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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The huge, very large, gargantuan, colossal, unbelievably big bailout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, so you knew the bailout was big, with lots of huge numbers being thrown about. But HOW big is it, exactly? If you take the money committed by the federal government and the Federal Reserve — that’s more than $3.92 trillion — how would it stack up compared to previous massive government expenditures, after adjusting for inflation? (Understanding of course that the spending hasn’t run its course yet).
(h/t to Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture)
“Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation-adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big-budget government expenditures - COMBINED:
Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion
inflation-adjusted cost: $115.3 billion
- Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million
inflation-adjusted cost: $217 billion
- Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion
inflation-adjusted cost: $237 billion
- S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion
inflation-adjusted cost: $256 billion
- Korean War: Cost: $54 billion
inflation-adjusted cost: $454 billion
- The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est)
Iinflation-adjusted cost: $500 billion (Est)
- Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b
inflation-adjusted cost: $597 billion
- Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion
inflation-adjusted cost: $698 billion
- NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion
inflation-adjusted cost: $851.2 billion
TOTAL: $3.92 trillion”
To review: The bailout has cost us more than the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the invasion of Iraq, the Vietnam War, the moon-landing program, NASA, the Korean War, the savings and loan crisis and the New Deal ALL PUT TOGETHER.
As the president would say, that’s big. Very big.
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Ohmigoodness … the goddess descends
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let the swooning begin.
From my colleague Jim Galloway at Political Insider:
Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss just announced that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and the former GOP vice presidential nominee, will campaign for him in Georgia on Monday, capping off his U.S. Senate runoff effort.
“I was thrilled when I got the call that Governor Palin would be able to make the trip to Georgia to campaign with me the day before the runoff election,” Chambliss said in a press release.
Four rallies have been scheduled for Dec. 1: 8:30 a.m. in Augusta, 11 a.m. in Savannah, 1:30 p.m. in Perry, and 4 p.m. in north metro Atlanta.
I’m sure Palin’s arrival is going to help Chambliss get the GOP base fired up to turn out to vote Tuesday, and it’ll be interesting to see how many folks show up at the rallies. (If you plan to attend, you have to register by name at http://www.procatalog.com/saxby/). You could also see this as Palin’s unofficial kickoff of the 2012 campaign.
But back to the present: The polls continue to show Chambliss leading Jim Martin, but within a margin that could conceivably be swung by turnout. However, early voting turnout among black Georgians is well off the pace in the general election, which makes Martin’s climb even steeper.
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Guantanamo an American failure
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Almost 800 men have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, “the worst of the worst” as Donald Rumsfeld called them in trying to fend off demands that they be treated humanely. Yet roughly 520 of those alleged “worst” have since been grudgingly released, the latest being Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver.
Hamdan is being sent to his home nation of Yemen, where he will be kept in prison until Dec. 27 and then set free. The Bush administration had long claimed Hamdan to be a major terrorist threat too dangerous to be released, but a military commission, formed over the administration’s repeated and extended objections, found that Hamdan was a minor figure who in effect should be released for time served.
Likewise, a federal judge in Washington — an appointee of George W. Bush, who has been sympathetic to administration claims of great executive leeway in such cases — last week ordered the release of five native Algerians held since 2001. Originally they had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, but no evidence was ever found to sustain that claim.
Nonetheless, they have been held in Guantanamo ever since. As Judge Richard Leon revealed, the sole evidence against them was a uncorrobarated claim by a single unknown source claiming that they intended to go to Pakistan for training as jihadists.
Based on that, they were arrested and imprisoned for seven years, and perhaps subjected to torture as well.
Another federal judge has ordered the release of 17 ethnic Uighur detainees from China also still held at Guantanamo. The administration now concedes that they were never enemy combatants and should never have been held, but claims it must continue to imprison the men because no other country is willing to take them.
Some of the “worst of the worst” undoubtedly were just that, and should never be released. But clearly, many if not most of those so labeled by Rumsfeld have turned out to be much less dangerous and in some cases absolutely innocent.
That reality demonstrates both the moral bankruptcy of the Bush approach and its essential anti-American nature. One of the key insights of our Founding Fathers was that government power should never go unchecked, because great unchecked power leads inevitably to arrogance and great unchecked abuse.
The Bush administration nonetheless claimed and exerted such power, and for a time the American people, judicial system and political leadership allowed that claim to stand. It was not our finest moment as a people.
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