Michael Moore on the Bailout Bill - New England Patriots Forums

Wildo7 · 09-29-2008, 02:06 PM

He doesn't agree with copyright laws, so I think I'm safe posting the entire thing here.

Please save all of the usual right wing evasions about how fat he is, and how ugly he is blah blah blah, and just respond to his arguments or don't respond at all.

Quote:

The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

Real World · 09-29-2008, 02:22 PM

Bush and his cronies. I guess this is who he means by his cronies?

OpenSecrets | Update: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers - Capital Eye

***BelichickFan*** · 09-29-2008, 02:24 PM

Moore is a one trick pony. Why did I guess he'd blame this crisis on the lack of health insurance ?

Wildo7 · 09-29-2008, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

Moore is a one trick pony. Why did I guess he'd blame this crisis on the lack of health insurance ?

If that is the number one cause of bankruptcy then how is he wrong?

***BelichickFan*** · 09-29-2008, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildo7

If that is the number one cause of bankruptcy then how is he wrong?

I don't believe he is right. Just because Michael Moore says it doesn't make it true. If it were true why did it start happening when all the adjustable rates on mortgages started adjusting up ? Sure health costs are going up but they've been unaffordable for a long time. Do you actually believe the drivel he writes without thinking for yourself ?

Wildo7 · 09-29-2008, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

I don't believe he is right. Just because Michael Moore says it doesn't make it true. If it were true why did it start happening when all the adjustable rates on mortgages started adjusting up ? Sure health costs are going up but they've been unaffordable for a long time. Do you actually believe the drivel he writes without thinking for yourself ?

He doesn't get his facts wrong. In all of the countless efforts right wingers have made to smear him, they have still yet to get him on any actual incorrect facts. Yes, I think for myself, personally I don't know much about this situation, it's not my forte. I'm not sure if you can say it's because of healthcare, but I think his argument is that if we didn't have all of the bankruptcies that result from medical bills, this wouldn't have happened. People are defaulting on loans they couldn't afford because they couldn't pay their medical bills (in many cases).

Now we're in a position where 700 billion+ taxpayer dollars are being sent to rich people on wall street. With all of the anti-socialist rhetoric the right uses, this is the worst kind. If we have to spend 700 billion, what's better, using it on healthcare or using it on this? If right wingers hadn't been so opposed to universal healthcare then perhaps we wouldn't be spending the same amount of money on something this disgusting anyway. I think it's a very fair point for him to make especially when he's been so vocal on the issue.

***BelichickFan*** · 09-29-2008, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildo7

He doesn't get his facts wrong. In all of the countless efforts right wingers have made to smear him, they have still yet to get him on any actual incorrect facts. Yes, I think for myself, personally I don't know much about this situation, it's not my forte. I'm not sure if you can say it's because of healthcare, but I think his argument is that if we didn't have all of the bankruptcies that result from medical bills, this wouldn't have happened. People are defaulting on loans they couldn't afford because they couldn't pay their medical bills (in many cases).

That doesn't pass the sniff test for me.

We have never had national health care. We have always had a lot of uninsured - mostly non home owners because they didn't have a good paying job or didn't have a job at all. Suddenly all these people without homes are wrecking the economy by . . . losing the homes they don't have ? Riiiight.

***BelichickFan*** · 09-29-2008, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildo7

Now we're in a position where 700 billion+ taxpayer dollars are being sent to rich people on wall street.

You are usually more learned than this. The money wouldn't go to "rich people on wall street". It would go to keeping the banking system intact - including things like keeping ATMs full of money and allowing people and businesses to get loans. It would go towards, unfairly but whatever, people with loans that have adjusted up getting better fixed rates.

Wildo7 · 09-29-2008, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

That doesn't pass the sniff test for me.

We have never had national health care. We have always had a lot of uninsured - mostly non home owners because they didn't have a good paying job or didn't have a job at all. Suddenly all these people without homes are wrecking the economy by . . . losing the homes they don't have ? Riiiight.

Well I don't know what percent of people who go bakrupt due to medical bills are home owners. But if it's truly the number one cause of bankruptcy then to say that they don't represent a large number of homeowners doesn't pass the sniff test...

Real World · 09-29-2008, 02:46 PM

Moore's a moron. Of course, that news shouldn't surprise anybody.

Quote:

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

Fine, assuming his claim on bankrupcy & HC is accurate, what does that have to do with the price of banana's? The intelligent question to then ask is, what percentage of those who claimed bankrupcy, were even home owners? Of course, that doesn't even matter, since declaring bankrupcy protects your home!