[Peace-discuss] New Democrat bootlickers

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Jane HamsherFounder, FireDogLake.com
	Posted March 11, 2009 | 12:56 PM (EST)
	Cancer Patients Die While "New Democrats" Help Bankers Get Billions

Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson, member of the House Financial Services Committee, 
said that "AIG blew up because it was a casino that dabbled in insurance on the 
side."

To date, AIG has received $173 billion -- billion -- and we've got no idea what 
they did with it. Now we're being told that Citigroup needs a "bad bank" too to 
buy up their toxic assets, after they already received $250 -- billion -- in 
guarantees for their losses in exchange for the low, low price of $7 billion in 
preferred stock for taxpayers.

And what are Americans--who are losing their jobs and their homes because AIG 
acted like a casino and taxpayers paid off all their gambling debts--getting?

They get to die:

21% of Americans scramble to pay medical, drug bills
Denise Prosser, 39, has battled cancer since she was a toddler.

Yet Prosser can't afford her next cancer treatment -- a radioactive therapy that 
she's supposed to receive once a year -- because she and her husband lost their 
jobs in December. Without insurance, she has postponed the radiation 
indefinitely and is taking only half of her asthma medications -- sacrifices 
that often leave her gasping for air and could allow her cancer to come surging 
back.

She's dying because she lost her job and she can't pay her medical bills. She 
didn't steal anything so she could get taxpayer money so she can pay lobbyists 
to get her more taxpayer money -- that's AIG.

Nobody will tell us who the AIG counterparties were, all we know is that they 
were a bunch of degenerate gamblers who got rich on taxpayer money. Meanwhile 
Ellen Tauscher is bragging that she and her New Democrat Coalition come from 
Wall Street, and work as henchmen for bank lobbyists. Of course they are -- the 
New Democrat's Executive Director, Adam Pase, was a lobbyist for predatory 
lenders. And bank lobbyists love them back, cooing about how the New Dems will 
keep Congress from "punishing" banks with new regulation of the financial system.

Because lord knows, that's the real danger here.

But don't think Tauscher and the New Dems are completely cold to people who 
can't pay for healthcare. Tauscher voted for the bankruptcy bill that made it 
more difficult for people with bills from catastrophic illness to file for 
bankruptcy, saying it "encouraged personal responsibility." I'm sure Denise is 
touched by Tauscher's concern for her moral fiber. And the power of the New 
Democrats is only growing -- yesterday, Obama proudly identified with them, 
saying "I'm a New Democrat."

We keep shoveling money to banks that are "too big to fail," but there's no 
money to help Denise Prosser. Watching her die while Ellen Tauscher and the New 
Democrats scramble to lick the boots of lobbyists, it's hard to resist the idea 
that everything else is just window dressing so we won't notice while the banks 
fleece us.

Arianna Huffington asks: "So who, exactly, has our money -- and why don't we 
know?" That is a very good question.

Tell Congress to tell us where all the money is going, and why Americans must 
die so bankers can get even richer.

Jane Hamsher blogs at firedoglake.com