Thursday, April 16, 2009

Republican outrage at the "bailout"

I think I see why the Republicans are outraged at Obama's bailout plans. They aren't outraged that the government's bailing out corporations. They're perfectly happy to have the government simply buy up and write off bad loans, for instance, leaving the banks and borrowers who dug the hole financially undamaged by it and the taxpayers holding the bag. And they'd be perfectly fine with the government letting those corporations go bankrupt, leaving their executives to walk away with their bonuses and payouts and leaving the taxpayers to pick up the tab for unemployment and welfare for all the employees put out of work by it.

No, what outrages the Republicans is that Obama has the temerity, the audacity to put conditions on the bailout. To say "We'll loan you the money to keep you in business, but you're expected to pay it back with market-rate interest just like any other loan.". To say "We'll help you out, but we won't let you use the money to give rewards and bonuses to the executives whose fuck-uppery got you into this mess.".

They're outraged because Obama is expecting business to man up, admit that they screwed up by the numbers and accept the consequences instead of playing Uncle Sugar and shovelling money at them no strings attached like they want.

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