In an America that secretly doled out $16 trillion in no-interest loans to domestic and foreign banks following the financial crash three years ago, there’s no money to help Hurricane Irene victims.
That’s what we’re hearing today, as the result of the first-ever audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve makes the headlines alongside a report that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor plans to block Irene disaster relief unless the additional funds are offset by more spending cuts.
Click here for the Cantor story.
Once again, there’s a cornucopia of cash for the rich, and nothing for the rest of us.
Click here for Senator Bernie Sanders Guide to Corporate Freeloaders.
That’s the way it is these days.
We wouldn’t even know about the Fed’s largesse – which benefited such financial giants as Citigroup ($2.5 trillion), Morgan Stanley ($2 trillion), Merrill Lynch ($1.9 trillion) and Bank of America ($1.3 trillion), if it weren’t for Bernie Sanders. It was the Independent Vermont senator who added an amendment ordering the audit to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act – a major banking overhaul passed by President Barack Obama and the US Congress in 2010.
What would we do without good ol’ Bernie?
(Photo of the senator on the cover of his book, above)
The vast majority of politicians who are supposed to be protecting America’s national interest are either asleep at the wheel – or in on the scam.
Among the beneficiaries of the Fed’s secret bailout were a bunch of foreign banks, including Barclays of the United Kingdom, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (UK), Deutsche Bank (Germany), UBS (Switzerland), Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland), Bank of Scotland (UK), BNP Paribas (France), Dexia (Belgium), Dresdner Bank (Germany), and Societe General (France).
Critics are saying this might not even be legal. And there’s no word from the Fed on how they legally justified the emergency loans, nor how they decided to provide assistance to certain firms but not others.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Republican crusade for government spending cuts continues unabated. Right wingers like Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and others too numerous to list are clamoring for the dismantlement of Social Security, Medicare and the other institutions that protect the middle and working classes.
America can no longer afford such luxuries, they insist.
On the other side of the ledger, money pours out for “intelligence” and covert military operations supposedly required to fight terrorism. How much? That, too, is a secret.
I am at a loss to understand how anyone can call America a democracy today.
This is not government of the people, for the people and by the people. It’s government for the rich by their paid help.
