$700 Billion BAIL-OUT Legislation

NOTE: Paulson claims if the CEOs are penalized by placing caps on their compensation, or if the taxpayers demand anything more than bearing the burden for the entire financial risk, then the proposed program won't be effective.

They're still claiming we're not in a recession now. How many of you are living better today than when our president was Bill Clinton, raise your hands.

Given that fact, the President’s stubborn inflexibility is both unacceptable and disturbingly familiar. This is not the time for my-way-or-the-highway intransigence from anyone involved. It’s not the time for fear or panic. It’s the time for resolve, responsibility, and reasonableness.

And it is wholly unreasonable to expect that American taxpayers would or should hand this Administration or any Administration a $700 billion blank check with absolutely no oversight or conditions when a lack of oversight in Washington and on Wall Street is exactly what got us into this mess.

Now that the American people are being called upon to finance this solution, the American people have the right to certain protections and assurances from Washington.

First, the plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. There has been talk that some CEOs may refuse to cooperate with this plan if they have to forgo multi-million-dollar salaries. I cannot imagine a position more selfish and greedy at a time of national crisis. And I would like to speak directly to those CEOs right now: Do not make that mistake. You are stewards for workers and communities all across our country who have put their trust in you. With the enormous rewards you have reaped come responsibilities, and we expect and demand that you to live up to them. This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives.....

Some of the facts and findings from this report from the PPIC’s release on this report:

Since 1990, the number of prisoners in California has risen three times faster than the overall adult population, standing at almost 168,000 in 2005. Adults younger than 25 years old account for a declining segment of the prison population (declining from 20% in 1990 to 14% in 2005), while the share of adults age 50 and older has nearly tripled (rising from 4% to 11%). What accounts for this shift? Surprisingly " given that criminological research tells us young people are the most likely group to commit crimes " older adults are increasingly being admitted to prison. Additionally, more inmates are aging in prison because tougher sentencing laws lead to more time served.

The graying of the state’s inmate population raises the prospect of soaring health care costs " a prospect that is even more ominous in light of a recent federal court-appointed receiver’s report that says California’s prison health care system is in a state of almost complete disrepair. Prior research estimates that the expense of housing, transporting, and caring for elderly inmates is two-to-three times higher than for other prisoners. “Whether or not federal actions will bring relief remains to be seen, but providing medical and health care to California’s prisoners is on its way to being an acute financial challenge,” says PPIC research associate Amanda Bailey, who co-authored the study with PPIC research associate Joseph Hayes.

War's price tag

By the end of 2008, the federal government will have spent more than $800 billion on combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (government accounts make it hard to separate the two). On top of that comes a mountain of future costs: caring for war veterans (to date, more than 1.6 million troops have been deployed), replacing the military hardware that is being used and worn out in Iraq and paying interest on the enormous sums of money we've borrowed to finance the war.