Why Congress Stole The Citizens Money And Gave It To Wall Street: They Were Bribed.

There is a group named the Center for Responsive Politics. They track money in politics. Bribes and kick-backs paid to our politicians. It's a good place to spend time if you're curious, a bad place to spend time if you don't have a strong stomach.

Remember last Fall when Hank Paulson, the Secretary of Goldman Sachs (formerly the Treasury Department) went to Congress with a ransom note from Wall Street that said: "Give Us All Your Money Or We'll Blow The Whole Place Up." And all the Senators and Representatives started scurrying around, giving dire warnings to the public that they had no choice.

But the public, we the people, the citizens, did not agree. And all across the land, in each of the states, Democrats and Republicans and Independents, Buddhists and Baptists and Jews, old and young, urban and rural, educated and not so much, the citizens of this country who might not agree on one other thing did agree on this. The citizens were outraged, and they called and wrote and e-mailed their Senators and Representatives and local newspapers with one unified message: NO BAILOUT. The public told Congress as clearly as it could be said that the Criminals on Wall Street, those who had looted our country, paid themselves hundreds of millions, bribed our politicians, set up off-shore accounts to hide their money, the coke heads, the whore-lovers, the thousand-dollar-shoe-wearing Wall Street Criminals, should not get one dime of our tax money.

And guess what happened next?

Congress gave them the money. Congress: Democrats and Republicans, Bush and Pelosi and Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer standing proudly in front of their wheelbarrows full of cash they were dragging over to their generous friends on Wall Street. Congress took money that belongs to the people of the U.S., the citizens, the taxpayers, the few dollars we send in to the government for taxes, and they gave all that money to the richest people in the country on Wall Street, the same group of people who pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Congress. The money that was supposed to be used to pay for schools, for police, for fire protection, it was all given to the Criminals on Wall Street.

The people had spoken. And Congress could care less. The people do not have a voice in a government in which every Senator takes bribes, and every Representatives hustles money from the rich and powerful every single day of their term.

Then of course, the Wall Street Boys grabbed the $350 Billion, said "Thanks a lot Suckers," and nothing more was heard. Not a whisper. Until finally someone asked, months later, "Whatever happened to that $350 Billion?" And Wall Street told the Federal Government of the United States that they would not tell them, it was nobody's business. And Congress said "OK."


What is the point of having the Marines and the Green Berets but letting a bunch of coked-up thieves in expensive suits take down the country with a whine and a bribe?

Then the public again roared. And suddenly Congress put on their "concerned" masks. Barney Frank said he would have hearings. Way to go: question them sternly. Too late Barney. Way too late.

Why didn't Congress attach conditions? Why didn't they ask what would be done with the money? Now Congress says "Well, we didn't think they'd pay themselves bonuses," and I say "Then you're all too stupid to be employed. Step down." I knew they'd steal the money.

I figured (1) the insiders would take a big chunk for themselves, (2) they'd pay kick-backs and bribes to Congress which, after all, stole the money from the public in the first place, so they should get a percentage, and (3) the rest of the money would probably be sent to India or China along with millions of American jobs. And it appears that's what happened. Our nation has been looted by the financial cartels, the Wall Street workers, with the willing assistance of Congress. Not a penny of that money was spent inside the U.S. Instead of helping our economy, they just accelerated the bankruptcy of our nation. What fools we are.

And now it has been confirmed: The biggiest recipients of the Bail Out Money were also the biggest donors to Congress: they paid bribes, Congress gave them our money. Public gets screwed again.

The companies that got the $350 Billion Bailout from Congress spent $144 million last year on lobbyists and on "contributions" to the politicians. Of course all the lobbyists do is promise money to politicians if the politicians will do something that the clients want, which in this case was give $350 Billion to Wall Street, no questions asked, no strings attached. That's why Congress disregarded the public's opposition: Congress was bribed.

161 companies approved for TARP money gave $37.5 million to federal candidates, parties and committees in the 2007-2008 election cycle, with 57 percent of that going to Democrats (post-election data is not yet available).

Some of the companies to give the most in contributions, including Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley, are also among the biggest donors of all time to U.S. politics. This also includes General Motors which spent $15 million between campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures and got $10.4 billion (more than all other companies), Bank of America (and the investment company it bought last year, Merrill Lynch), which spent $14.5 million to play politics and received $45 billion from the bailout bill; and American International Group (AIG), which spent $10.6 million and was paid out $40 billion. Citigroup was also one of the largest spenders to see a big result: between lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions, the company spent $12.5 million and got $50 billion.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/02/tarp-recipients-paid-out-114-m.html