Senator Bernie Sanders: Save America, not Wall Street

[LongTomH]

From the Guardian America front page: Sen. Bernie Sanders is putting forth his own 4-part plan to save the economy:

Let me be clear. If the economy is on the edge of collapse, we need to act. But rescuing the American economy does not mean we have to just give away $700bn of taxpayer money to the banks. Unlike the Bush administration, I believe any proposal must protect middle-income and working families from bearing the burden of this bail-out. We must not redistribute wealth upward, to the financial houses and banks and the wealthy investors who control them.

I have proposed to my colleagues in the US Senate a four-part plan to fund responsibly whatever bail-out is necessary.

The first part is a progressive and reasonable distribution of fiscal responsibility: a five-year, 10% surtax on the income of individuals above $500,000 a year, and $1m a year for couples; a requirement that the price the government pays for any mortgage assets are discounted appropriately so that government can recover the amount it paid for them; and, finally, a programme to enable the US government to receive equity in the companies it bails out so that when the stock of these companies rises after the bailout, taxpayers have the opportunity to share in the resulting windfall. Taken together, these measures will provide the best guarantee that at the end of five years, the government will have gotten back the money it puts into the bail-out.

More here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/26/wallstreet.bailout.us.congress

[Demeter]

1. Too Bad This Won't Make It Into US Papers

The media would spontaneously combust. Why, my local reactionary rag only admitted Obama existed when he won enough votes for the nomination back in the spring! I know that every time they have to put his picture on the front page, the publisher dies a little. It's very satisfying.