Now, public is spurring Congress to act
By Gail Russell Chaddock | 10.01.08
Washington – The tide is shifting over prospects in Congress for an epic $700 billion financial rescue package.
The reason: Voter anger over a “bailout” for Wall Street, which nearly shut down switchboards on Capitol Hill last week, is being eclipsed by new evidence that the credit crisis is hitting Main Street – and is on track to get worse.
“I got a call yesterday from a car dealer in Las Vegas saying, ‘I can’t buy any more cars.’… If somebody buys a car, most of them can’t get a loan,” said Senate majority leader Harry Reid on Wednesday.
The stunning defeat of the financial rescue plan in the House on Monday sent the stock market plunging and prompted renewed efforts on both sides of the aisle to find a compromise. At the same time, business groups stepped up an all-out offensive to muscle a bill across the line this week.
“The pain on Main Street is real. It’s being felt,” says Bruce Josten, chief lobbyist for the US Chamber of Commerce, which has been mobilizing local chambers across the country to weigh in on this vote.
“It’s been a 24/7 exercise in improvisation. There’s no playbook for a crisis like this,” he adds. “Members are beginning to realize that, despite ideological reactions, they’d better do something.”
In a bid to move a bill to President Bush’s desk by end of week, the Senate opted to vote on a compromise bill Wednesday evening. The new deal adds a package of tax breaks for business, as well as an increase in the government’s $100,000 cap on insuring bank deposits.
“We will have demonstrated to the American people that we could deal with the crisis in the most difficult of times, right before an election, when the tendency to be the most partisan is the greatest,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who predicted that the revised plan would pass.
Meanwhile, House members across the political spectrum have been scrambling to add their own elements to a plan that many see as one that must pass this week.
It’s creating some odd ideological matchups. House progressives, on the left of the Democratic Party, announced on Tuesday that they are working with conservative Republicans on low-cost or no-cost alternatives to relieve credit markets. Such alternatives would have less risk to taxpayers than the $700 billion “bailout.”
“That’s a common theme among members both who voted for the bill and who voted against the bill: Don’t put the taxpayers at risk,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D) of Oregon, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, at a briefing Tuesday.
The progressive caucus proposal includes rule changes in the Securities and Exchange Commission aimed at increasing liquidity, such as requiring the SEC to suspend fair-value accounting standards. (This so-called mark-to-market rule forces financial institutions to mark assets to the market value, even if that means dropping still-performing assets, such as some mortgage-backed securities, to zero.)
It’s a policy change also endorsed by many House Republicans. And in an independent move, the SEC on Tuesday posted clarifications that ease that rule.
GOP presidential nominee John McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama, who both spoke with Mr. Bush on Tuesday, urged Congress to add a provision increasing insurance coverage from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).
With two-thirds of the House Republican caucus on record opposing the Bush administration’s plan, the focus is on Senator McCain to help flip enough GOP votes in the House to pass a bill this week. “It took Congress awhile, and there were costs to these delays. But they have awakened to the danger. And today, with the unity that this crisis demands, Congress will once again work to restore confidence and stability to the American economy,” McCain said in a speech on the economy in Independence, Mo., on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, regulatory agencies such as the SEC and FDIC are giving a nod to reform proposals on Capitol Hill. This week, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said she would seek a temporary increase in the deposit insurance limit.
“The SEC came out [Tuesday] with a clarification on fair-value accounting that would focus on the economic value of the assets. It looks like the SEC is finally moving on this,” says Melissa Netram, director of regulatory affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry-sponsored consortium in Washington.
“But since Congress didn’t pass the [rescue] legislation on Monday, the credit markets, not just the stock markets, suffered. This hasn’t been clear to the American public,” she adds. “The plan isn’t just for Wall Street, but also for Main Street.”
But lawmakers say the message from business groups suffering from a credit freeze is being heard, along with voters still angry over what they see as an undeserved, taxpayer bailout of Wall Street.
“At the grass-roots level, people are still largely opposed to this, but I talked to CEOs of healthcare organizations, business leaders, auto dealers, all of whom say that this credit crisis is real,” says Sen. John Thune (R) of South Dakota. “They believe that steps need to be taken to ensure that we don’t have a crisis that limits credit to those businesses that operate on credit.”
“This is going to happen,” says lobbyist Josten. “The last House vote was a ‘conscience vote’ that wasn’t whipped on either side. But the credit crisis is now so great that some local businesses aren’t making payrolls. Congress can’t afford not to act.”
<< Ireland’s bailout proposal boosts confidence | MainComments
2. EvissaP | 10.01.08
When you say the public is spurring congress now to act, what public are you speaking of? Everyone that I know has opposed this, and still does today. “Public” is a very broad word. People should pay attention and do their own research as to who and why people are voting against this bill.
Thanks
3. Dena | 10.01.08
Problem is, there is absolutely no confidence that anything coming from this administration is true. This is the same “emergency” technique used to sell the Iraq war and the Patriot Act. How stupid would we have to be to fall for the same thing THREE TIMES! Having a banker like Paulson in charge is like having the fox in charge of the henhouse! “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent they conquered.” Thomas Jefferson.
4. Joe | 10.01.08
Taxation without representation is treason, our elected officials are selling us out to corporate America’s greed. If the plan is to buy all these so called toxic debts and then sell them when things turn around, why do we need to buy them in the first place. Let the company’s that hold them sell them when things get better. Not only do they want the US tax payers to buy these debts, they want us to buy them above fair market value. Talk about insulting our intelligence.
5. Charles Jones | 10.01.08
I’m with Dena on this one. I’ve been wondering the same thing: These Republican Congressmen who stood up against the bill (at least on the first round) because it was “unAmerican” to bail out failed businesses — and I tend to agree, especially when the businessmen are fatcats — but where were these same guys during votes relating to the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq? Wasn’t a bill to spy on Americans “unAmerican”? Going to war against a country that posed no real threat to us, wasn’t that unAmerican? These politicians are such hypocrites.
6. freaksloan | 10.01.08
Can anybody in the media be honest? 75 to 80% of people are still against this bill if not more. Just go to Congress.com and read the letters to leaders.
If McCain supports this bill I will not be voting for him come Nov. 4th, and I will not be voting for any Republican incumbents.
7. Mike Fox | 10.01.08
I am one of the public who is spurring Congress to act. If you who are so opposed to this because of lacking confidence in the Bush administration, that is understandable, but it is time you took the blinders off and realized that the US economy is in the tank according to every expert. What got us into this is a bunch of highly complicated financial transactions and if the public believes doing nothing is not going to cost them anything, they are in for a rude shock. If this bailout or rescue plan does not pass this week, just kiss your retirement goodbye.
8. Janet Gilles | 10.01.08
Well of course we ought not to trust the Bush Administration but here’s what one of the few voices to oppose the Iraq war from the beginning says about the current crisis:
Obama Returns To Senate: Obama spoke on the Senate floor tonight, voicing his support for the bill as a “necessary but not sufficient step”:
“I understand completely why people would be skeptical when President Bush called for a blank check to solve this problem,” he said.
“There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is not the time to argue about how it got set or did the neighbor…leave the stove on,” Obama said. “Right now we want to put out that fire…”
…”This will not solve all our problems,” he said. “It is a necessary but not sufficient step.
9. Jill | 10.01.08
I figured that all those House Representatives would get back to their districts, and the business owners would start calling them… and that is the money people who pay for their campaigns, not our 25 dollar donations! So of course they will start to listen to the business owners. I’m not sure that they rightfully shouldn’t listen to them… they may be the first ones hit by this crisis… but soon after it will be the cut back of the jobs…
10. DaveK | 10.01.08
Was this article sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce? This “public” mentioned in the article sounds to me like a few selfish CEOs, not the people who have to pay for the plan. Maybe all those e-mails being sent via the House web site (forcing it to shut-down) and phone calls jamming the switchboards are all CEOs expressing their interest in passing this legislation? I don’t see any “tide shifting”. All I see is propaganda.
11. Sammy | 10.01.08
What people don’t seem to hear from the economists is the credit crunch will still come even if this bill passes. Will these car dealers lend to the same people who aren’t paying back their mortgages? If the crisis is so bad, who will they lend to. Unfortunately, we’ll now pay for the years of living beyond our means. The worst part is Americans are now mortgaging their grandchildren’s future. America, transforming into a nation of wage earners.
12. Andy | 10.01.08
Nice Jefferson quotatation. I personally don’t know anyone who supports this bill either; the proposed solution encourages the same pattern of indebtedness and mis-guided speculation that got us here in the first place. How about this instead: you want money?…sell something. Don’t have anything to sell?…file for bankrupcy and rent instead. No assets, buyers, job, or prospects?…live in a friend or relative’s house, clean and cook for them, and go back to school. Let’s cut our losses and move on. Don’t give the greedy children your money until they learn how to spend it.
13. ZachJones | 10.02.08
It is important for the media to start accurately reporting how we got into all this mess.
It seems that President Clinton does not follow the narrative of Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Obama. See: Mr. Obama’s “deregulation” trope may be good politics, but it’s bad history and is dangerous if he really believes it at:
http://zachjonesishome.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/mr-obamas-deregulation-trope-may-be-good-politics-but-its-bad-history-and-is-dangerous-if-he-really-believes-it/
14. Rob Hoff | 10.02.08
Well, I hate to use the analogy but it looks like they whipped out the tube of lipstick on this one. What a boondoggle, an increase of over billion dollars to the originally proposed $700 billion!! Why do they continue to ignore the constituency. The national debt burden is now over 10 trillion dollars, money is flowing out of this country faster than we can print it and because of that fact the fundamentals of our economy are not sound - I will have to read the text of the bill but my gut feeling is that this is a trillion dollar bandage on a septic wound. I hope the house blocks this and embraces Congressman Defazio’s plan as a first step in truly addressing the issues facing our economy.
15. Joe Cason | 10.02.08
“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.”
—Ayn Rand, 1975
These words were written more than 30 years ago, but they apply exactly to today’s financial crisis. Today’s problems are the result of a government-controlled financial and housing system that rewarded irrational behavior and punished responsible behavior. Yet they are being blamed on “the free market”—with more controls offered as the solution.
Why? For the same reason that the controls were passed in the first place. The dominant moral and political ideas in our culture lead Americans to believe that a free market, with its unfettered pursuit of self-interest, is immoral and destructive—whereas a government that controls and manipulates the economy in some indefinable “public interest” is seen as a source of economic security and prosperity.
The Love of Evil is the Root of All Money…Fiat, that is.
16. Jeff | 10.02.08
Of course a Vegas car-dealer’s customers can’t get loans! Giving out bad loans was what got us into this mess!
Main Street will be hit because so many people have been living beyond their means by using credit cards and loans.
It’s time for a wake-up call. I don’t see the bailout as just helping CEOs. It’s helping everyone who has been living it up without any sense of caution.
Yes, things will get bad… but America can weather this storm. If we keep doing bailouts (remember the S&L Scandal?) then we might not weather the next.
We need to take our lumps to have a stronger country in the future.
17. Art Hickman | 10.02.08
This is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people for the people.
Our Senators showed their true colors yesterday.
They have told the people we no longer have a say in our government.
So we are now a government of the politicians, by the politicians for the politicians.
This is a massive cover up. The people who failed to do their jobs in the 90’s and the 00’s are covering up and proclaiming themselves as the new people’s saviors.
I think it’s time we institute Term Limits, limiting the amount of time the crooks can feed at the public trough.
18. Buddy | 10.02.08
Fail to see the connection between buying toxic waste and buying a car. In the WaPo there is an article about the crud showing up in European banks. The US is broke, Europe will not take it, how will there be a market for this stuff. Obama is so gungho ask him how he will pay for it. Tax the poor, there are more of them and they are powerless. I feel confidence returning.
19. Rachel Findley | 10.02.08
Improve the bailout, pass it, and work to reframe the economy.
I share the widespread outrage at those whose greed, short-sightedness, and arrogance wiped out the safeguards that would have prevented the crisis of trust we are in. As a woman in my sixties primarily dependent on a retirement fund, I share the anxiety over the future of the economy and the vanishing prospects for my own personal prosperity. I share the concern of all fair-minded Americans for those who have already lost their homes and jobs and small businesses, but will find the present bail-out bill “too little, too late.”
I hope that Congress will improve the present bail-out bill to strengthen financial safeguards, put a moratorium on foreclosures on primary homes, renegotiate mortgages in the light of present home values, and extend unemployment benefits.
After getting the best possible bill, I hope Congress will pass it. We can then prepare the ground for a far better reframing of our economy, so that prosperity can be built from the bottom up, depending as it should on the well-being of ordinary Americans, sober financial practices, and basic honesty. Some improvements can be made over the next several months; next January, we can begin to make a thorough reframing of the economy.
20. Jhonny | 10.02.08
It is true that the Republican led deregulation caused this. It is also true that democrats, pandering to their base constituents, caused this by forcing banks to lend to people that could not afford to pay it back. The American people- competing with their neighbors to always have more, buy more, get more also caused this. And the Bush administration saw these problems and tried to warn us- but did not warn us loud enough.
Everyone is guilty. But finger pointing will not solve the problem.
It is time for America to swallow its medicine. This bail-out only delays the inevitable.
21. Sheryl Hill-Tanquist | 10.02.08
We definitely need a bill that insures bank deposits–even if we ourselves don’t have that much money in the band–and makes money available for loans. Otherwise, we’ll have a repeat of the Great Depression but no reason to believe we’ll ever get out of it because in the 1940’s we had unplumbed reserves of oil, great forests of uncut lumber, and many other resources that made us a rich nation. The fundamentals of our economy are very different now–we’ve been sliding downhill for years and the question is not whether we’re going to be in pain, but how much pain. See http://sheryhtblog.blogspot.com for some ideas about how we might handle the fuel crisis and global economy more constructively in the future. I think this new plan is a good idea.
22. JimC | 10.02.08
We’re not even halfway through the wave of bad home loans with escalating interest rates that caused this mess. My question is, are we going to have to continue to foot $700 billion every year if bills are passed to forestall a recession/depression?
When Japan’s market crumbled from bad loans around a decade ago, proping up those bad loans with money from the government didn’t work - it just made the pain drag out longer. I see no reason this tactic will work in the US either.
24. Dianne | 10.02.08
The House has a reasonable solution that doesn’t bankrupt us and attacks the problem.
Its DeFazio’s “No Bailout” that is similar to the Resolution Trust program that worked with failing Savings and Loans. Of Course, No Fat Cats got paid with that one!
The troubled S&Ls became partners with the govt. They sold the S&Ls assets together.
The taxpayers paid nothing! (Comparatively speaking..I guess it cost about one and half billion.)
Let’s bombard the House of Representatives today!!! We could save $$$ Trillionssss !!!
I read the first version put out by the house, it indicated that this is just the BEGINNING!
25. EricPrentis | 10.02.08
The bailout of Wall Street crooks is a simple money grab as President Bush and his Goldman Sachs’ cronies scurry out the door. Democrats are being scared into supporting this foolish bailout because they don’t want the Republicans to blame them for the US recession. Because the Democrats have weak knees, the America people are going to take it in the gut.
26. NancyAnne | 10.02.08
No one noticed businesses failing to be unable to meet their payrolls, (a business that has to borrow to meet their payroll probably shouldn’t be in business anyway)individuals who are credit worthy not being able to get a loan, or any of the other doomsday scenarios poltiicians are using to railroad this [foul language] through. I also think it’s an out and out lie that phone calls to Congress are 50/50 or that people don’t understand this bill. The fact is the more people learn, the more appalled they are, that’s why there’s such a rush to pass this asap. So we get courageous Democrats adding another 100,000,000,000 to this giveaway to get Republicans to vote for a bill Bush thinks is necessary. Tweddledum and Tweeledee both dependent on Wall Street to remain in office. Apparently, that priority is more important than the American people.
27. PW | 10.02.08
It won’t save us from the present foolishness, but it seems there may be one silver lining opportunity once this is over: Term Limits.
For decades, it would have been foolish for individual states to impose term limits on their federal legislators because of seniority. Any one state that imposes the limits would continually send its legislators to the back of the seniority bus.
After this, I expect a lot of people who vote for the bailout will be voted out of office. If the landscape is new enough, it would be the perfect time for a national referendum putting term limits on all Senate and House seats. The playing field would be at its most level in decades.
Don’t expect anyone in Congress to propose this. Their job is to keep getting reelected, and for that they look to lobbyists for cash. That’s why we can’t get any kind of meaningful campaign reform passed.
It’s time to take away the incentive for Congress to cowotow to lobbyists, and to force the lobbyists out altogether. But that has to start with reducing the legislators’ incentive to play to them.
The movement to limit congressional terms and force out lobbyists will have to come from the people, preferably in the form of a constitutional amendments. We are not likely to generate such broad support for these measures again in our lifetimes.
If we take this lying down, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
28. MDN | 10.02.08
POWER to the PEOPLE!!!!!
“A kind of projection of American foreign policy over the next 40, 50 or 100 years in which, I think, we’re called upon for the first time to make a kind of decision as to whether or not we conceive of our role as a kind of continuous performance demonstration that we can police the planet, or whether we’re prepared to try to direct it by way of the influence of our ideas and of our nonmilitary potential. Strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes we will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”
— Winston Churchill
“A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens,”
Justice Sandra
Day O’Connor
“Wars are poor chisels
for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
Martin Luther King
“I pledge allegiance to the president and the oil company(s)
for which he stands, one nation under GOP, easily divided,
with liberty and justice for all who can afford it.”
Me 2008
29. Peter Mackrael | 10.02.08
VOTE NO TO THE REVISED PAULSON BAIL-OUT BILL!
Dear Representative,
I agree that government action is needed but I urge you to reject the Revised Paulson Bail-Out Bill tomorrow and demand a better solution. There are other methods for banks to raise capital and increase liquidity that do not require taxpayers to buy worthless debt paper from irresponsible investment bankers. Why are other proposals not being debated?
The Paulson proposal will not solve the liquidity problem. Recent bail-outs have already cost the US taxpayers about $700bn. In addition, the government recently provided $700bn to European banks with no effect on liquidity. If this bill is approved today by the House, these interventions will increase US debt to about $12 trillion. Foreign lenders now hold about 40% of US debt. This bill may reassure them for a short while until they see that US debt continues to increase while GDP declines. This bill may delay but will certainly not prevent a recession in the US. However, this bail-out program will severely limit spending on social programs for many years to come!
It is just plain wrong to privatize profits while socializing losses. Instead of solving the liquidity crisis, this bill will transfer $700bn from the poorest 90% (working taxpayers) to enrich the wealthiest 10% who hold debt derivatives and shares in these investment banks. Which debt paper will we buy and at what piece? This effort will provide a grand opportunity for graft and fraud. It will be impossible to establish a fair value for this worthless debt paper but consulting fees to the government will be huge. While this bill will transfer public wealth to political friends of both parties in the Wall Street community, it will do nothing to prevent further consolidation and restructuring by US banks. This $700bn will not be enough. These banks will soon demand more!
Here is one possible alternative. The five big investment banks: Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have recently morphed into regular banks. In effect, these investment banks have increased their asset base while transferring their bad debt assets to commercial banks. If these new banks require additional liquidity, existing regulations allow them sell assets to private investors to raise additional capital. In addition, they can borrow from the Fed, their lender of last resort. This liquidity emergency is exactly what the Fed was created for. If these banks are still unable to obtain enough liquidity to provide consumer loans and adequate operating capital to US businesses, the federal government should buy or establish a national bank for this purpose.
Meanwhile we need to re-establish and enforce investment banking regulations. Also we need an independent investigation to understand how and why the investment banks and government got us into this liquidity crisis so it can be prevented in future. I believe it is likely that stock manipulation and outright fraud has been committed in recent months.
30. rick samano | 10.02.08
Most people I know STILL do not support a bailout of the failed get rich quick crowd.too bad for them.
31. jerry rubin | 10.02.08
The only comment left is you voted for him or the two state made it seem like you voted for him.
32. Brad Stockham | 10.02.08
Low interest rates on savings. High interest rates on loans and credit cards. If your having financial problems and it reflects on your credit score banks increase the interest rate even more. Kicking a person about while they are down and out. Congress and the media are far out touch with the average citizens problems.
33. Cecilia | 10.02.08
We urge the Congress to insist on some basic conditions for any bailout.
Public Oversight. This kind of power can never be centralized in a single individual – much less one who did not even stand for election. Any funds must be controlled by an independent entity, with consumers and workers given seats on its board. Congress should be empowered to name independent monitors and to approve all board members.
Protect the Taxpayer. The Treasury bill would have taxpayers buying paper that nobody else wants at prices far above its current value. If a firm wants to auction off its toxic paper to the US Government, taxpayers should get equity in that firm equal to any amount paid in excess of the paper’s value. This will deter profitable firms from using the government as a dumpster for their toxic paper. And it will insure that if the bailout works and the firms become profitable, taxpayers, not simply bankers, benefit from the upside.
Curb the casino. This crisis was caused because sensible regulations of the banking system that worked for dozens of years were dismantled or went unenforced. No bailout can go forward without requiring the necessary regulation to insure this does not happen again. Any institution, which receives assistance, should agree to come under a microscope going forward in terms of disclosure requirements, and it should have stringent capital requirement imposed upon it.
Invest in the real economy. Ending the bankers strike is not sufficient enough to avoid the recession into which we have been driven. Major public investment in new energy and conservation, rebuilding schools and infrastructure, extending unemployment and food stamps, helping states avoid crippling cuts in police and health services – is vital to get the real economy moving and put people back to work. No bailout should proceed without being linked to support for a major public investment plan to get the economy going.
Hold CEOs and Boards of Directors Accountable. Wall Street CEOs shouldn’t be pocketing millions while taxpayers are forced to bail them out. Any firm that applies for relief must agree to cancel all stock option programs and CEOs should have stringent limits placed on their compensation until the Company has repaid all taxpayer assistance.
Aid the victims, not just the predators. Both bankers and home owners made foolish bets that home prices would keep rising. Many homeowners, however, were misled by predatory lenders into taking mortgages that they didn’t understand and couldn’t afford. It would be simply obscene to help the predators and not those that they preyed upon. No bail out of the banks should take place without measures to help people in trouble stay in their homes. Explicit provisions should ensure use of the full array of financial and legal tools available to the government to stop foreclosures and restructure home mortgage loans for ordinary Americans, including amending the bankruptcy code to allow judges to modify mortgages. Where workouts are not feasible, people should be allowed to stay in their homes as renters.
34. Alec Mento | 10.03.08
“Public is spurring Congress to act” — and the article proves this statement by quoting four Senators, one Representative, a lobbyist, and someone who works for an “industry-sponsored consortium.” I don’t see anyone from “the public” in that list. They couldn’t even get a quotation from one of Tom Friedman’s cab drivers?
35. Beth | 10.03.08
Our Senators and Congressmen and women stopped listening to us citizens a long time ago.
Big Business and their full time lobbyists in Washington DC, where I have lived all my life, run things now.
This bailout is supposed to save and stimulate our nation and the economy. To me we are rewarding the greedy methods of many who have now left us with their mess to resolve.
I was always taught to run my home and my family with prudence and not live to the very edge of our means.
I don’t have the big house that makes me mortgage poor, or large credit card debts. In the last 20 years, I watched friends and neighbors move up to large homes that put their money to the limit, bigger cars, and more things with their credit cards.
Despite living a moderate life, when I could have lived more lavishly, the actions of others are deeply affecting mine now as the economy is in dire straits, gas is up, winter fuel is up, food is up, and our the worth of our dollar is going down all the time.
So the greedy and foolish actions of many affect us all.
We are still in for lean days ahead, while no new regulations of these firms, or better oversight of their executives have been talked about. So what have we gained, aside from a huge white elephant of debt.
PS: Congress has done us no favor by passing this, us middle class as usual will end up being affected the most because of these bailout measures.
36. magdelyn | 10.04.08
It was revolting to watch congress tripping over themselves to save thier constituency, Wall Street. Members of congress wouldn’t cross the street to help home owners in trouble. The mainstream media is trying to convey that the American public, within two days, has all of a sudden turned around and now support this travesty. Baloney. No one I know supports this bailout. We have been betrayed.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Mike | 10.01.08
Why are we complaining?
During 8 years of this administration, deficit went up by 5 trillion. That is over 600 billion a year. And that is not counting spending Social Security surplus. What is another trillion? And lets put ex CEO of Goldman Sachs in charge. I am sure White house, congress, senate, Wall Street have our best interests in mind. I am surprised that anyone still has any respect left for them.
But, if you are behind a few bucks on your taxes, IRS will put take your assets. Oh well, we have democracy! Lets spread more freedom around the world. After all every country should be just like us. Hail the freedom fries! Congress had nothing better to do then rename them and investigate steroid usage in Baseball! WHAT A JOKE!
VOTE THEM ALL OUT!