McCain Sucks, Palin Sucks = No Bush left behind

Reprint from CLEAN MONEY, CLEAN ELECTIONS:

The New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell sends shivers down the spines of all Americans as we consider the fate of the nation’s largest banks and brokerages. Years of easy credit, sub-prime lending, and market deregulation have led us to what may be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. What is Congress doing? Debating a taxpayer-financed bailout for the people who got us into this mess. You can be sure that they are remembering the well over $5 billion the finance, insurance, and real estate firms have poured into campaign contributions and lobbying since 1990. What can we do?

Tell Congress in no uncertain terms: no blank checks for Wall Street donors. The American people can’t afford a special interest bailout.

Where’s the bailout for people who were taken advantage of by predatory lenders and have now lost their homes? How about a law that caps the sky-high interest rates banks can charge on your credit card? Can we limit the “golden parachute” for the execs who walk away from the bankrupt bank? Sorry, no. The average American failed to write big checks to candidates for office, or attend those lavish fundraisers to bump elbows with members of Congress.

Congress is bailing out their friends on Wall Street and sticking us with the bill. Tell them enough is enough: no blank check bailout for their biggest donors.

If a bailout needs to happen, then make it come with strict provisions for regulation and oversight, and consequences for those executives and investors who fiddled while our financial security burned. Most importantly, include benefits for ordinary taxpayers in the bargain — like full public financing of elections.

It’s almost sickening that Congress has accepted $2 billion from Wall Street bigwigs and other wealthy special interests to finance their campaigns. Let’s give our elected officials a choice: they can either continue to accept big money from Wall Street bigwigs and big money special interests or qualify for a grant by showing broad based community support. We can do this by passing the Fair Elections Now Act that is modeled on the Clean Elections programs working in seven states and two cities. Clean Elections gets candidates off the fundraising treadmill and makes them accountable to one interest and one interest only: the voters.

Thank you,
David Donnelly
Clean Money, Clean Elections

P.S. Each day makes it more clear how desperately we need to pass Clean Elections laws in Congress.
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