Greatest raid of the Treasury yet.

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Last month, the George Jr administration raided the Treasury for more hundreds of $billions to enrich the banks. Congress - both Democrats and Republicans - are furious. But they never bothered to say anything fearing that administration looting would further upset the markets. It’s complex and probably best read in full. Below is the best I could do to outline another example of screwing the American people to enrich big banks - because Cheney said deficits don't matter.

From the Washington Post of 10 Nov 2008 - and this really is a must read for everyone:

A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks
In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention. But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion. ...

"Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no," ...

The change to Section 382 of the tax code -- a provision that limited a kind of tax shelter arising in corporate mergers -- came after a two-decade effort by conservative economists and Republican administration officials to eliminate or overhaul the law, which is so little-known that even influential tax experts sometimes draw a blank at its mention. Until the financial meltdown, its opponents thought it would be nearly impossible to revamp the section because this would look like a corporate giveaway, according to lobbyists. ...

... a Treasury spokesman, said the administration had the legal authority to issue the notice as part of its power to interpret the tax code and provide legal guidance to companies. He described the Sept. 30 notice, which allows some banks to keep more money by lowering their taxes, as a way to help financial institutions during a time of economic crisis. ...

Section 382 of the tax code was created by Congress in 1986 to end what it considered an abuse of the tax system: companies sheltering their profits from taxation by acquiring shell companies whose only real value was the losses on their books. The firms would then use the acquired company's losses to offset their gains and avoid paying taxes.

Lawmakers decried the tax shelters as a scam and created a formula to strictly limit the use of those purchased losses for tax purposes. ... Some conservative economists argue that not only should a firm be able to use losses to offset gains, but that in a year when a company only loses money, it should be entitled to a cash refund from the government. ...

The Jones Day law firm said the tax change, which some analysts soon dubbed "the Wells Fargo Ruling," could be worth about $25 billion for Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo declined to comment for this article. ...

Over the next month, two more bank mergers took place with the benefit of the new tax guidance. PNC, which took over National City, saved about $5.1 billion from the modification, about the total amount that it spent to acquire the bank, ...

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member on the Finance Committee, was particularly outraged and had his staff push for an explanation from the Bush administration, according to congressional aides. ...

"We're all nervous about saying that this was illegal because of our fears about the marketplace," said one congressional aide, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. ...

Today we also just gave AIG another $40billion. An $85billion loan now includes other government money totalling something under $160billion - and more will be given away. Same administration that so contributed to this problem is again throwing money like a grenade. Cheney said deficits don't matter.

Predicted in Does Anyone feel like Bailing on 22 Oct 2008:

It's not going to stop at $0.7trillion. Expect government to borrow massively to apply something under $2trillion.

We did not know that hundreds of $billions in free government money had already been spent - and that did not include any of the $700billion TARP (that GM is trying to raid).

When does the word rape not describe it?

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As government keeps getting bigger, so does the size of office space required. From the Washington Post of 10 Nov 2008 entitled "Bailout Raises Demand For Square Feet in D.C.":

Between 2 million and 4 million square feet of office space could be gobbled up over the next three years as new regulatory agencies take shape and as lobby shops, accounting firms, consultants and asset managers position themselves to take advantage of government intervention efforts.

When he promised to downsize government, well, at what point do we admit that George Jr is a liar.