Even Republicans See the Truth

"It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone,'' the Oklahoma Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe told the Tulsa World.

Here is a Republican Senator that doesn't even understand what has happened, duped by a President and Treasury Secretary from his own party. The Administration went to Congress with a one page bill that authorized the Secretary of Treasury to hand out $700 Billion at his discretion without spelling out what the money would be used for. The Congress haggled for a couple of days, then had a closed door meeting with the Federal Reserve Chairman and the Treasury Secretary and told the American Public that the money was indeed needed to shore up the credit markets otherwise the United States Financial System would collapse. The Congress acquiesced after the private meeting and passed a $700 Billion Bailout package to be issued in increments. They immediately released $350 Billion to the Treasury Secretary.

Now, when Senators like U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe ask who received the money they are told in public that the money was released to banks that had liquidity problems but to name them in public would be detrimental. So, where does America stand after half of the $700 Billion was handed out? The Financial Corporations are still collapsing and they are dragging down the rest of American Industry such as the Automotive Industry which was a mainstay of the American industrial landscape.

That is not the worst of it, small businesses are going Bankrupt at a record rate and most will close their doors in a matter of months without a record Christmas season, which at this point seems highly unlikely. So where has the Republican Bush Administration left the American People? On the verge of the largest financial depression that this Nation has ever seen. Although they insist on blaming the sub prime mortgage market, this is hardly the case. The real culprits were the unregulated trading of derivative securities that and phony ledger sheets that enabled Financial Corporations to reap record profits and hand out record salaries and bonuses to their Executives over the course of the last eight years. Now that their house of cards have collapsed, the American Family will be cast into utter poverty by the failed policies of the Republicans.