When Pundits Insist $141 Billion In Wall Street Handouts Is No Big Deal... from Open Left - Front Page

 by David Sirota http://www.openleft.com/diary/16370/when-political-pundits-insist-141-billion-in-wall-street-handouts-is-no-big-deal

...it's a good sign of just how much the political goalposts in America have shifted, and just how completely the plutocratic ethos now dominate our "democracy." I bring this up in light of the White House now insisting that the Obama-backed Troubled Asset Relief Program will "only" cost taxpayers $141 billion. As you can see here and here for some examples, some professional political prognosticators insist this is awesome news - because hey, $141 billion isn't a big deal, right? And it's certainly not a big deal when the president is saying we barely have any resources for job creation, right?

This allegedly piddling $141 billion figure, of course, says nothing of the trillions in bad assets the Fed put on the public's books. No, we the mindless lobotomy cases in the Great American Idiocracy are all expected to cheer for Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke and all the other Dear Leaders who formulated that bailout policy. And we are supposed to forget, as CNN reports that "the American public is still expected to incur a massive loss in the end."

$141 billion - sure, it's less than the original $300 billion estimate. But it's also a massive amount of money - for example, it's about $500 for every man, woman and child in America. It's also enough to pay for almost two years of universal health care under the health care plans being debated in Congress.

And yet, apparently - we're all supposed to believe it's nothing.

What a fucking joke - except it's not.