the economic patriot act

[sophiaserpentia]

The bailout bill can be read in its entirety here.

Who would have believed that a bill authorizing the federal government to spend $700,000,000,000 could be read - not just glanced over, but read in less than five minutes? This bill is 3 pages long, and let's look at some of the bill's greatest hits.

The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

In other words, the Secretary of the Treasury is being authorized to spend this money however he likes, without having to waste precious time on the bidding process, or concern about making sure some of the contracts go to minority-owned business, or any of that other stuff.

Given the Bush Administration's track record, i expect this to be no more and no less than a big, huge, massive payout to cronies and friends. This has gotta be the biggest, most obvious act of kleptocracy in the history of humankind.

But, surely there will be some mechanism for accountability, some kind of oversight or court supervision? What are you, nuts? This is the Bush Administration. They've perfected the art of painting over all of the transparency in the federal government, blocking out all the sunshine, weaseling out of every kind of accountability we can muster.

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Heck, that was easy. This is a crisis, see? No time to worry about all that "accountability" and "oversight" which will just slow things down. Never mind that it was lack of oversight which caused the problem in the first place.

Ah! But the secretary has to report to Congress, you say.

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

*makes wanking hand motion* Schyeah, like this is going to result in anything like oversight. And that's assuming that the Secretary will bother to show up at all. Congressional subpoenas have been rendered worthless, since the Democrats refuse to enforce them.

The Democrats are making some noise about wanting to add a few oversight measures, reign in CEO compensation for any company that accepts help under this act, and so on. But here's the way i predict that will go. The Democrats will agree to have these proposals considered independently as amendments rather than as part of the bill. These amendments will all be 'filibustered' or voted down one way or another, and then Congress will pass this turkey, this economic Patriot Act.

Comments

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* See this entry for similar thoughts.

http://pecunium.livejournal.com/338109.html

It's a horribly written bill. People need to speak out about it.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link, good analysis there.

[contentlove.livejournal.com]

Yes. I am 100% in agreement with you here, this is exactly what I see. I could not believe it was fucking 3 pages long, with language that absolves everybody of everything. Unfuckingbelievable.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I was stunned when i first saw the language in this bill, how flagrant it is. But then again, i guess i shouldn't be.

By way of illustration, a short anecdote. Saturday morning, i turned around with a bag full of vegetables to see that my shopping cart - along with my purse - was gone. The service desk people made an announcement to ask everyone to check to make sure they had the right cart. A couple of moments later a woman came to the front of the store with my cart (and purse, which had everything still in it). She'd added a few of her own items, but somehow without noticing all the stuff in the cart that she hadn't picked out.

This is the kind of sleepwalking that seems to have overcome the United States. I'm also mindful of lady_babalon's description of her visit to family last month, and the solid wall that each of her relatives has that prevents them from facing anything that resembles critical thinking, even by accident.

And so the Bush Administration wants, and i think almost certainly will get, authorization to create a shadow government which will then buy up the mortgages of a significant number of households in the country.

[lassiter.livejournal.com]

The Democrats will agree to have these proposals considered independently as amendments rather than as part of the bill. These amendments will all be 'filibustered' or voted down one way or another, and then Congress will pass this turkey, this economic Patriot Act.

Exactly so - just like with Iraq war appropriations, telecom immunity, etc.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I should note that calling this "the economic Patriot Act" is kind of misleading, in one respect. The USAPATRIOT Act was at least specific in enumerating the powers that were being given to the federal government. This... is not just a "blank check," it is practically authorization to create a shadow government that will then own the mortgages on many of the houses that exist in the United States.

[sammhain.livejournal.com]

Which is why I've been telling people for years buying a house is not a solid investment because your ownership of it is tenuous at best.

[nebris.livejournal.com]

I linked these last two in my LJ as a Public Service, not that it's gonna do much good. ;P

~M~

There, I hear it, the other jackboot.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Yep. This, if it passes, I think, passes a lot of the bona fides for actual honest-to-Mussolini Facism.

[yud.livejournal.com]

I just read an analysis if it here: http://kanthoney.blogspot.com/2008/09/big-bad-bank-bailout.html

I'm glad that all problems can be solved by blindly flinging large wads of cash in their general directions.

A clear application of the Shock Doctrine

[merlot-winters.livejournal.com]

to unjustly enrich the people who screwed up this thing so badly.

i mean, why should we have to bail out organizations that intentionally kept these sketchy securities off the books and off shore to evade even a modicum of public scrutiny, just to come hat in hand to the american people?

This reminds me of that scene in "The Jerk" where an oil millionaire shows up to beg for new leather seats for his lear jet, and Steve Martin is so touched by his story that he writes him a check blotched by his own tears.

Let's save our money for publicly supported banking organizations to take over after all of these pillars of Ponzitude collapse into ruin.