Stop the Bailout!

This week, Congress will finalize the largest government intervention in financial markets since the Great Depression. The Bush Administration is asking for $700 billion to bail out Wall Street by buying up the mountains of bad debt they accumulated during the housing bubble.

Plenty for Wall Street, Nothing for Main Street!

Outrageously, the Administration proposal includes nothing for struggling homeowners, no protections for taxpayers or sharing of future profits and no regulatory control over the institutions that created the mess. In short, they want to privatize the profits, and socialize the losses! And, what is perhaps the most galling display of greed and corruption, while the Republicans plan to stick each American taxpayer with a $2000 bill, the CEO's who crafted the schemes that led to this disaster get to keep their multi-million dollar salaries. These large banks and mortgage companies are benefiting from irresponsible lending at best (and predatory lending at worst), while the victims of their mistakes receive no help.

Click here to send a message to Congress.

Call your US Representative and Senators:  1-800-473-6711, toll-free, thanks to American Friends Service Committee*

In the Rochester area, you can contact Senator Clinton's local office at 585-263-6250 and Senator Schumer's local office at 585-263-5866. In the Buffalo area, you can contact Senator Clinton's local office at 716-845-9725 and Senator Schumer's local office at 716-846-4111.

Tell them:
*I urge you to reject a blank check bailout for Wall Street. I understand there is a real and costly crisis brought on by unregulated greed. Congress must fix the mess through a public ownership stake to reduce the loss to taxpayers, effective oversight, help for those hurt by the crisis (people losing homes, jobs, and income), and investments in economic recovery.

Talking Points:
*Be governed by an independent board with transparency and effective public and congressional oversight.
*Use the full array of financial and legal tools available to the government to stop foreclosures and restructure home mortgage loans for working families.
*Address the cause of the crisis on Main Street in addition to the symptoms on Wall Street.
*Congress should invest in health care, education and the financial security of average people.
*Work to address the disastrous weaknesses in our financial regulatory system and corporate governance system that allowed this disaster to happen.

Write a letter to the editor TODAY! You can find an editable sample letter right here, thanks to the organization RESULTS, and you can send it right from that link. If you'd like to send a hard copy the old fashioned way, again, check out the details on the action section of our website.

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*This toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization which works for economic justice and peace (www.afsc.org). AFSC welcomes groups to circulate and use the number in support of non-partisan work for policies that benefit the common good and without linking the alert to a website soliciting donations or actions which may be used to support partisan lobbying or work.