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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Bindare_Dundat on October 22, 2008, 08:14:24 AM
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Remember how Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson promised full transparency in spending the $700 billion bailout money? And remember how bailout opponents predicted that the failure to mandate such transparency would allow all sorts of Halliburton-style shenanigans? From the looks of the first private contracts issued by the Treasury Department, it looks like the bailout opponents were correct.
As flagged by BailoutSleuth.com, Paulson is blacking out the sections of government contracts that spell out how much private firms will be paid for their services in administering taxpayer money. Here's a page from the compensation part of a contract with Bank of New York, which has been hired to do some of the bookkeeping (because, of course, the Bush administration is happy to privatize that function):
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2957172036_e22d895722.jpg?v=0)
And here's a page from the compensation part of a Treasury contract with law firm Simpson Thatcher Bartlett - a firm being hired to provide "legal advice" to the government:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2957172076_a95b3468d4.jpg?v=0)
So, just to review - within just a few weeks of the bailout passing, our government is blacking out the parts of public contracts that explain how much taxpayer cash private contractors are going to be paid. Perhaps this is what Paulson meant when he promised transparency - by posting these blacked out contracts on the Treasury website, the government is being transparent about exactly where it is being secretive. But I don't think that definition of transparency really flies, do you?
Of course, I wish I was surprised about this - but one of the major reasons I was opposed to this bailout from the beginning was because (as I and others repeatedly wrote) there is no real transparency at all. Now we know what "no transparency at all" really means.
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This is how the elites, who supposedly pay all our taxes, get money from the treasurey. It used to be sweetheart bloated governmental contracts.
Now they just bypass any pretense to normal business practices and grab as much $$$ money as they possibly can in full view of everyone...except for those pesky details about financial fees.
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doesnt suprise me one bit man...this is why ppl go postal on shit
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(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2957172036_e22d895722.jpg?v=0)
And here's a page from the compensation part of a Treasury contract with law firm Simpson Thatcher Bartlett - a firm being hired to provide "legal advice" to the government:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2957172076_a95b3468d4.jpg?v=0)
FIXED.
NT
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FIXED.
NT
??? what did you do?
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??? what did you do?
haha,