Notable and Quotable (II)

“There is a deep sense across the country that those who are not responsible for this crisis are bearing a greater burden than those who were.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesteerday

Posted in * Economics, Politics, Economy, Politics in General, Stock Market, The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--

18 comments on “Notable and Quotable (II)

  1. flaanglican says:

    I agree with Geithner entirely. We can start with Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd for the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac mess.

  2. Katherine says:

    No kidding! I pay my mortgage, on which I did not get a sweetheart deal, AND I pay my taxes.

  3. Phil says:

    There’s also a sense that the Beautiful People don’t have to pay their taxes, while everybody else does.

  4. ember says:

    (paraphrasing Phil, about our churches)
    There’s also a sense that the Beautiful Buildings don’t have to pay taxes, while everybody else does.

  5. magnolia says:

    we would place the sole blame on the democrats? republicans have done an outstanding job of running the country straight into the ground when they inherited a balanced budget and had majorities in both houses. now they are talking fiscal responsibility??? dems don’t get a free pass, they are at least as bad but again they weren’t the ones that held power for the last eight years.

  6. Br. Michael says:

    Magnolia they held the Congress for four of those years.

  7. Br. Michael says:

    4, non-profit corporations don’t pay taxes.

  8. Br. Michael says:

    Also this mess was not suddenly created in the last eight years. It spans both parties and multiple presidents.

  9. Phil says:

    Well, Magnolia, I won’t defend George Bush’s lack of spending restraint, but there was that small matter of September 11.

  10. Jeffersonian says:

    True, Phil, but 9-11 didn’t have anything to do with Medicare prescription drug benefits and No Child Left Behind. Bush’s lack of any sense of frugality didn’t start or stop on that day.

  11. Phil says:

    Absolutely, Jeffersonian, like I said – I won’t defend those things (or many others). On the other hand, part of that surplus-to-deficit was defense spending directly related to the war.

  12. Bill C says:

    And Geithner tells us this!!!!!?

  13. Eastern Anglican says:

    Let me get this straight. Now the financial sector, by limiting salaries and benefits, will bear their share of the burden? Not to be a jerk, but it’s actually my children and grandchildren who will bear this burden, created by a winking partnership between Wall Street and Capitol Hill.
    And now we’re going to vote on the biggest redistribution of wealth in history–taking from our future generations to spend today. This is what the new era of responsibility means?

  14. Harvey says:

    #8 Bro Michael, Boy have you got it straight. I might add if it were not for WWII we would have really had a bigger “doozee” of a depression. Oh and it seems were not even close yet to the 25% unemployed figure of our Great Depression in the 20’s and 30’s.

  15. Sidney says:

    #11
    There’s no reason the wars couldn’t have been paid for through tax increases. I’d argue that they should have been paid for entirely through fuel taxes. Foreign oil has an enormous hidden cost (that’s not so hidden any more) and I’m all in favor of that hidden cost being borne out by the consumer.

  16. Jeffersonian says:

    Back to the quote at hand:

    [blockquote]“There is a deep sense across the country that those who are not responsible for this crisis are bearing a greater burden than those who were.”[/blockquote]

    This seems to me a tautological statement. Isn’t the entire point of a bailout to reward foolishness, incompetence, venality and irresponsbility at the expense of the rational, competent, honest and responsible? And, as Spencer once observed, the ultimate effect of all this is to populate the world with fools.

  17. libraryjim says:

    I lost my job in October, and I still have to pay income and property taxes. Where’s my bailout?

  18. libraryjim says:

    I thought “No Child Left Behind” was crafted by Ted Kennedy, in a move for bi-partisanship by W?