Abu Wabu

Announcing a tax on the banks had its obviously intended effect yesterday when the S&P fell by almost 1% after a six day run and bank stocks tanked across the globe. That should signal to one and all that Obama is intentionally putting even more downward pressure on the economy, moving once again to punish a targeted area of the private sector where he has no business whatsoever extending his reach.

At the same time Obama is punishing private sector bankers for their successes, he is doing the exact opposite with Fan and Fred, both of whom he has cut loose from any fiscal accountability whatsoever and whose executives are drawing huge salaries. This is baldfaced scapegoating by a president looking to divert attention away from the disastrous unemployment he has wrought with his insane and immoral economic policies.

Obama’s Found a Villain to Distract the Angry Voter

The voters are getting angry at The One. A majority disapprove of how he’s handling health care “reform” AND the economy. The AP reports that the billions spent on road construction has done nothing to lower unemployment. The “most popular government program” in years, Cash-4 -Clunkers was actually, predictably, a flop. Unemployment is way higher than they said it would be if we didn’t rush through the borrow and spend porkulus bill...

So, what to do to keep the rabble from voicing their displeasure? Blame someone else! Obama wants to tax the big bad banks. He says it’s to get our TARP money back and to reduce undue risks by the greedy bankers. The One wants you to believe that the big banks are the kind of guys who would take the last piece of pizza from the birthday boy at Chuck-E-Cheese (see above photo).

Obama has been strident in his criticism of bankers, calling them “fat cats” last month in an interview that aired on the eve of their visit to the White House. With public anger over the bailout still strong, Obama has embraced populist rhetoric in an effort to shame bank executives into paying back the government more quickly and their executives less lavishly...

If the purpose is to get the TARP money back from the banks, that’s almost done. Most of the banks have paid it back and the rest are working on it. The money we’ve totally flushed away is the stuff we gave out after we turned TARP into a giant slush fund – the bailouts to the auto companies, AIG, Goldman Sachs, etc.

If the purpose is to get banks to quit taking outrageous risks, I have a better solution – When questionable investments put banks at risk of failure…LET THEM FAIL. That will temper risk. Failed banks will be broken up and sold off to sound banks. Let capitalism take care of it. Get the government out of it.

The real purpose is to distract the voters from the failure of the stimulus, boost Obama’s approval ratings and create a new tax to redistribute the wealth. It certainly isn’t a way to grow the economy.