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This Democratic Congress has proven its astounding ability to bend over for George W. Bush on just about everything.  Now, Bush has a gun to their heads, begging for a $700 billion check to Wall Street banks, to purchase mortgage securities, the value of which not a single human being can pinpoint.

Imagine if this crisis were just a Slavic Village crisis.  Have you driven through Slavic Village recently?  It’s like Kosovo after Milosevic got through with it.  Now imagine that National City Bank came to Cleveland City Council and said, ok, we have all these security derivatives based on mortgages from Slavic Village.  Mr. National City says we need you, the taxpayer, to buy them all for a sum never before known to man.  City council says, um…..have you seen Slavic Village, Mr. National City?  Mr. National City says give us the money anyway.

That’s what we’re going to get for our $700 billion.  We’re not going to get property, we are going to get near worthless commercial paper, in the form of leveraged mortgage derivatives, whose value is based on a neighborhood that looks like Slavic Village/Kosovo.  

It’s time for Ohio’s Democratic congressional delegation to grow some backbone, and tell Wall Street that if you want $700 billion from the taxpayer for your gigantic shitpile of nothing, we want A LOT in return. 

Robert Reich has a few great ideas.  

1.  The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk.

2.  Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year’s other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests?

3.  All Wall Street executives immediately cease making campaign contributions to any candidate for public office in this election cycle or next, all Wall Street PACs be closed, and Wall Street lobbyists curtail their activities unless specifically asked for information by policymakers.  Why should taxpayers finance Wall Street’s outsized political power – especially when that power is being exercised to get favorable terms from taxpayers?

This is the one I like the most, and would make non-negotiable.

4.   Wall Street firms agree to comply with new regulations over disclosure, capital requirements, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation. The regulations will emerge in ninety days from a bi-partisan working group, to be convened immediately. After all, inadequate regulation and lack of oversight got us into this mess.

And this one is absolutely necessary.

5.  Wall Street agrees to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should distressed homeowners lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones?

Wall Streeters may not like these conditions. Well, you should tell them that the public doesn’t like the idea of bailing out Wall Street. So if Wall Street doesn’t accept these conditions, it doesn’t get the blank check.

I have watched my Ohio Democratic congressional delegation preen, and pose, and chase cameras, and pretend to be progressives for a long time.  It’s time for Dennis Kucinich, Tim Ryan, Sherrod Brown, Marcy Kaptur, Zack Space, etc. etc. to get their lazy asses off their government provided couch and START LEGISLATING.  If you folks can’t do that, at this moment, then none of you deserve to be in public service.  And if you can’t make this Bush Bailout anything other than a free pass to a bunch of high finance criminals, then sit down, and SHUT THE FUCK UP.

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