Obama's bank tax in a nutshell:
"Hey, Mr. Big Bank, some of your competitors are in big trouble. We gotta bail them out.
Fine with me. We're doing OK, so it's not much skin off our nose.
Thing is, we don't wanna say which banks are in trouble. So youse gotta take some of dis bailout money, too, so's we can hide the ones in the worst jams.
We don't need it, and we don't want it.
That's too bad. We think you might need it. And if you say no, then we'll have to go through your books to make sure you ain't in trouble. All your books. Very slowly. Very carefully. Very publicly.
I tell you, we don't want it and don't need it! I don't want to have to explain to our depositors and investors and owners why we took on this kind of debt when we didn't need it!
Look, it'll just be for a little while. You can pay it back in a little while. And then we'll owe youse a favor. "
Hiya, Mr. Big Bank. Remember me?
Trust me, sir, I'll never forget you.
Well, I'm here about that TARP bailout money we lent youse a while ago.
What about it? We paid it back! Every penny! Plus interest! And we didn't want it in the first place! We should have just given you the interest up front, and never taken the money in the first place!
Yeah, you did pay it back, and we really appreciate that. But it seems that quite a few other banks didn't pay it back, and we need that money.
So? Sounds like you did just what got them into trouble -- loaned a lot of money to people who wouldn't be able to pay it back. That's hardly my problem.
Well, that's where you're kinda wrong. We need that money back, so we're gonna collect the money from all of you big banks.
Wait a minute -- they screwed up, not us. You saved them, you did squat for us. And we repaid you. Now we gotta pay again?
That's how it works, pally. But not quite.
What do you mean, "not quite?"
Them that ain't paid it back ain't in any shape to pay this additional tax, so you gotta cover their share too.
WHAT!?!?!?!!"
wizbangblog.com
Read the whole thing.
