BUSH CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH THE PUBLIC INTEREST, LET ALONE A FINANCIAL "AUMF"
Look, Hank Paulson is a nice guy, maybe has good relationships across the isle. Whatever.
Let's not forget that he works at the pleasure of George W. Bush and a political party power-structure that apparently embraces the "unitary Executive".
That means, if John Mack calls up Bush and says he wants a better price for his securities than is being bid by Treasury, Bush can make a call or remove the Treasury Secretary altogether.
Given how Bush just cut his own Secretary of Defense out of the loop in order to do something for Petreaus, as reported by Bob Woodward in just the past few weeks, we don't actually have to theorize or speculate about how this works in the Bush Administration.
NO FINANCIAL "AUMF" FOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION
No wonder Bush wants $700 billion "upfront". They can shoot the whole wad before he leaves office, at whatever price the White House says, maybe...
As proposed, there is no recourse to "reconsider" any decisions that are made, either. It's like a financial AUMF.
After the fact, Congress can be "outraged" about any choice made at Treasury, but that is all it will ever amount to ...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Barney Frank May Need Reminding ...
