“Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it.” — Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young
Not that I’m one for Biblical allusions, but if the “sweetened” bailout rescue bill isn’t the modern equivalent of 30 pieces of silver for Judas, I don’t know what is. We can only hope that the senators who voted for this bill follow Judas’s example and off themselves out of shame. The re-vote in the House is still not quite guaranteed to pass, but seems a lot more likely to now that the journey to the Dark Side is complete. My House rep is still saying he’s going to vote against it, but they really only needed to pick off those 12 Republicans, and it appears they’ve done just that.
Here in Massachusetts we get to see a lot of political advertising for New Hampshire campaigns due to the lack of media outlets in New Hampshire itself, and in the close race between Republican incumbent senator John Sununu and perennial Democratic challenger (and former governor) Jean Shaheen, the attack ads are coming fast and furious, mostly from the “527″ groups. One ad for Shaheen points out that Sununu has been a supporter of privatizing Social Security (right along with George W. Bush and John McCain, though the ad only mentions Bush). “Imagine what would have happened to Social Security in the last few weeks if Bush and Sununu had gotten their way…” the voice-over intones.
Well, maybe they just did. Writing at Dangerous Intersection, contributor Tim Hogan says he took the time to read carefully through the 450 pages of the “rescue plan” and he thinks that there’s a provision in the bill which will allow Hank Paulson to privatize Social Security by fiat:
In Section 118 of the House bill under “funding” the bill said “the Secretary [of Treasury] may use any authority granted under Section 31 of Title 31 of the US Code to fund the bailout.”
I “Googled” “Title 31, Section 31 of the US Code” and came up with how the government funds itself. But, included in that Title 31, Section 31 was a provision for the Secretary of the Treasury to issue obligations equal to the monthly payments needed under Title II of the Social Security Act.
So I “Googled” “Title II of the Social Security Act” and it seems those are the payments to the elderly recipients of such funds, among other things.
Secretary Paulson apparently could have deemed the monthly obligations payable under Title II of the Social Security Act to be those obligations which fund the bailout.
I haven’t seen anyone else raise this red flag yet, so I am not sure if he’s simply making an inference based on the loose way the relevant part of the U.S. Code reads, or if this is indeed a serious hidden gotcha. I would not put it past the Bushies to make a play like this, but I really can’t say with any confidence that he’s right; I surely hope to hell that he isn’t.
Of the 25 senators to vote against the “rescue plan” Wednesday night, one of them was Bernie Sanders, whom I have been lauding somewhat regularly and now get to do again. Prior to the vote, Sanders contributed this post to the Huffington Post, outlining exactly why this plan is a complete travesty of legislation and offering more details about his alternative plan that he is sending to Secretary Paulson along with the petition I mentioned the other day. Here is a video clip of Sanders speaking on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday night..
John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all voted YEA on this bill. So much for “Change you can believe in” and “The Original Maverick”.
Please, please, PLEASE keep the pressure on your own House representatives to vote NO when this revised bill comes up for a new vote.
The House just passed the bill, 263-171Enjoy your silver, you Judases.
Kucinich once again voted against, but John Tierney changed his vote to yes. I won’t be voting for him in November.