CHESSNOID

We don’t actually know how all the $325 billion worth of bail out money was spent.  However, we do know how some of it was spent.  Part of the money was spent on $1.2 million remodeling CEO John Thain’s office with a $35,000 TOILET and $87,000 on an area rug and other accessories.  Yes, taxpayer money financing.

NY Times:

John A. Thain, the former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, defended on Monday his decisions on several fronts as he made his exit from Bank of America. But Mr. Thain sounded a bit contrite about that $35,000 commode.

Mr. Thain offered to reimburse Bank of America, which bought Merrill on Jan. 1, for an expensive renovation of his office suite that included an $87,000 area rug and other high-priced items.

In a parting memo from Mr. Thain to Merrill employees, Mr. Thain said that the $1.2 million renovation (which he said was not just for his office, but also included two conference rooms and a reception area) was “incurred over a year ago in a very different environment.”

“Nonetheless,” he continued, “they were a mistake in the light of the world we live in today. I will therefore reimburse the company for all of the costs incurred.”

These previous bailouts with billions of dollars have had no real oversight. That is why AIG had the big half million dollar Orange County Ritz Carlton Party, that is why millions of dollars were paid out in bonuses to employees and executives of bankrupt companies with record losses, and now a million dollars was spent to remodel a CEO’s office including a $35,000 toilet. All the courtesy of us, the American taxpayer. Is this the reason why Paulson didn’t want any restrictions placed on this money?

Most Americans didn’t support the Wall Street Fraud Bailout for good reason.  We knew we were being lied to and that when it is that sum of money there is no way to watch every penny.  Just look at our bloated government and how much we spend on it just to keep it running.

The senators (including senators Obama and Biden- the new Potus and VPotus) approved the bailouts and promised transparency and oversight with all that money. They both failed as senators by approving that bailout and now they want to do even a bigger bailout with even more money, but have the same promises as before. This new Stimulus package will be a waste of money. It will not stimulate the economy.

Ron Paul shares my views and he has actually read the most recent updates on this stimulus package. He was against the previous bailouts.

Stimulus For Who?

by Ron Paul

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is déjà vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There are many red flags that I have found in this bill.

At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.

To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal “medical privacy” rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.

$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.

$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to “faith-and-community” based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.

Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobs”. $200 million to “encourage” electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can’t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for “research in potentially revolutionary technologies” in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.

This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.