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[quote="Guest"]It baffles me how there was a huge uproar over giving the car companies $19 billion collectively but barely a peep over giving Bank of America a second round of $20 billion on top of the billions they have already received.  Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t agree with giving it to the auto makers either.  But at least there was a healthy debate about that.  At least many conditions were imposed.  At least they had to prove they were sharply curtailing spending and ended ludicrous perks like private jet travel.  At least they have to submit to further oversight from a “car czar.”  And at least that money has the chance, though not the certainty, of saving jobs.

NONE of this is true of the additional money going to B of A, which exceeds all the money going to the auto industry collectively.  While Bush / Paulson allegedly wanted to money to get the banks to start issuing credit again, they didn’t bother to (and in fact actively fought against) actually requiring this.  Instead, the banks are free to use it anyway they want, including hording it (our tax dollars), continuing to pay he employee bonuses and for acquisitions designed to enrich shareholders and senior executives.  So far very little of the money has gone toward issuing credit as planned.  Despite that, let’s toss them another $20 billion casually.  A lot of media coverage touted how Wall Street was significantly curtailing bonuses, but that was amazingly deceptive.  The reality is that collectively these companies that received billions of our tax dollars still handed out billions of dollars in bonuses this year.  And they are still flying private jets everywhere, spending millions on corporate retreats, and wasting money like its nothing more than grains of sand on a beach.

Bank of America, the recipient of our latest $20 billion in tax dollars, is one of the worst offenders.  I know people involved in the construction of the new Yankee Stadium and was speaking with them the other day.  They said that they were in the process of completing $4 million dollars in “change orders” to a private suite at the new stadium for Bank of America.  Most companies, who are committing millions to acquire these suites in the first place, don’t feel compelled to spend millions more to upgrade the already nice conditions.  But B of A, apparently flush with our cash, wanted changes and apparently cost was a non-issue.  And this was done subsequent to the first round of our tax dollar aid.  They truly have no shame.  And that’s who we’re giving another $20 bill to…

And don’t give me the company line about how this money is to assure the Merrill merger goes through.  That is total B.S.  Bank of America (and I know people who work there) could shave $20 billion of expenses without breaking a sweat.  And they want to complete this merger anyway – they just figured why not see if they could use their leverage as the only viable suitor to get the government to take on most of their risk.  Not to mention we’re really giving them $20 bill PLUS guaranteeing many of Merrill’s bad assets.  And we’re not saving a single job in the process.  Merrill execs have already started getting the writing on the wall from their new masters and are leaving in droves.  Massive lay-offs are expected as soon as B of A closes the deal.

The bottom line is this is still all about utterly unchecked greed.  We are simply feeding the same monster that got us to this point and Ken Lewis is laughing his way to opulent wealth and power on our dime.[/quote]

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