Is the government giving welfare to millionaires?

[??????????]

I'm still pissed over Fannie and Freddie since I would love to see those abominations go belly up and be gone as they should be.

Funny that you'd say that, especially considering those are government entities that wouldn't have existed without your liberal heroes (LBJ & Carter) as president. Also funny considering the government forced them to give loans to risky folks because they didn't want these groups to be seen as "racist" or against "disadvantaged" folks.

The de-regulation that caused this mess was pushed through by Republicans. No one forced the banks to give risky loans.

Untrue. Under the Carter administration rules were put into place which forced Fannie/Freddie to give loans to "disadvantaged" and high risk people. The companies warned that such actions would eventually backfire. It was a delayed reaction but it certainly did backfire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

[CARLHAYDEN]

Update:

Its not just American millionaires that the feds want to bail out.

From Politico:

"foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department's@ bailout.

[War on Want]

In a way yes, and I hate that the bailouts are necessary but it isn't like we have much of a choice.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's true with out Fannie and Freddie, no one in the middle class would be able to buy homes.

And that's exactly what I want. No more suburbs.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I don't think I can trust a Republican president to head this "bail out".  He will just make sure that the millionaires who made the stupid decisions are the ones that will benefit most from this.  I have a feeling those losing their homes and their retirement savings will be left empty handed while those at the top make out like bandits.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The democrats have called for protections for taxpayers and caps on the income of the execs at the top of these failed companies.  Paulsen has resisted this.

This excerpt from the Star Tribune really got me thinking

Paulson and President Bush have argued that the alternative would be credit markets that remain frozen, meaning that businesses will fail because they can't get the loans they need to operate and the economy will grind to a halt because consumers, who account for two-thirds of economic activity, won't be able to get the credit they need to keep spending.

[Torie]

Putting aside blatantly corrupt private bills (you know the ones that give dough to a "class" of recipients that is so narrowly defined, that voila, only one or two companies fit within it, such as for example allowing a longer tax loss carryforward period which actually happened in the context of the company making large campaign contributions), government has been giving subsidies to millionaires directly or indirectly since rocks cooled: ethanol, sugar subsidies and import restrictions, near rent free range land for cattlemen, export subsidies, tariffs, etc. Politicians are for sale. Who knew?