The Senate Corporate Bailout Package Is a 'Robbery in Progress

[Wiz]

The Senate Corporate Bailout Package Is a "Robbery in Progress"

"It's not a bailout for the coronavirus. It's a bailout for twelve years of corporate irresponsibility."



Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin leaves the offices of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) after
negotiations on a $2 trillion economic stimulus plan at the U.S. Capitol March 24, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

As details of the Senate's coronavirus stimulus plan slowly trickled in Wednesday, progressive critics characterized the sprawling legislative package as a brazen attempt by both political parties to use trillions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out and further enrich large corporations while tossing mere crumbs to the most vulnerable.

"This is a robbery in progress," wrote David Dayen, executive editor at The American Prospect. "And it's not a bailout for the coronavirus. It's a bailout for twelve years of corporate irresponsibility that made these companies so fragile that a few weeks of disruption would destroy them."

While progressives applauded some provisions in the massive package—including the significant expansion of unemployment benefits and protections for airline workers—Dayen said the stimulus package as a whole is an "outrageous betrayal" of the U.S. public and "a rubber-stamp on an unequal system that has brought terrible hardship to the majority of America."

"The people get a [one-time] $1,200 means-tested payment and a little wage insurance for four months," Dayen wrote. "Corporations get a transformative amount of play money to sustain their system and wipe out the competition."

A Senate vote on the stimulus plan is expected as early as Wednesday afternoon, even though the full legislative text has not yet been released to the public.


The bill would establish a $500 billion fund designed to bail out large corporations hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. Around $75 billion of the program, which would be controlled by the Trump Treasury Department, is earmarked for the airline industry.

But, Dayen wrote, the "enormity of this bailout is being under-reported."

"The other $425 [billion] helps capitalize a $4.25 trillion, with a T, leveraged lending facility at the Federal Reserve," Dayen said. "So it's not a $2 trillion bill, it's closer to $6 trillion, and $4.3 trillion of it comes in the form of a bazooka aimed at CEOs and shareholders, with almost no conditions attached."

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the stimulus package also includes a little-noticed $17 billion federal loan program that was inserted largely for the benefit of aerospace giant Boeing.

Dayen appeared on HillTV's "The Rising" Wednesday morning to discuss his thoughts on the Senate bill:

Read the full article here: The Senate Corporate Bailout Package Is a 'Robbery in Progress,'

         

Hope Cufflinks is till alive and will listen to this video.      

[andrewfi]

Cuffy will be happy to see that the dollar printing machine is now running faster than ever.

[AvHdB]

  I think Danchik summed up the reality of the stimulus package a week or so ago quite well.

I think the entire bill is insanity and could very well be the straw that breaks the camels back.

The below post was directed to Confederate and I have edited some parts out.

I'll say this, that stimulus bill they passed post haste is nothing more than a f^&king transfer of wealth to a very select few. Average Americans are getting it in the ass, I have no doubt about this.

4 months of unemployment benefits and $1200 worth of crumbs apparently are enough to pacify unsuspecting Americans into thinking their government gives a rats ass about them. They don't.

Your kids, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will be paying for this for years to come.

Putting America's economic future in the hands of criminals like Steven Mnuchin makes my blood boil.  . Yes, the same guy who foreclosed on 5.1 million Americans and bailed out the banks,

An 800-900 page document passes 96-0 in less time it takes to read the Cat in the Hat. GTFOH.

[LoyalMan]

Cuffy will be happy to see that the dollar printing machine is now running faster than ever.

Me too.

That is why I do not want to work as employee any more.  If we agree that printing money is legitimate, why do we have to work?

I begin to work as technology inventor.  Attracting money is more efficient than working 9-5.

[andrewfi]

Loyalman touches on a point.

OK, we know that printing money is far from consequence free, but if we follow the reasoning that has enabled the United States to subsidise business, particularly in the financial field by doing so, what's the reason for not simply giving every breathing US citizen a big bag of dollars?

It is hard for me to see a real difference between printing money to support businesses and doing so for the people who spend money in those businesses. It's actually easier to support the idea that it is better to give the money to the people who spend the money because it benefits them directly and through consumer spending (or investing) supports the businesses.