Scott County Democrats

Here’s an opportunity to voice your opinion about big banks gobbling up stimulus funds.  Follow the link to write your own letter (courtesy of Moveon.Org)

MoveOn members made a big difference in Washingtonlast week—asking pointed questions of top bank CEOs and successfully pushing to limit executive pay.¹ But these Wall Street bankers fundamentally damaged our economy—and there’s a lot more work to do to clean up their mess.

The Obama administration has laid out a framework for fixing the banking system, but a lot of the important details remain unresolved. A number of prominent economists—including Paul Krugman², Joseph Stiglitz³, Nouriel Roubini⁴, Dean Baker⁵, and Jeffrey Sachs⁶—have proposed plans, and they all share a fundamental principle: Wall Street shouldn’t get any more giveaways at taxpayer expense.

With Congress home from Washington this week, we have a perfect opportunity to make this point clear. And the best way to do that is by flooding local papers with letters to the editor—which lawmakers monitor closely to understand what folks at home are thinking.

Can you write a letter demanding real accountability for the banks that wrecked our economy? It will only take a few minutes and our online tool makes it easy.

http://pol.moveon.org/lte/lte_t.html?lte_campaign_id=102&id=15606-6626552-O6aOhSx&t=3

It’s key that our elected representatives hear from us now, because Congress will weigh in with their ideas to fix Wall Street soon. And when they do, they have to insist that everyday Americans’ interests are put ahead of Wall Street’s. Bank shareholders and executives have to cover their own losses before any more taxpayer money is put on the line.

Here are some important points to help you with your letter:

• No more giveaways for Wall Street at taxpayers’ expense. Any future plan needs to be implemented fairly for taxpayers. If banks made bad investments, then their shareholders need to face the consequences before any taxpayer money is put on the line.
• Experts agree on the key principles. Prominent economists, including Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Nouriel Roubini, Dean Baker, and Jeffrey Sachs, all agree that the government must get a fair bargain for any money it invests in the banks, even if that means temporarily taking over insolvent banks. Even conservative Republican Senator Lindsey Graham admitted this.⁷
• If taxpayers’ money is at risk, then taxpayers should get any potential profits. If taxpayers are going to risk their money to help, then we should get equity just like other stockholders.

We know all too well that Wall Street isn’t going to police itself. The people who got us into this mess are looking out for themselves, so our elected representatives need to be looking out for us. They need to hear from us that we’re counting on them and that we won’t stand for any more freebies for Wall Street.

Can you write a letter to the editor, using our easy online tool, to make sure they get the message loud and clear?

http://pol.moveon.org/lte/lte_t.html?lte_campaign_id=102&id=15606-6626552-O6aOhSx&t=4

–Daniel, Anna, Wes, Peter and the rest of the team