More fright-peddling, more bailouts.(THE LAST WORD)(president Barack Obama's bailout plans)

Round two of the economic crime of the century has begun. On January 12, Lawrence Summers, President-elect Obama's designee to become director of his National Economic Council, sent a letter to congressional majority and minority leaders seeking the second half of the $750 billion approved by Congress last October.

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Citing Obama's economic speech of January 8, Summers wrote: "As the President-elect recently stated, 'we start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any other we have seen in our lifetime.'" As you no doubt re call, last September Congress, fearing the wrath of constituents, rejected a bailout scheme put together by the Bush administration and bipartisan leaders in Congress. Refusing to take "no" for an answer, the White House-Capitol Hill bailout gang (aided mightily by media collaborators) began a crescendo of frightening predictions of impending economic calamity, if Congress did not reverse itself and vote for the bailout. Economic apocalypse was upon us! Failure to act would mean global financial meltdown. Governments would fall. Global chaos would ensue. We were facing "the end of the world as we know it."

The ploy worked. Senators and congressmen who had resolutely opposed (or had pretended to oppose) the bailouts caved before the orchestrated chorus of fear mongers. Claiming they did not want to be responsible for a financial Armageddon, they flip-flopped and voted overwhelmingly for one of the biggest thefts in history.

Senator Obama voted for that plan. Now Lawrence Summers and the chorus of fear are invoking the same specter of looming catastrophe to effect another huge raid on the American taxpayers, savers, and producers. "We must work with the same sense of urgency to stabilize and repair the financial system," Summers declares in his letter. "It was that concern that led the President-elect to support the financial rescue plan back in September. If we had not acted together--Democrats and Republicans--this economic crisis would have already become an economic catastrophe."

According to Summers, President Obama "shares the frustration of the American people" and "believes the American people are right to be angry with the way this plan has been implemented." Obama "believes there has been too little transparency and accountability." But, Summers promises: "That will change when President-elect Obama takes office. Today, he is asking for the authority to implement the rest of the financial rescue plan because the American people need to know ...