Newt Gingrich on Bail Out: "A Very, Very Bad Idea"

This is theft-of-our-children's-future, disguised as a "bailout".

To my congressman and senators:
I DO NOT WANT THIS.

If Wall Street and the banks fail, how many million would be unemployed Gingrich?

gingrich was/is generally wrong on social issues, but economics is not one of his greater failings....

What I haven't heard anyone saying is where is the federal govt getting $700 billion dollar? We already have a 9 trillion dollar national debt. Are we borrowing money for this bail out? Who are we borrowing it from? 25% of our debt is held by foreign countries- especially Japan and China. Are we mortgaging our entire country to the Chinese?

This is a pivotal moment in history. The Republicans are turning the US into a European style nation with a socialist government and a centralized economy. That's right, the Republicans, the free-marketeers! They don't want to raise your taxes, but have no problem spending One Trillion Dollars of taxpayer money on investment banker bonuses. Gingrich knows if he doesn't speak up, it's the end of American conservatism as we know it.

I agree that a former CEO of Goldman Sachs who was/is part of the problem should not be given a blank check to fix what he in part helped to create.
There should also be a great deal of oversight - which in the current form that Paulson drafted, his decisions would be not-reviewable and non-reversable - sounds like another great plan of the GWB administration.
Plus as a taxpayer - I do not want one cent given to the CEO's who tanked the companies while the employee's get a pink slip. If this is truely such a dire emergency - then why are they giving us a knee-jerk reaction - this is a band-aid on the problem!
As far as people getting unemployed, this is just another great moment in history for the GOP and how they trashed America

well I guess it buys us time but regardless sooner or later we will end up in a depression. This will not safe us.
Job losses will continue to grow, more foreclosures, falling house prices and inflation rates will rise and because of a dollar weakening oil prices will rise. Investors will have no confidence in the market. Chinese will get rid of trillions of dollars and exchange against Euro which will lead to the collapse of the dollar. The most discouraging numbers are the huge state deficit and the deficit of average American people which cannot spend money but have to earn and pay back. No stimulus package will help. It is too late....
I hope I will be wrong but I doubt!

This sounds too much like the type of argument that pressured Congress into authorizing war with Iraq. "Quick, sign a bill with no oversight and no rules to give us $700 billion to bail out our rich buddies. You can't take a week to debate it in Congress or the economy will be ruined." COME ON CONGRESS. Yes, I agree bailouts may need to happen to prevent disaster, but you CANNOT give this president a blank check for 700 BILLION dollars, with no oversight board, no rules, no exceptions, no penalties for CEOs who engage in reckless behavior. I, for one, cannot afford to keep rich CEOs in their porsches and wool suits and private jets and Cayman Islands resort homes. I have 1 house, 1 car, I make 40,000/year. I can't afford to give my hard-earned money to Wall St fat cats who blow my yearly salary in a month to maintain their luxurious standards. NO WAY! Democrats fight this horrible idea. Hillary, you said you'd fight for the middle class! NOW's your chance!

yes, of course this is going to be borrowed money.
Never in my life did I think there was going to be a day I'd agree with Newt.

I think we should pay wall street and not worry about this. It's only a Trillion dollars. It's not like we don't have Trees/lumber. We can just print more money. What's all the fuss about? Just buy more HP stock they sell the ink cartridges.

Think about it, if someone is willing to lend us money then why shouldn't we spend it?

A drop in the bucket to save capitalism. It's definetly worth it. Let the good times roll.

Section 8 of the Paulson bailout plan reads:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

That means no judicial review...no oversight. Be afraid. Be, very, very, afraid.

At the very least, Congress should not be rushed into doing this $700 billion bailout. It should be very carefully examined. One of the basic principles of the free market is that those who fail should suffer the consequences. Every time you shift money from somewhere else in the short term you are only prolonging and deepening the eventual hit. This president has been very good at taking money from us but very poor at showing any positive results for our huge outlays. Why should we expect any different from this latest "emergency request" of $700 billion?

Section 8 of the Paulson bailout plan reads:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

No judicial review...no oversight. This happens and Bush and his cronies make off with $700 billion in taxpayer money.

Gingrich: "I think, they know that if they don’t rush it through, it has no hope because as the American people learn the details, they’re just going to scream at their House and Senate members."
Now's the time to get on the phone to your representatives and senators in D.C.

I think such steps to give money to people who shown their inability to manage money properly, will usher in a very corrupt country where CEO's have no fear of an consequence for the failure of their business and wait for tax payers to pay their bills. It will be state funded socialism and we wonder if the money will some how circulate back to the politician pocket. Remember this is not a bailout for the investor, but for the CEO who is the main cause of the failure of the company. When bank fail government helps the individual by insuring his assets are not lost, when insurance company fails government helps the policy holder seeing that covered losses are paid. Where is government not helping the individual investor in this case, but giving money to the same CEO's whose recklessness is the main cause of failure. Therefore this is a step towards corruption, a very big step.

Let the institutions go hell and give the taxpayers a $3,500-$4,500 incentive and let us save the economy and ourselves not their bonuses and their jobs.

This bail-out is the biggest knee jerk response that this "so called government" can do. This economic black hole didn't happen over night. Those financial houses that fell knew very well that they were dancing on the edge. How short sighted they and our leaders are to the very scenrio that occured in the 80's. Now I as a taxpayer am supposed to bail-out the vermin on Wall Street who could care less about America and line their pockets after corrupting the economy all the while explaining that it wasn't "their fault" that they gave loans by the truck load that would default.
To make matters worse we have presidential candidates who are in a ####### contest and neither one working on a solid recovery plan that they will have to deal with in a few months. If indeed one wanted to be President I would expect one to step above the mud slinging and give/formulate/discuss/generate a plan on how we can recover from this incredible mess that "suddenly" crept up on us.
Here's a novel idea! Let's get the hell out of Iraq. Let's help those poor souls on the Gulf coast, who for some reason have been ignored by all the news media. Let's reinvest our money on our shores. Let's cut our oil needs and curtail our "$" outflow to governments that would just like nothing more than cut our throats.
Lets get our house in order. Let's hold our elected representatives responsible to "us", and not big business. Let's watch them like hawks and call them when they run afoul.
Let's instill the old adage "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time". I don't care who you are or who you know, or what money you have. You are accountable for your own actions.

The Dems caused this mess. McCain tried to pass a bill in 2005 to put more regulation in place. Obama's advisor Raines was head of Fannie and gave big bucks to Obama's campaign when he was head of Fannie.

Obama and Biden caused this, because they wanted their big donors(Lehman, Freddie, Fannie, etc) to get big bonuses.