Barack Obama: 'We want our money back.' And who gave it away to the banks, Mr President?

Telegraph Blogs (U.K.) ^ | January 15, 2010 | Gerald Warner

[Schnucki]

“We want our money back,” Barack Obama has told US banks, announcing a levy on large financial institutions to help repay the notorious bailout he imposed last year. Oh, do “we”? And who gave away the taxpayers’ money in the first place, Mr President?

This pretended identification with Joe on Main Street is a favourite ploy of dodgy politicos with their backs to the wall – Wall Street, in this case, which is imminently expected to announce bonuses beyond the dreams of avarice, hence Obama’s nervous anxiety to be seen to be “doing something”. If Obama wants to see the taxpayers’ money repaid, that will take some doing, since the Tarp bailout cost America $700bn.

The new tax on top banks is expected to raise $90bn – over 10 years. So that is around $9bn a year. But Wall Street is poised to dole out $47bn in bonuses this year alone. If this is assumed to be a lean year, at a very conservative estimate bank bonuses are going to total $500bn over the 10 years that the Obama tax painfully claws back just $90bn for Joe Public. No wonder a financial strategist in New York has already described it as “petty theft from bank balance sheets”.

That is not very nice language. Since the purpose of this cosmetic exercise is to save the face of a President with minimal physiognomy still showing through the egg splattered over his features from just about every policy he has touched, we need a more user-friendly terminology. How about “Small change you can believe in”?

[genetic homophobe]

Yes, but picking R or D is picking “up” or “down”, you’re only picking one side: LEFT. And pointing that out to MNJohnnie makes him call you an Obot LOL!

[mkjessup]

You’re from Minnesota. Why should anyone take you more seriously than we did Walter Mondale? LOL

Don’t ping me you fool.

[mkjessup]

Likewise, his idiot Harvard graduate son is a globalist big government progressive. Defend this W quote (as a conservative): "I readily concede I chucked aside my free market principles to save the free market".

Or how about this quote "There is no [conservative] movement, I redefined the Republican Party"

And FRiend?

Your post #79 is one of the best demolitions of the all-too-familiar BushBot claptrap that I've seen in a while. Kudos to you FRiend.

[mkjessup]

The public could have spent 2 hours on their PC’s in the summer of 08, and discovered that Obama was a communist from age 19, and that is close friends with 2 domestic terrorists....Dohrn and Ayers.

Awww c'mon now, Dohrn and Ayers are just a couple of misunderstood hippies from the 60's, peace, love, pass that joint, up the establishment maaaaan, stop the bombing (in Vietnam anyway), Spiro's not their hero, give peace a chance and Steal That Book like Abbie told us to, dig it?

Obama never explains anything. He is a bare-faced liar. In his mind, the Constitution doesn’t exist, or at best is merely an obstacle to circumvent.
Au contraire! The Constitution serves a very real and useful purpose in the 0bama Thug House each and every day:

[mkjessup]

"These banks are not your local Mom and Pop hardware store turning a profit after being bailed out. They made money from LOW interest rates controlled by the federal reserve by charging higher interest rates after being bailed out. This is anything BUT free markets."

THAT is the money quote right there FRiend.

"We are not saying we approve of Obama’s (these) actions, we are saying Bush paved the road for them, made them LOOK good. The taxpayers know someone has to pay. Bush was not the free Santa that claimed no one pays, he just made believe he was."

That sums it up right there.

[stephenjohnbanker]

You never let me down...LOL!!

[stephenjohnbanker]

“We are not saying we approve of Obama’s (these) actions, we are saying Bush paved the road for them, made them LOOK good. The taxpayers know someone has to pay. Bush was not the free Santa that claimed no one pays, he just made believe he was. “

B U M P

[stephenjohnbanker]

“And FRiend?

Your post #79 is one of the best demolitions of the all-too-familiar BushBot claptrap that I’ve seen in a while. Kudos to you FRiend. “

Gen, that was an exceptional piece of writing!!

[sickoflibs]

Here we got bailed out banks getting money at 0% using it to buy US treasury notes that pay 3% (ie by increasing the national debt ) with zero risk and we are supposed to be impressed that they are paying back bailouts ‘with interest’ while giving out bonuses for it. What a loser of an issue to defend.

So Obama fees the big banks? It's a very populist move by O that elected republicans are unlikely to oppose. Bush lost (sold out) this issue for Republicans in 2008. TARP set up an ‘implied’ guarantee by the US taxpayers for all big banks. There is no graceful exit, if any, from socialism with a move like TARP. The whole idea of TARP was to reward the losers at the expense of the winners, THAT IS SOCIALISM! But many here still defend TARP and Bush. Does conservatism STILL have to equal corporatism even with Bush gone???

To sell the ‘banks are victims in this’ theme, this silly article below makes it seem like Obama was the initiator of the TARP bailouts and was the one that forced the banks to take them. The real culprit GWB is not even mentioned at all because it is a R party vs D party article, with no principle (It says the fees are theft, right.) We can do better than this against Democrats, can't we ??? No one will buy this crap. OBAMA IS A BANK ROBBER(for charging big banks federal fees after forcing them to take bailouts)

[FromLori]

Remember BO said bailint out the banks was his greatest accomplishment and when you look into the BRIBES er I mean donations they gave him it is little wonder.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama_s-pick-for-man-of-the-year_-George-W_-Bush-8677553-79997637.html

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/21/baracks-wall-street-problem-is-now-americas/

Obama’s Big Sellout

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout

HEAVY HITTERS
Goldman Sachs

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000085

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Donates Serious Cash to Democrats

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/07/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-donat.html

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/07/president-obamas-favorite-banker.html

No way I would defend this DEN OF VIPORS and the worry about BO taxing the banks what a complete joke

Obama’s Grand Scheme “Tax YOU to Punish the Banks”

Let’s start with a point made by Jamie Dimon, CEO at JP Morgan Chase:

“Using tax policy to punish people is a bad idea...All businesses tend to pass their costs on to customers.”

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/01/14/2303/

See obama’s favorite banker TOLD YOU who would be paying the fee! YOU

[sickoflibs]

That one link you gave me was perfect, Bush was Obama's best friend. Those I like.

The bailouts were hurting BO in the polls, especially with his liberal base upset about the war and no public option and the focus on the stock markets. This fee is a populist move and politically smart. No one will feel sorry for the banks now. I think BO wanted credit for the stock market revival when he said the bailouts were good in your link. But it backfired so now he is pushing a more populist tax.

About the argument that ‘all taxes hurt something in the economy somewhere, and eventually hurt us in some way’, there is a similar Keynesian argument used by both parties when in power to argue that the bailouts, stimulus-es, general pork will in some way either save us or help us or invest in something for us. So what do we have? ‘Taxing bad, spending good’. Duhhh! That is the Bush doctrine!

We do pay for the bailouts anyway, fee or no fee. And we pay for the current big banks 'profits' based on low interest rates too: “ . It was summed up best here: It’s because too many politicians (and Bush and Obama supporters) believed that a free lunch was possible and a new economic paradigm had arrived. But we’ve heard that one before—like the philosopher’s stone that could turn lead into gold. Prosperity without work is a dream of the ages.” Ron Paul:The Austrians were Right