It's business as usual in America

Newspapers across America yesterday published the latest news on the financial world. Citigroup, another financial corporation deemed “too big to fail” by the federal government, was promised $20 billion of our tax dollars while at the same time guaranteeing access to hundreds of billions of our tax dollars in the event of potential (some say probable) losses that Citigroup may suffer.

Wall Street’s response to this latest move on the part of the U.S. Government was one of absolute elation as the stock market leapt with joy some 400 points. President George W. Bush used the opportunity to indicate that there may be other “rescues” made.

And once again, that ambiguous expression, “Too big to fail” played in the American conscience. AIG and Citigroup, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac are now household words, synonymous with $700 billion bailout. And that isn’t even to mention the other financial and banking institutions that have been or will be helped.

At the same time, there is a rising discontent in the American conscience as to bailing out industrial and manufacturing institutions. The Big Three automakers, Ford-General Motors-Chrysler recently campaigned in Washington D.C. to try to secure some $25 billion or so, in addition to the $25 billion that they had already had promised by Congress in September to help them towards developing and manufacturing hybrid and alternative energy vehicles. Apparently, Congress is not interested, instead choosing to interrogate, grill, and skewer the Big Three executives—while financial giants were simply written a check.

It seems that financial conglomerates’ welfare far outweighs the needs of those who work in industrial and manufacturing areas of American capitalism. In simpler terms, Congress seems more interested in protecting the U.S. dollar than they are the people who earn those dollars (overpaid execs and CEOs notwithstanding).

There is a definite, even staggering duplicity here. On the one hand, when the Big Three came to Washington D.C. to secure assistance, they were harangued and demanded to show what changes they would make to show the investment would be worthwhile. At the same time, not a single AIG, Citigroup, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac executive underwent the same interrogation before funds were given. Yet nobody seems to be asking why that is. Further, when the money was given to the financial institutions, they were also guaranteed against any and all losses that would subsequently result in their corporations.

As if that is not enough insult to Americans who are struggling with home foreclosures, rising health insurance costs, rising costs of fuel, food, and overall living, today’s headlines have President-Elect Obama and the democrats already planning a $500 billion program that they plan to enact as soon as possible in 2009.

That brings both the current Wall Street bailout and the intended “stimulus” package to a whopping $1.2 trillion dollars.

What thinking Americans should be asking is where all of this money is coming from. We already know that it will be coming from taxes. The tax-paying American will be footing the bill for this “generosity.” What nobody is discussing, however, is that it will have to be taxes above and beyond what already must be paid in to the governments in order to keep the U.S. political machine running. Even with program cuts, we’re now talking over a trillion additional dollars in funding.

That does not even take into consideration the guarantees that the federal government has now put into place, should the financial giants have further losses of untold millions and billions of dollars.

It does not take into consideration the millions of jobs that will continue to be lost, or the fact that lost jobs means lost revenue for the government. It does not take into consideration the 10.1 million unemployed Americans who cannot find a job that will earn money that can be subsequently taxed by the government, a number by the way that includes only those who are entitled to unemployment benefits (typically, six weeks)—the actual number of unemployed Americans is far higher.

It doesn’t take into consideration the 2.2 million men and women who are confined to prison and thus are not in a position to hold jobs and have their income taxed—not to mention those living in jails, mental institutions, and similar residences.

It does not take into consideration the 3,500,000 (estimated) homeless Americans who don’t even have a place to live or food to eat, and are jobless as well.

It does not take info consideration the 50,000,000 Americans currently supported by the Social Security system, a program itself supported by taxpayers’ dollars and exempt from taxation.

And, last but not least, it does not take into consideration the 45,528,000 Americans who live at or below the so-called line of poverty (an income of $19,157 or less, annually) in the United States (according to studies, a family of four requires a minimum of $35,000 just to have their basic needs met!). That means that some 45,500,000 Americans can’t even meet their basic needs currently, much less have their minimal income taxed to pay for the plush lifestyles of the rich and famous on Wall Street.

Out of the remaining 107,600,000 Americans not mentioned above that do NOT earn or have access to $100,000 or more of annual income—who are facing foreclosures, dwindling savings and mounting expenses, decreased hours at work and increased insurance and health premiums, we are the expected source of revenue to fund these bailouts.

But if the financial institutions of Wall Street and America are considered “too big to fail”…  what about us?