One More Time!!

The American people are a fickle lot. They want Congress to vote against the "Wall Street Bailout." But they also support the plan. They're against Wall Street and Washington, but want to make sure that they're covered.

So, on Monday, listening apparently to constituents 67% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats voted against the bill. And the market dipped mightily, only to rise again on hopes that the adults in the Senate would get this thing done. And, the Senate has decided to act first, though this is not how these things normally go. But then again, these aren't normal times.

The Senate negotiators have decided to sweeten the deal a bit. They're going to add some tax cuts to the bill, and of course Republicans love tax cuts. Democrats aren't thrilled, but most say they'll hold their noses and vote for it. My expectation is that the Senate will pass the legislation, with McCain, Obama, and Biden all voting yes. At the Presidential level electoral race level, that should remove partisanship (hopefully) and allow both sides to vote accordingly.

So, we continue to wait!

As a Democrat, I do put much of the blame for this mess on the Republicans. After all, Republicans have controlled the White House for the past 8 years, and Congress from 1994 to 2006. That being said, everyone can share in some of the blame. Now, it's time to resolve the problem!

Comments

Anonymous said…
My belief is we all have a front row seat at just how awful congress is. Its rather sad our two presidential choices came from this same body. No wonder senators RARELY win the White House.

Its interesting I watched a video on the Faith of the Founding Fathers.. it would be enough to make the AFL-CIO protest the whole Constitution.. but thats another story. The root of the whole issue is really man's sin, specifically greed. Its greed by banks, greed by politicians now trying to weigh down the bill with earmarks, its greed by presidential candidates spinning the crisis to their favor. Its fascinating as our society moves further and further from God, we need more laws rather less. That is not smarter or more moral as society "evolves", rather it requires more laws, more ways to lock down behavior as man is allowed to go wild when the move further away Biblical teaching. Just a thought.
Bryant Arms said…
I wouldn’t be surprised if the recent overhaul of bankruptcy legislation was designed for this economic situation; it turns human debtors into indentured servants. And that is necessary for the following reason:

The ’sssssss’ we are noticing with this credit crunch is just the leak before the big burst. This credit bubble has been inflated by a logorithmic base 10 scale of dollar creation.
The practice of using 90% of ‘real’ wealth for lending that can then be invested and re-deposited for recycling again and again for more and more credit probably has the same effect of simply printing more money. The difference between those two ways of creating wealth is that creating money by credit inflation redistributes wealth for the benefit of financiers. And printed money is real; not fake.

This credit bubble burst should, then, be creating a shortage of money. And the cure may be as simple as the government printing more money. The only problem with that scheme is that there would not be another bubble to burst to correct for over-inflation. Printed dollars don’t evaporate away like the ones the financiers are trying to sell taxpayers now.

And that is why those who have engineered this bubble need those new draconian bankruptcy laws. Only wage earners can turn this fake money into real wealth. And that is why the Bush administration and other supporters of the great bailout plan are adamantly against giving bankruptcy judges the right to restructure debt according to who is most responsible for making bad loans.

Bryant Arms

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