Checks, balances must be allowed as bailout of thieving rich guys goes forward

sep 23rd, 2008

checks and balances are missing in india too. the executive branch (ie. manmohan singh) can take all sorts of decisions (eg. selling the country out to americans on the nuclear deal) with no oversight or permission from the legislative branch (ie. parliament) or from the judiciary.

this is one of the major flaws in the indian constitution.

we have all been told that the indian constitution is a wonderful, sacred document. actually it isn't. this is one of its glaring flaws. another is the ridiculous provision of 'minority' privileges to mohammedans and christists, who are a majority in the world in both numbers and in money.

the indian constitution needs to be re-evaluated and updated.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shahryar

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/tony-rhodin/index.ssf/2008/09/sec_8_review_decisions_by.html   Checks, balances must be allowed as bailout of thieving rich guys goes forward Posted by trhodin September 23, 2008 11:34AM "Sec. 8. Review. 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." From Reuters' text of the U.S. Treasury Department's proposal to bail out the financial services industry. Fortunately, by this morning, the U.S. Senate, at least in opening statements in the Banking Committee, had digested this power grab and was pushing back. But what in the world is it doing in the proposal in the first place?   Didn't we get in this mess because no one was regulating? How could the solution in any way exist in a place where the very people who drop the ball have absolute power to change the scoreboard?   Checks and balances, despite the ridiculous behavior of the Bush administration the past eight years, really do work. For more than 200 years we didn't put all the power in the hands of the executive branch because we never wanted a king.   Actions of one branch of government are subject to the hopefully investigating eyes of other branches of government so corruption is caught, not fostered.   The way the Treasury Department pitches it, laws can be broken in the pursuit of bailing out Secretary Henry Paulson's pals and no one could be prosecuted. Broken laws could be uncovered and excused.   It's nearly as unAmerican as a government bailout of out-of-control gamblers at the highest level of our economic system.   When people take risks in capitalism, they either garner great rewards or go out of business. It's how the game is played.   And one safeguard they have is the government making sure they follow the rules. And how can the government do that?   Through regulation, legislation and court action.   If you cut off all those avenues, who is to say Paulson doesn't just pay off his friends, screw the mortgage holders -- who are the real victims here -- and then just go back to Wall Street on Jan. 21 and reap the benefits he put in a place a few months earlier?   The first thing that must be done as legislation is crafted from Treasury's request is cut those 35 words quoted above. If Wall Street poobahs don't like people looking into their business dealings, they can turn down the bailout money and go broke on their own. It's what they really deserve. And if the Bushies think those of us on Main Street would put up with this power grab, they are as wrong as they've been for the last eight years about the role of regulation in our financial markets.   Here's the priority list for Congress this week: help the taxpayers, protect the taxpayers and pay back the taxpayers. In the long term: regulation and retirement of debt.   Only Main Street matters, no matter what the rich guys on Wall Street and Washington want you to think. And as for shielding those rich guys from whatever justice is due them, that's not not the role of government and it should never have been in the Treasury proposal in the first place.