For years and until as recently as this summer, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernake, and other Bush Administration officials, have been telling the American public and the world that the U.S. economy was sound. They arrogantly dismissed calls for greater regulation of banks or government help in easing the mortgage crisis.

"We don't see the turn down in housing prices as a broad financial concern or a major factor in assessing the course of the economy." -- Ben Bernake, Chairman Federal Reserve, February 28, 2007

As recently as May 6, 2008, Paulson, Bernake, and other Bush administration officials opposed legislation which would have provided 15 billion dollars to cities and neighborhoods destroyed by foreclosures and owners losing their homes. Bush vetoed the bill because he said it will be "a burdensome bailout" that puts taxpayers at risk.

Less than 3 months later, Paulson, Bernake, and President Bush asked American taxpayers to give $700 Billion dollars to the same bankers who had kicked millions of Americans out of their homes. The plea for help came with a threat, a warning, and a 3 page proposal giving Frank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs (on leave) dictatorial power to spend $700 billion dollars any way he saw fit.

Taxpayers must come to the rescue, we have been told, or suffer a financial catastrophe so profound it could end American civilization was we know it.

The Bush administration used similar fear tactics to stampede the American congress and the American people into a financially ruinous war with Iraq. The alternative was to be killed by weapons of mass destruction which we later learned did not exist.

However, private contractors with links to the Bush administration, and Haliburton, which Vice-President Cheney ruled as CEO, made billions of dollars because of the war with Iraq; a war which most experts believed was waged incompetently.

It is the same incompetent Bush administration, aided by the unparalled greed of banks and Bankers which got America into this financial mess; because of get rich schemes based on risky investments, and bad mortgage loans. Should they be trusted to solve the problems they created?

A 2006 article in Business Week, titled "Wall Street's culture of risk" stated that "Goldman Sachs' CEO Henry M. Paulson Jr. has led the charge."

In July of 2005, Henry Paulson as CEO of Goldman Sachs, securitized $68 Billion in residential mortgages, many of which are now in default. Capital risk at Goldman Sach also increased by 135% under Paulson who shifted his bank's focus to the most dangerous and risky forms of investing. If there is no taxpayer bailout, Goldman Sachs could lose a lot of money.

How much of Paulson's $600 Million dollar personal fortune is also risk, is unknown. What we do know is that Paulson demands that he be given unlimited power to spend $700 Billion dollars, because people just like Henry Paulson may lose millions of dollars.

Paulson represents the very mindset of greed which led to this catastrophe, making huge financial bets on a vast array of risky ventures and arcane products like credit-default swaps and catastrophe bonds, using incredible sums of money borrowed from other banks. Paulson, Goldman Sachs, and many of the banks which are now in financial peril began spending billions to buy business in Brazil, Jakarta, China, and hundreds of other countries, which they hoped to immediately sell at a profit. Instead, they lost money. Goldman Sachs private equity arm under Paulson became one of the bigest buyout firms in the world, and like so many other banks, they made investments that would be extremely difficult to get rid of in the event of a disaster. They were betting that the U.S. government, and the American tax payers would come to their rescue if their bets did not pay off. They lost their bets and are now demanding the American taxpayer pay the bill.

But these unpleasant truths are not being told to the American public. Instead they are warned that their jobs, their credit cards, their savings, their IRAs and 401Ks, and even their own homes are at risk. Unless we given $700 billion dollars to the rich, the average American will no longer be able to buy a home or a car unless they pay cash. The economy will grind to a near halt, unemployment will skyrocket, you will lose your job and no longer be able to feed your family.

The bankers, led by Paulson, Bernake, and Bush, are threatening to hold the economy hostage, threatening that if the American tax payer does not come up with the money, there will be a financial meltdown and the entire world economy would collapse.

But is any of this true? Will the 700 billion dollar giveaway turn the economy around, or will it only make the richer even richer?

This summer the government created an economy stimulus package that had no effect on the economy. Moreover, the US government has already budgeted or given away over $565 billion to Wall Street and the problem has only gotten worse. this includes a $200 billion for mortgage-backed securities; $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; $85 billion for the takeover of the AIG insurance giant; $50 billion to shore up money market funds; $30 billion to JPMorgan for the takeover of Bear Stearns, and the list goes on. But none of these expenditures of taxpayer money had any effect, other than to put more money into the pockets of the extremely wealthy.

Why should we believe than another $700 Billion will suddenly solve the problem?

Are we even being told the truth about the "problem"?

Many suspect this is yet another "get rich scheme" by those who are already incredibly wealthy. Its the rich robbing from the poor all over again.

Consider, for example, one of the major provisions of the "bail out" program which gives Paulson the powers of the ultimate dictator answerable to no one.

“Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets. The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act.” This means he can buy and sell at any price he chooses. Moreover, there will be no supervision, he is answerable to no one, and his decisions cannot be overturned or challenged in court.

Thus, Paulson can buy junk from his banker friends for whatever price they want and then sell it back to them at a bargain. If its worth 30 cents on the dollar, he can pay 90 cents on the dollar. Then Paulson can sell the same junk at a loss for 20 cents on the dollar, saddling the taxpayers with the loss. And he can continue until all 700 billion dollars are gone: Buy for 60 cents on the dollar, sell for 30 cents on the dollar. Buy for 80 cents on the dollar, sell for 5 cents on the dollar. He’s in charge, and he is answerable to no one. No oversight. No limitations.

And then, after he steals us blind, Paulson returns as CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Paulson has also demanded the right to hire private asset managers to carry out the purchase of some $700 billion in "troubled" securities. However, again, only he will have the power of hiring and fireing. The asset managers will also be above the law and answerable only to Paulson. Thus, Paulson can hire the same firms that are being bailed out to handle their own rescue using taxpayer money any way they see fit, including setting their own salaries and buying and selling at any price they want. Its little more than legalized theft and fraud.

But what of those mortgage backed securities which the government decides to keep, claiming them as future assets? Won't the taxpayers make money? If the mortgage debt continues to lose value, then the answere is "no, the American taxpayer will lose money." And not just the taxpayer but the the U.S. which would have to record those losses as spending. That could increase the budget deficit, which leads to higher taxes.

In fact, this bailout may make the economy much worse, and trigger the destruction it was meant to prevent. if the bailout goes through we are looking at the possibility of a super-inflation and a collapse in the value of the dollar. The Federal debt will explode, increasing the accumulated national debt to over $11 trillion dollars. The Treasury will solve this problem by printing more money, creating a super-hyperinflation, and further collapse of the value of the dollar. How will this effect the international financial markets? Foreign investors will no longer trust the US, or U.S. banks and will withdraw their money and invest and loan their money elsewhere.

Paulson, Bush, Bernake are willing to put the entire future of America at risk with a program which will only benefit the very rich. And just as they used fear to frighten Americans into accept a fraudulent war against Iraq to get rid of weapons that did not exist, they are again warning of disaster unless they are given dictatorial powers to spend almost 1 trillion dollars any way they please.

The fear tactics are having little effect on persuading American taxpayers that they should ride to the rescue of the rich. Phone calls to Senators and congressmen are running 200 to 1 against the Bailout. Yet, Democrats, including California Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Senate Leader Henry Reid, and congresswoman and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have chosen to ignore the voters and are leading the charge to save Wall Street.

But why would these elected representatives ignore the wishes of the voters? Nancy Pelosi is worth over $100 million dollars, and almost every senator and congressman in support of the bailout are millionaires.

The history of the world is a history of the rich stealing from the poor. Why should we expect this bailout program to be any different?