protect the profits of the insurance industry, no matter what -- I wonder how different this debate might have looked had there been a serious effort put into cleaning up the financial system first.

How incredibly lucky for Wall Street that we're all consumed with the health care debate. No wonder the stock market is doing well, they got the all clear to just go ahead and carry on with whatever they want to do, no worries. Our political leaders got us all to look the other way.

We've been punked.

sw

[Laelth]

1. You nailed it.

It's throw a ton of public money at the banks and Wall Street and then throw a ton of public money at the insurance companies via the individual mandate and government subsidies.

It's really a continuation of the same plan.

I wish I were joking.

:dem:

-Laelth

[scarletwoman]

3. I think we're seeing the same thing: the protection of profits above all else.

It's clearly the overriding priority of the federal government, and we are seeing it manifest in both the protection of the Financial industry and the protection of the Insurance industry. It's all the same policy.

Thanks for posting!

[Kansas Wyatt]

5. And we have a Democratic House, Senate, & White House.

Okay, if the Democrats represent Corporate America, just like the Republicans, who represents the People again?

[scarletwoman]

6. That IS the question, isn't it. Who represents the People? (nt)

[ixion]

10. no one...

the government has made it very clear that they hold We, the People in utter contempt.

[Laelth]

7. That is becoming a very pertinent question.

I still believe the members of the Progressive Caucus do, fwiw.

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/

:dem:

-Laelth

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. There seems to be the idea that if the corporations fail, the entire country fails

Therefore, corporations are just a little bit more equal than everything and everyone else and get preferential treatment. When GM, AIG, and the banking system are threatened, Washington always seems to treat it as an exceptional situation, no matter how many times this repeats itself over the years, whereas when workers are losing their homes or losing their medical insurance it's business as usual. What this means it that the government exists above all to protect and maintain the corporate institutions, not the people.

[Hannah Bell]

22. just a little bit ?

gov't = executive committee of the ruling class.

[glitch]

2. I think you are absolutely correct. K & R nt

[scarletwoman]

4. Thank you, much appreciated. (nt)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. New boss meet the Real Bosses. K&R

No doubt the apologists will show up soon to tell us how it's all a big chess game without mentioning the pawns that are being sacrificed by the Master Chess Player.

And, then tell us that it's all for our own good and that someday, maybe, if the chess game goes right, and pigs fly, the goodies will trickle down to the people under the bus.

[scarletwoman]

9. What's currently trickling down has a real nasty smell...

Maybe one of these fine days there'll be enough of us under the bus to stand up all together and overturn it. :D

:hi:
sw

[Octafish]

11. Anybody for putting the screws to UBS?

Oops. We don't torture. People with money, that is.

[scarletwoman]

14. Hey, Octafish! Okay, no torture.

How about sticking dolls with pins?

[Octafish]

35. Phil Gramm's a doll.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LU0UAZ407Hs/SV1m4Z1u_zI/AAAAAAAACUg/UnVmMCoHlXk/s400/phil+gramm.png

The right people just LOVE him and his message of Swiss Bank accounts.

[scarletwoman]

36. I am reduced to hexes and curses, since voting obviously makes no difference.

It's a generational struggle. Hell, it's a millennial struggle -- when haven't there been cabals of the wealthy and powerful constantly designing new ways of ripping off the common people? Since the dawn of the city-state in history, this has been the norm for human "civilization".

I see no end in sight.

sw

[Swamp Rat]

12. k&r

[scarletwoman]

15. Swampy!

:hug: :loveya:

Thanks for the k&r!

[Swamp Rat]

17. scarletwoman!

Nice to see you. :hug:

[Telly Savalas]

13. The Treasury Department issued a white paper on financial system reform a couple months ago

or so.

It's well documented that these reforms and cap-and-trade are the two next major items on the Obama Administration's agenda after a health bill gets passed.

Nice boilerplate though.

[scarletwoman]

16. Well, if financial reform goes as well as health reform,

I have a feeling that the Wall Streeters won't exactly be shaking in their boots.

[ThomCat]

19. I've been saying for a while that Obama is giving us Trickle Down Economics

and I think the huge giveaway to Wall Street and the sudden lack of attention to followup Finance Reform is prime evidence of this. All our tax money, and trillions in debt, money we don't even have yet is is being given away to the super-wealthy and to the wealth managers, and the Obama administration somehow expect some of that wealth to trickle down through the economy to the rest of us. If that isn't trickle down economics, then what is?

[Trillo]

20. (disagree) Maybe it's just tinfoil

but I've been thinking, since studying H.R. 676, that the current health care reform is a focal attempt to save the "financial sector", a sector heavily invested in the "profit of health care".

[scarletwoman]

21. I don't think we disagree at all.

Protecting the for-profit health industry IS part of protecting the financial/investments sector. Very good point, thank you.

sw

[sendero]

23. Exactly..

...... the reform (of the financial regulatory framework) has largely stalled. This is a no-brainer, and should be done now, but it is being allowed to languish and eventually, like everything else Obama it seems, the results will be a watered-down industry-authored pile of ineffective bullshit.

At this point, I could not be more dissapointed. I expected Bush to be a fuckup and he did not dissapoint, I did not expect this train wreck from Obama.

If he doesn't pull off a public-option health care reform bill, he is officially useless.

[pampango]

24. Better that we ignored health care reform after the wall street bailout?

I could see some of us complaining about that, as well.

[scarletwoman]

26. It's about striking when the iron is hot.

When the magnitude of the shenanigans of the financial industry was first revealed -- that those yahoos had fucked things up so badly that the entire world economy was on the verge of collapse -- right THEN would have been a very good time to say, "This is bullshit and we're not going to allow anything like this to happen again."

And then follow it up immediately with demands for serious re-regulation, new rules, and cleaning out the stables. The People would have been all for it, remember the anger when the bailouts were coming down?

So, Obama could have tackled the sleazemeisters of Wall Street, cheered on by a pissed-off populace, and after suitably chastising Big Finance THEN moved on to health care with a major victory already under his belt. A proven hero for the common man!

[pampango]

28. I like your scenario and would have supported you 100% if you were president.

The financial industry meltdown was the perfect time to come down on the industry with prosecutions and effective regulation. That would have come with the risk (tolerable, but still there) of driving the economy further into the tank, at least temporarily.

Obama apparently felt that health care reform was something he believed in and had campaigned heavily on. I support him 100%. My belief is that he is also committed to financial market re-regulation, but either put a higher priority on HCR or didn't think that the depths of the meltdown was the best time to go after Wall Street in the interest of turning the economy around.

[scarletwoman]

32. Thank you. Of course, only in an alternate universe

would I be president. :7

As for the rest, all I'll say is we shall see. I'm much more cynical than you.

Thank you again for your gracious response.

sw

[Biker13]

25. K&R

[Echo In Light]

27. Oligarchy

[H2O Man]

29. "The machine

that we've been could never save us today -- that's what they say -- and anyway, you know good and well it's beyond the will of God, and the grace of the king ..." -- Jimi Hendrix

The machine can only produce that which it is geared to produce.

Nominated.

[scarletwoman]

31. Thank you, H2O Man,

It's always a honor to have your support. And I love the Jimi Hendrix quote. :)

I'm damn tired of the machine...

sw

[Cass]

30. You make an excellent point. It is disturbing that industry reform was not taken up immediately

after the bailouts. Without reform it was just a band-aid move and things will hit the fan again at some point. It is also very disturbing that little to no oversight and regulations were attached to the bailout money. That's just an insult to taxpayers.

I hope we get decent health care reform but I am wary. I saw polls this morning on MSNBC that showed the misinformation put out there by the opposition is working - percentages in the high 40s and low 50s of people who believe the lies and distortions put out by opponents of health care reform. Very disappointing to say the least.

[scarletwoman]

34. A line from "Princess Bride" comes to mind...

"Get used to disappointment."

sw

[DU GrovelBot]

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[scarletwoman]

37. A word to the lazy coward who just unrec'd this thread: take a stand and make your argument.

I'm not afraid to engage with people who disagree with me, too bad you don't have the stones to do the same.