The Senate is scheduled to vote today on a slightly modified version of the bailout bill. They now prefer it to be called a rescue bill, as though that made it better or more honest.
All of those calls Congress has been receiving are against bailing out Wall Street but favor rescuing Main Street. It doesn’t mean the bill has actually changed that much. It’s just an attempt to, dare I say it, put lipstick on a Congressman.
There are two changes from the bill that failed the House on Monday. The first may be of a little assistance on Main Street. It raises the FDIC coverage to $250,000.
The first politician to suggest this was Obama. McCain not only followed with his support but unexpectedly credited Obama. If only such behavior was not such an aberration. Has there been a change in medication?
The other change comes straight from BizarroWorld. The reasoning is that, because Republicans in the House failed to support the bill, they need an incentive. Let’s give ‘em a tax cut. It won’t be just a tax cut but one without any attempt to balance it with alternate revenue or a spending cut. That should attract them as easily as three lines of coke.
The problem isn’t that we need to cut revenue while shelling out a trillion dollars. The problem isn’t that corporations are bearing too heavy a burden while shitting on the taxpayer. The problem isn’t that the bill needs the support of twelve more House Republicans.
The Democratic Black and Hispanic Caucuses didn’t support the bill. That is far more than twelve votes. Why? They felt that it was requiring their constituents to bail out Wall Street. They want a real rescue, not a bit of linguistic legerdemain.
The bill, despite growing from less than three pages to one hundred ten, retains the basic Paulson prescription. It gives unparalleled powers to the Secretary with ineffective oversight. It relies on money going out the door that is misdirected. It is a sane plan only if you are the recipient of that unwarranted largesse.
Giving the criminals money in return for bad paper doesn’t seem too smart. Then selling that bad paper back to those same criminals at a loss doesn’t seem too smart. Then cutting taxes on those criminals when the market recovers and makes the bad paper better doesn’t seem too smart. Sorry, I forgot we were dealing with Congress,
The government should deal directly with the homeowners. The prime directive should be to try to keep the homeowner in the home, keep extra inventory from further depressing the real estate market. There is no need to make the criminals middlemen. If you do, you know where all the money will end up.
The ideological idiots will scream bloody murder. They will use those bogeyman words, such as socialism, nationalize, even communism. Don’t be scared little fellow. Neither do they understand the meanings of those words nor do they care about solving the problem. They just want their friends to further enrich themselves in hopes that they will receive more scraps from the table. Anyway, we hillbillies just love to hear ‘em holler.
These people are loud-spoken advocates of the free market, of capitalism, of the invisible hand, until it strikes them down. When their ideology blows up in their faces they are first in line with their hands out, begging for welfare. They are hypocrites. They are liars. They are greedy. They are thieves. They are ignorant bungholes. They are not people you should invite into your home for dinner if you have anything of value left. These are not nice people. They are probly frum up North.
I recognize how slight the chances are of a rational plan emanating from Washington. But such a bill would receive the support of the above mentioned caucuses. The results would be easy passage of the bill, avoiding a raid on our Treasury, quicker recovery from this mess and fewer homeless people.
I stumbled across a fairly good description of Congress. It happens to be from 2005 but the composition there changes little. Almost all were reelected.
36 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71, repeat, 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 currently are defendants in lawsuits. And
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
{ 2 comments }
“They are hypocrites. They are liars. They are greedy. They are thieves. They are ignorant bungholes. ”
You forgot to call them carpetbaggers!
No. Most of them are still up in the Union.
I couldn’t say what I really thought. After all, the Net has some limits.
Comments on this entry are closed.