Section 8: 32 Words That Shred The Constitution
Section 8 of the Bush Administration’s bailout proposal contains just 32 words.
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
This is the government equivalent of typing IDDQD into Doom.
With less than 4 months left in the Bush presidency and Paulson having repeatedly stated that he is leaving his job at that time this section HAS to be given greater scrutiny. It’s been mentioned on The Huffington Post and Countdown with Keith Olbermann but it really needs to be a deal breaker in Congress.
Here’s exactly how I see it playing out if this slips through like The Patriot Act did. The government bails out select companies spending $700 Billion taxpayer dollars (although really a loan from the Chinese but let’s put that dimension aside for now); if Paulson has his way it’s free money. 4 months later Paulson leaves his position and pursues work in the private sector. One of these companies he just gave a huge give of free money to hires him, gives him a do-nothing job with a fancy title, obscene pay, and perks that would make Jack Harkness blush and Richard Branson jealous. Thanks to Section 8, his conflict of interest cannot be brought into question – in fact pretty much nothing can be brought into question.
Paulson already has ties to Goldman-Sachs, one of the potential beneficiaries of the bailout.
On the campaign front McCain is talking out of both sides of his mouth; one moment saying he doesn’t want one person to have too much power and the next speaking in support of that which gives Paulson nearly limitless power, and by extension of that the executive branch.
Ever give 2 weeks notice at a job you didn’t like? Remember that sense of freedom? Somewhere in the back of your mind you probably thought of doing something absolutely crazy on your last day. What were they going to do, fire you?
Ever wonder if Bush feels this way?
Helping the rich, advancing the interests of his friends, business partners, and campaign supporters are old songs he plays often. Transferring more and more power to the executive, well, that’s just Bush’s thing. So isn’t it reasonable to suspect that he and his buddy Paulson are going to do that only worse, to unprecedented levels, on their way out? Help their friends and themselves and screw the country and global financial markets and grab a limitless get out of jail free card along the way? Seems more than just likely to happen, it’s what Bush has been doing for 7 years now.
Here’s more on Section 8: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/22/dirty-secret-of-the-bailo_n_128294.html
