Bailouts R' Us

Many criticized the Big 3 automaker CEOs when they came to Congress asking for money, without a business plan for what they would do with it.

Great point. By the way, did anyone ask the financial institutions whose snouts are currently buried in the taxpayer-funded trough for a business plan before setting out that $750 billion slop bucket?

Remember a couple of weeks back when the government suddenly became aware of a problem, and they told us that $750 billion was needed to take "toxic assets" off the books of the investment banks, and it had to be done right away because taking the time to discuss it would .... what? Oh yeah, something unspeakable would happen.

So a couple of weeks later, Treasury Secretary Paulson has disbursed over $300 billion through purchase of stock, not in retiring "toxic assets." When asked to justify the difference between what he said he was going to do and what he actually did

He responded on Wednesday by saying that he would not apologize for "changing an approach or a strategy when the facts change."

What business do we have spending $750 billion of taxpayer money in an endeavor where the "facts" have a shorter shelf-life than pasteurized milk?

There is an interesting story in the Washington Post about how the government "regulators" defined banks, not taxpayers, as their customers, and their mission as to free their bank customers from regulation. As has been said before in the Bush administration, "mission accomplished." They said that no one could have foreseen this coming.

This guy saw it coming, and endured ridicule for years from those espousing the party line: