Sen McCaskill "A Bunch Of Idiots Up On Wall Street! Kicking Sand In The Faces Of Americans!
By CSPANJunkie Saturday Jan 31, 2009 7:00amJanuary 30, 2009 C-SPAN
Heather: I just wanted to add that Clair McCaskill is my Senator, and I had the chance to meet her once. She is as spunky in person as she is in this video. I am very glad to have her as my Senator as opposed to Jim Talent a.k.a. Bush rubber-stamper who decided that whatever the GOP and Bush did while he served his term in office was fine by him and hey... who needs Congressional oversight? What a silly thing to expect of someone. Even though I don't agree with everything Clair McCaskill has done while in office I think she's been a breath of fresh air for MO.
I applaud her for speaking up about these fat cats sucking off of the tax payers teet. The GOP always loooves welfare for corporations. For poor people...not so much. I agree with her that if you're going to take tax payers' money there should be some limits as to how you benefit from that.
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That "our president" Obama himself, ...voted for the bailout.
even more ironic?...more democrats voted for the banksters bailout than did republicans.
I like McCaskill and assume she cast a (nay) vote like all good elected reps should have.
Have you ever made a mistake?
...apparently I was wrong when I assumed that McCaskill voted against the bailout! ....she voted for the bailout! the irony never stops!!!!!!
Though, most now believe it was a mistake. Sometimes the best way too learn, is by making mistakes! thanks for your time and reply :-)
If the money was used for what they expected it to used for it there wouldn't be a problem. I'm sure Clair's vote wasn't for bonuses now was it.
that when we passed this we didn't think they were so stupid as to give themselves such bonuses while their companies were facing extinction. Her mistake was having too little faith in how greedy these SOBs really are.
So, rather than hide and refuse to admit any mistakes, she's saying "let's fix this." I say good on her for wanting to remedy the loopholes and gaps rather than just pretending all is as it should be.
She, like everybody else, trusted Paulson to make sure that these "idiot" do with the money what Paulson said they were going to do. Buy toxic paper and help people who were being foreclosed on. Paulson and the Bush administration failed the American people and just gave the money to them with no strings attached. When Paulon came to Congress and said this had to happen and happen now and scared everybody into acting he lies. Just like every other Bush Republican. They lies to us at every turn for EIGHT years!!
Unless Congress and/or the shareholders of these companies take the bonuses away retroactively, I fail to see how these executives were stupid or idiotic.
They're greedy, selfish and arrogant, but as long as they get to keep the $$$ and perks, it's a stretch to call them stupid. No, I'd say the stupid ones are the members of Congress who voted for the Bush Administration-designed bailout, despite overwhelming objection by their constituents & ample evidence to demonstrate the greed and incompetence of Bush & his employees & appointees.
Let me repeat that: in 2008(!) Congress approved an economic package designed by the Bush Administration. This, despite Bush's failure to prevent September 11, repetition of Soviet mistakes in Afghanistan, illegally attacking a sovereign nation & utterly destroying Iraq, & passively allowing the destruction of New Orleans and wide swaths of Louisiana & neighboring states. Oh, and let's not forget Enron, Tyco, Terry Schiavo, Valerie Plame, the federal prosecutor firings, and on and on and on.
No, I don't think that these Wall Street execs. are the stupid ones.
Dems/ Thugs... no difference.
Money rules and the sooner those that think there really is a difference need to snap out of it.
With the way things work, history will be revised by the revisionist politicians now in office and the lapdog media.
Great job!!
I loved Sen. McCaskill's speech. I just wanted to cheer (but I have to be quiet because I'm in the library). Does she have a sister or cousin up here in Canada? I wouldn't mind seeing someone like the her in our Parliament.
She voted to amend FISA
She voted for the wall st. bail out
She is a rank and file old school Dem, good compared to Jim Talent for sure, but a progressive...hardly.
And why are the Wall St. guys idiots? We gave them billions with no over sight to clear up a mess THEY made and you expect them to then be good little boys and girls...ha!
she lambasted the Dems for their pathetic stimulus crap. STD's? Condoms? $25 a week for the unemployed? Oh ya, feel the stimulation.
Once the bill is passed, shovel ready means you will be able to get tested for STD's, get a free condom, spend the $25 on beer, and go on a screwin' spree! Whoopie!!
Good for her. Where was DiFi or Boxer or Feingold on Wall Street CEO greed and compensation? Crickets.
A bunch of "idiots" Sen. McCaskill?
so what does that make you then you dumb twit? You voted for the packages that they wanted? You gave them carte blance to steal from the US treasury and taxpayer.
No, Senator. It is you, and your colleagues, who are the fucking idiots.
".....carte blance to steal from the US treasury and taxpayer." Don't worry, the fuckins just started. Bend over and grab your ankeles cause you ain't seen nothin yet bubba....
There is no way what is happening in Brazil, France, England, Greece, Spain, etc, etc, will ever happen in North America.
If anyone believes that one, I own a $6 million dollar house I'd like to sell.
Two trillion in credit derivatives in 1989 jumped to 8 trillion in 1994 and skyrocketed to 100 trillion in 2002. Last year the Bank for International Settlements, a consortium of the world's central banks based in Basel(the Fed chair, Bernanke, sits on the board) reported the gross value of these commitments at 596 trillion. Some are due, and some will mature soon. .... James Lieber, "What Cooked the World's Economy?"
What's neat is that she didn't coordinate her move with other Democrats or the White House, just acted quickly when the information was made public. Now, let's see if Congress has any backbone, or is just unwilling to offend the big money boys.
For the unrepentant free-market types, (I'm lookin at you, repubs, Ron Paul, and all you asinine Ayn Rand-ers (ooh I read a big book that justifies me being an asshole!)) the question is: Why are people who FAILED being rewarded?
they did not fail. if your "reason for being" is to make money at any cost then the wall street execs are doing fine. their cash flow hasn't let up yet.
If your company needs to be bailed out by the government in order to keep from going out of business then your executives have failed in the free market.
you assume a "free market" there are no free markets.
government subsidizes many industries, especially the defense
industry. wall street made money, lost some money, and is
making money again. they lost investor money not their
money. the bonus checks are still flowing and will continue
to flow. the chaos and suffering of american working people
is source of income and political capital for the overclass.
This collapse is planned by the overclass to defund the Obama
administration, to keep it from doing good by making it spend all it's
money fixing the mess from before.
I'm arguing against those who believe in the free market. My point is that it does not work for the good of the people.
unless I am misunderstanding your use of the word "rewarded"
...for the life of me, I can't figure out why you were asking (free marketers) "why the people who failed are being rewarded"?
...because there are absolutely no ("real")free marketers who would have ever even thought about bailing out and rewarding "the people who failed"
You act as if all libertarians voted for the bailout or something...what gives? ...the majority of democrats are the ones who are giving money to the banks...not libertarians!!!!
Paulson gave the money to the banks not the Democrats. If I am reading this correctly if the Dems and Obama give them more money there will be oversight. Unlike Goldman Sachs CEO/Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson.
I am quite aware that Congress gave authority to Paulson to do whatever the hell he wanted to... with 850 Billion dollars!
And I certainly hope that you are "reading this correctly" and any more free money for the banks comes with a little accountability...
I hope so too (That any more money comes with accountability. After they took the huge bonuses I think it woke up Obama and Congress. Even the Republicans are outraged.).
Paulson was given $350 bill out of $750 bill.
I thought they gave Paulson 700? Now we're looking at presumably 850? I must have read it wrong, I'm not sure? thanks
Amended: Oh, if the Captain is right, maybe it was 750? I thought they split it 350 a pop?
Tim Geithner will be a better steward of the US taxpayers money? Ever read his bio??
concern "Amitola", just gotta watch'em the best we can... :-/
Amended: At least he is someone in the know. Who may be the best person too diffuse a bomb? :-)
To people who think what is best for society is an unregulated free-market, I'm asking why executives who've failed in their jobs in as much as their companies are going out of business unless they get bailed out by the government, are getting bonuses.
Harry they are all hypocrites. They can say anything they want and they do say it. It boggles the mind that they are still saying "free market this and free market that" but are all lined up outside the treasury with their hands out. It boggles the mind.
just because they belong to CATO, doesn't make them libertarians or free market advocates.
is this "overclass" crap?
He's a militant intellectual. A week or so ago we were talking about Helen Thomas (When Bush dissed her for the final presser) and he thought we were talking about Helen Hunt (of Mad About You.)
chuckle.
Keep talking Filthy. I get the names of mainstream media tools mixed up and I am a militant?
Filthy: # disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter; "as filthy as a pigsty"; "a foul pond"; "a nasty pigsty of a room"
# dirty: vile; despicable; "a dirty (or lousy) trick"; "a filthy traitor"
# cruddy: characterized by obscenity; "had a filthy mouth"; "foul language"; "smutty jokes"
That is the word you used to describe your self.
{OK, I'm going to warn the both of you before this turns out to be a full on flame war. Knock It Off! SiteMonitor}
You've never got someones name wrong? Your smarter than that, why paint such a picture? I look forward to your intelligent remarks to maybe learn something. I didn't care too learn that one. Onwards...
The Overclass: it is the 1% of the population that owns 80% of the wealth. The avowed enemies of working men and women all over this planet.
I would assume it's kinda like, elite, overlords or something along those lines?
We don't have a Free Market - In any form. See the Federal Reserve as manipulating interest rates, manipulating money supply (when they don't hide the numbers) and so many other measures.
You use the term as the Government and the Fascist-Capitalists/Imperialists use it, as a SLOGAN. They use it to dupe the masses into think we have a free-market capitalist system. With the military industrial complex paired with the Federal Reserve, we have more of a planned economy, than a free market.
It so far - FAR - away from a free market.
Your right it is idiotic to give a bunch of greedy ass CEO's billions of dollars with no over sight. Same scare tactic was used after 9/11.
Well, I hope the rest of the "lock-step" democrats are just as mad as she is. This bill will pass and we should get our money back within 2 years, I am willing to bet.
Great idea, another example of massive ball growth, woot. ONLY TEMPORARY!!!!! Till the tax payer money is returned, that will get em moving. Seriously screw them CEO's.
This is what the $700 billion dollar bailout was all about. Longtime supporters of Bush/Cheney and family members who work on Wall Street. Equally culpable are Nanny "impeachment is off the table" Pelosi and Barney "I start my mornings with vodka" Frank, who pushed this insane bill down our throats.
is that Paulson changed the rules on the TARP.. and that there was supposed to be oversight built in... BUT BUSH AND PAULSON forgot to implement it... So don't be blaming Claire.. she is my Senator also. She was an auditor and a prosecutor.
Yes, she voted for the TARP but so did lots of others, but it was totally misrepresented to them at the time, by Bush & CO... so lets put blame where blame needs to be put.
Will it be effective oversight, by someone qualified to audit?
Actually that's teat.
http://www2.grist.org/images/comments/food/20...
is that if you blindly support something, regardless what initial is beside your name, you get burned. Big time. It's surprising to hear a politician like McCaskill lambasting BOTH parties. A lightbulb seems to have went on in her head. This is probably the bipartisanship Obama was talking about. She questions her own parties idiocy. I'd say that is rare.
I noticed you said, "It's surprising to hear a politician like McCaskill lambasting BOTH parties" and then you ended with "She questions her own parties idiocy". Could you explain the conflicting remark when you get a chance? Thanks for your time...
Amended: Are you conceding the other parties so-called "idiocy"?
I don't know how old she is, but she might be able to ride her CEO legislation to the presidency in 2016.
She's too kind to the banksters and her insults let them off he hook...they're not idiots, ignorant of what they were doing, they're simply rank thieves. They knew exactly what they were doing and they knew they could get away with it. They are as much bank robbers as were Bonnie and Clyde, and they've stolen more money and done more harm than an army of Bonnies and Clydes. However, while Bonnie and Clyde and their ilk end up dead or in jail, the banksters enjoy respectable lives of comfort and ease, luxuriating in more money at their disposal than you or I will ever see. It's reported than Benard Madoff is "chafing" at home arrest in his extravagant penthouse apartment. He ought to consider himself lucky he is not being held--yet--in a federal penitentiary, where he belongs. These swine consider the public to be chattel, to be used and fleeced of our money, then ignored and scorned.
As a work colleague of mine asks, why should we send muggers and common stick up artists to jail when the banksters get away with their breathtakingly more grievous acts of grand larceny?
just like they knew what they were doing when they helped to destroy the economy
free market capitalism without rules and oversight brings out the worst in many
and it allows for the old adage
"whats mine is mine, and whats yours is mine"
..that he got caught and has to sit home while all his thieving friend are havin' fun over in Davos!
You voted to give 700 billion dollars to some of the greediest people on the planet without much oversight on how that money is spent.
You are the idiot Sen. McCaskill.
obama needs to get on top of this real quick. taxpayers are not going to tolerate this nonsense. i'll stop pay taxes if they are going to line the pockets of wall street thieves. if these losers want bailout money, then by god, they will have their salaries limited. i know i could live on 400k a year! and i'm not even fucking up the economy.
Who passed a bill that gave the financial institution our money to do as they d... well please without any oversight and control.
Paulson gave them a bill of 4 pages to steal the money with no oversight and they turn the bill into money then 400 pages with no oversight..
Do them think we are stupid to believe they did anything to control the thief of our money..Or are they really that d... stupid..
If our elected representatives are that stupid , then we need for them to resign and let us elect others to take their place..
They bitch about Kennedy not having the experience to run receive the position of Senator of N.Y.. Well with her background of concern for the people of this country , I would vote for her over the representation we now have.
That is the problem now we are placing republicans in office now and calling them democrats..
Taking company monies and giving to yourself and your cohorts when you don't deserve it is not a bonus, it's embezzlement. They're not idiots there criminals that need to be rewarded with a 20 year retreat at the Grey-bar Hotel. Congress needs to stop calling them names and prosecute them for stealing Government funds.
Glad she is waking up a little bit seriously, no one thought the executives would do this? What is she talking about?! The news and posting boards we're abuzz with running bets that is exactly what would happen!
Republicans are for the wealthy- remember that!
Rudy Guliani came out insisting that the CEOs need those bonuses, as that will somehow help the economy- Of course when Guliani says somthing idiotic, he hides behind 9/11 so people won't dare touch him..
I'm glad Sen McCaskill didn't pull any punches when talking about these bonuses...
Far be it from me to reward greedy bastards, but remember that Paulson forced banks (like Wells Fargo, for example) to take TARP money even if they didn't need or want it so that consumers would not know which banks were badly managed and which weren't. The reasoning was that it would prevent runs on the bad banks which would make the crisis worse. With the furor over the greedy bastards who ran their banks/companies into the ground getting undeserved bonuses, the impulse is to punish all. That's not fair to the well-managed banks' employees.
appropriate too call him [Mr. PPT], not unlike the [original PPT®].
PS. That first "P" stands for Paulson, regarding the second acronym, the first "P" stands for "Plunge"!
She is so indignant as she voted for this "bailout". This is one of the greatest crimes in US history conducted in broad daylight. Of course, she doesn't name ONE PERSON on wall street who pocketed these funds. This country will never recover from this unless those in Congress and on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve are jailed and stripped of the funds the TAXPAYERS provided without a public VOTE.
For the rest of my life, I wouldn't put a dime into Wall Street or any bank in this country. FUCK YOU!
The Bush administration was crying wolf. A three-year-old, literally, knows how that story ends.
We seriously couldn't wait a couple of months to get a solution not authored by a miserable failure? We'd really have been in a depression in a couple months? I don't think so.
Senate Democrats Discuss Woes Of Bush-McCain Economics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4u3rWNLYmA
There once was a time, when I thought I was wrong. Though I was mistaken... :-)
Where's the TV ads screaming about this greedy Reslug crime.
were prepared for the gall, ignorance, and sheer greed of these animals on Wall Street. Their flag is money, not the American flag. The flag draped over the Wall Street building is an insult. At every chance they get, they sell out american taxpayers, avoid paying taxes, and pretend they're masters of the universe. Let em burn.
...so I guess giving themselves bonuses was one way of starting the "trickle down" to the rest of us peons?
"...from this day forward.." is too good for these creeps. Make the bill retroactive. Send the MFs to the pokey for embezzlement.
The reason the Republicans supported Bush's bail out was because they knew the majority of it would come back into their coffers!
Most of the big banks are financial supporters of the Republican Party and many of the CEOs and Executives are republican party members and good friends with Bush, McCain etc.
The Obama stimulus package - which they will completely reject - is planned to help the workers, the poor to middle class, the people who have lost their jobs, their homes and their entire savings because of these few greedy capitalist pigs on Wall Street.
Helping the most needy is a SOCIALIST ideal - and therefore it's also COMMUNIST according to the Republicans. Same reasoning why the republicans and conservative Dems keep rejecting proposals to provide affordable health care for ALL Americans!
And of course some Republicans will reject Obama's stimulus package because of his skin colour, his alleged muslim religious background, the fact the whole world prefers him to their douchebag predecessor and just to play mindgames with the new Pres.
Obama should scrap the rest of Bush's bail out (I think there is about 400B of the 700B remaining) that hasn't been p1ssed away on bonuses and corporate jets - and use that as part of his stimulus package.
If the big banks squeal that they will collapse causing more mayhem - Obama should tell the execs to give up their billions in bonuses and use it for what it was originally intended - to HELP their business!!! Not help their greedy backsides!
What is happening in the US right now should make many many Americans VERY VERY VERY ANGRY!
And if I was a regular joe, blue collar worker, hockey mum who is doing it tough because of the mess made by Bush and his Republican henchmen - I would be contacting my local Republican rep and demand that they vote in favour of the Obama plan NOW!!!
And if I was dumb enough to vote for Bush twice and then McCain/Palin last year - I would pray to god to forgive me before the repo man comes around to pick up the car, the house and my rifle set!
Maybe they would get the message if we set up a guillotine in Battery Park.
Don’t try to write an absolutely perfect plan because you can’t.
You have to focus forward and use the past as an example of what does or does not work.
OK, you made a mistake. OK, the lesson we should learn from it is don't do that again. Now let's fix it…………
Let's have some dialogue, now. ... pluses and minuses; what we have done well; where we have failed; what we can learn.
Let’s keep going.
They are kicking out butt, we need to watch. It's a frenemy thing.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/26/...
They just capped exec pay in the financial sector. And yeah, some of their existing pay scales did look like ours. Execs making millions. If the government owns a part of it .. no more.
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