THIS
WONDERFUL, HUMOROUS FILMAKER ACTUALLY CAME UP WITH A BRILLIANT IDEA ON HOW TO
SAVE THE COUNTRY FROM THE BANKSTERS. THIS IDEA IS A PIP. HE POINTED OUT THAT WE
ALREADY OWN A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE INSTRUMENT IN AIG, AND WHEN WE BUY A FEW
BANKS, WE WILL OWN THE AGENCY FOR ALL THE MICROLENDING ANY OF US COULD EVER
NEED. WISH THERE WERE ONE LIKE HIM IN THE SENATE! BRAVO MICHAEL
MOORE!
Friends,
The richest
400 Americans—that’s right, just four hundred people— own MORE than the bottom 150 million
Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the
entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight
years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700
billion—the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the
“bailout.” Why don’t they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail
themselves out? They’d still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread
amongst themselves!
Of
course, they are not going to do that—at least not voluntarily.George W. Bush
was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that
money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do—spend it and
never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even
think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?
I
would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are
predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves
up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into
our heads one too many times: There...is... no... free... lunch. And thank you
for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts
from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a
“bailout” bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the
House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.
It is
clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing exactly
what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with a number of
people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known as “Mike’s
Rescue Plan.” It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are:
1. APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL
STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money is expended,
Congress must commit, by resolution, to criminally prosecute anyone who had
anything to do with the attempted sacking of our economy. This means that
anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped
bring about this collapse must go to jail. This Congress must call for a
Special Prosecutor who will vigorously go after everyone who created the mess,
and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in the future.
2. THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT. They may have to live in 5 houses
instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their
mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after
forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush
years, that working people and the middle class are going to fork over one dime
to underwrite the next yacht purchase.
If
they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy way
they can raise it:
a)
Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer
who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years.
(It’s the Senator Sanders plan. He’s like Colonel Sanders, only he’s out to fry
the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less income tax
than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300 billion.
b)
Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock
transaction. This will raise more than $200 billion in a year.
c)
Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo
receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will go the
treasury to help pay for the bailout.
d)
25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax.Federal
corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in
the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level of the 1950s,
that gives us an extra $500 billion.All of this combined should be enough to
end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions and their servants,
and our United States government (“COUNTRY FIRST!”) will have a little leftover
to repair some roads, bridges and schools.
3. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL
BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME. There are 1.3 million homes in
foreclosure right now.That is what is at the heart of this problem. So instead
of giving the money to the banks as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by
$100,000. Force the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay
on its current value. To insure that this help does no go to speculators and
those who have tried to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for
people’s primary residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing
mortgage, the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that
it can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the
mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150
billion, not $700 billion.
And
let’s set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are
not “bad risks.” They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we
all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own. But during the
Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs they had. Six million
fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health insurance. And every one of
them saw their real wages go down by $2,000. Those who dare to look down on
these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ashamed.
We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens
can afford to live in a home that they own.
4. IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A “BAILOUT,”
THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry,
that’s how it’s done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank
“owns” that house until I pay it all back— with interest. Same deal for Wall
Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you
a safe risk—and necessary for the good of the country—then you can get a loan,
but we will own you. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish
government did it and it worked.
5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to
the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations
that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton
signed it. Here’s what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain’s chief economic advisor, said
at the bill signing:
“In
the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed
that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of
free markets.
“We are
here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the
answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have
learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having
competition and freedom.
“I am
proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill.
I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have
been a part of making it a reality.”This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton
can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the
reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions.
And when they’re done with that, they can restore the regulations for the
airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other
entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any “bailout”
must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all
offenders.
6. IF IT’S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT’S TOO BIG TO EXIST.Allowing the creation of these
mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a
number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very
thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire
economy.No one or two companies should have this kind of power. The so-called
“economic Pearl Harbor” can’t happen when you have hundreds—thousands -- of
institutions where people have their money. When you have a dozen auto companies,
if one goes belly-up, we don’t face a national disaster.If you have three
separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can’t
call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore?
Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!).
Laws must be enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that
with one slingshot to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution
should be allowed to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you
can’t explain it in two sentences, you shouldn’t be taking anyone’s money.
7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE
EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF “PARACHUTE” OTHER THAN
THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their
employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made.
After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee
makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In
Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In
Japan, it’s only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high
life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an
outrage. We have created the mess we’re in by letting the people at the top
become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This has to stop. Not
only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but
any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should
be fired before the company receives any help.
8. STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY
PEOPLE’S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct yesterday to
propose expanding FDIC protection of people’s savings in their banks to
$250,000. But this same sort of government insurance must be given to our
nation’s pension funds. People should never have to worry about whether or not
the money they’ve put away for their old age will be there. This will mean
strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees’ funds—or
perhaps it means that the companies will have to turn over those funds and
their management to the government. People’s private retirement funds must also
be protected, but perhaps it’s time to consider not having one’s retirement
invested in the casino known as the stock market. Our government should have a
solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry
about ending up destitute.
9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET
FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off the TV! We are not in the
Second Great Depression. The sky is not falling. Pundits and politicians are
lying to us so fast and furious it’s hard not to be affected by all the fear
mongering. Even I, yesterday, wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the
news, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history.Well, that’s
true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in
1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the ‘80s, 3,000
banks closed, but America didn’t go out of business. These institutions have
always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because
the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest
in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.
As
crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan this
week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students
just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the
next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a single person has
lost any of their money if it’s in a bank or a treasury note or a CD. And the
most amazing thing is that the American public hasn’t bought the scare
campaign. The citizens didn’t blink, and instead told Congress to take that
bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn’t the population succumb to
the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can
only say ‘Saddam has da bomb’ so many times before the people realize you’re a
lying sack of shite. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply
can’t take it any longer.
10. CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A “PEOPLE’S BANK.”If we really are itching to print
up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don’t we
give it to ourselves? Now that we own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a
people’s bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people
who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the
cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And now that we own AIG,
the country’s largest insurance company, let’s take the next step and provide
health insurance for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money
in the long run. And we won’t be 12th on the life expectancy list.
We’ll be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension,
and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much
misery are let out of prison so that we can help reacclimate them to civilian
life—a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with help
from the People’s Bank.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
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