COMMENTARY | A disturbing report was filed by Bloomberg today. It details how some of the biggest banks in the United States were given $1.2 trillion to stay afloat during the economic crisis because of the bad home loans they offered to citizens who couldn't afford them.
The 10 largest banks in the United States had more than $100 billion in profits in 2006. Two years later, those same entities were asking for $669 billion in loans from Uncle Sam so they wouldn't collapse. After those amounts weren't enough, banks asked for and got hundreds of billions more.
The numbers alone are staggering. Yet somehow, Republicans believe taxing the wealthiest Americans, of which bankers are a part, is not prudent to solving our debt crisis. Keep in mind that some of the richest Americans were able to keep their wealth after the bailouts. In late 2010, tax cuts for the rich were maintained because the GOP sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claiming they would block all legislation until those tax cuts were resolved. When President Barack Obama signed the tax cuts into law, it was only because the Republicans compromised and also passed unemployment benefits for the poor at the same time.
The U.S. stands at a crossroads. The message from Republicans was clear in December and the bailout debacle exacerbates what ordinary Americans already knew. Americans are used to government handouts and they don't want that to change. Individuals making over $250,000 don't want to pay more taxes. The poor don't want their unemployment benefits to expire because they get more from those payouts than they do with a minimum wage job.
The rich aren't creating jobs with the extra money they've been given. Unemployment is still over 9 percent as of July, three years after the financial crisis began. Yet Speaker of the House John Boehner claims raising taxes on these rich "job creators" would only make things worse.
I don't understand how banks taking taxpayers' money without remorse can make things worse. Democrats are trying to hold the richest Americans accountable for their actions by raising their taxes. The Republicans are defending them, the very people who caused this economic upheaval in the first place.
Those who lost their jobs either refuse to be hired or can't get hired because there is a stigma about giving someone a job who hasn't had one. Having more unemployed people just continues the vicious cycle of bad unemployment news and faltering stock prices.
The solution is easy. Every American needs to get back to work to make this country great. There are no more blue states or red states. Everyone has to be a viable contributor to the economic activity of the United States.
William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
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