1. Economic Blunders | 10.02.08

We, the working class have bailed out the Wall Street elite, have been gouged by the oil companies, and have had all of our good jobs exported now we are going to be gouged by taxes. We have broken the camels back. Take a look at this http://www.BuyMyHouseBeforeTheBankTakesIt.com ; this is the future for America’s working class.

2. anonymous | 10.02.08

The congressmen who are agoainsnt this bill need to wake up and smell the coffee. Look around you. Banks are failing, brokerage firms are failing, jobs are being lost; the real estate market is going to completely freeze up. Are the fools in congress at all in touch with what is going on around them. For any congress person to see waht is happening to the economy and not vote for this bill is unconscienable. Spending is sometime warrented. When you child is sick and needs medicine does your parent say well I ahve always been known as thrifty? The economy is really sick. It will die in fact if these congressmen don;t wake up. Also this bill is NOT A BAILOUT OF WALL STREET. wHOMEVER IS RESPONSIBLE CALLING THIS BILL A BAILOUT SHOUD BE FIRED. There is no wall street folks gwetting rich from this bill. What the bill will do is give the middle class a shot at keeping their jobs; protecting what is left of their 401k plans; maintinng thier ability to get mortgages and car loans. This bill my friend is for middle and all of america. AND NOT WALL STREET. Unless you want to see the next great depression you had better call your congresspeople and knock some sense into them. The taxpayer is getting screwed becasue all of there investments retirment plans Homes are getting shedding. Yet these fools in congress are talking about protecting the taxpayer. If this bill isn’t passed and soon there will be no one with income and or a job to be a taxpayer

3. Richard Thomas | 10.02.08

Seems that the bankers and Wall Street are extorting wealth from the citizens.

They control the citizen’s monetary system and can incite fear by locking up credit.

You can read about the flaws in the current system at http://coinage.me
as well as the solution a new global value exchange system owned and run by economic participants.

4. Peter Trutmann | 10.02.08

WELL MOST OF THE SENATE IS NOT UP FOR ELECTION… THE CONGRESS IS. I BELIEVE THIS EXPLAINS THE RESULTS.

I read Tuesday in the NYT that representatives who voted for the bill in congress received 51% more funds from financial institutions (called FIRE industries) than those voting no. In this election cycle, the 140 House Democrats who voted for the bailout bill collected 78 percent more from the FIRE industries than the Democrats who opposed it. Republicans in the House that voted yes on the bailout bill got an average of 23 percent more in contributions from the FIRE industries in this election cycle than House Republicans who voted against it. (URL http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com… ).

Interestingly enough, according to a BBC article only two of the 205 members who supported the bill (Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays and Nevada Republican Jon Porter) reportedly face difficult re-election prospects in November - the vast majority of those with tough electoral contests ahead were among the “Nays”. (URL http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7644259.stm).

Now that would make the votes of either party quite less altruistic? Looks like a sad but sobering day indeed about the state of the peoples representatives in Washington DC. Lets stop bickering on which party is to blame look at the attitude of each representative of both parties… Looks like there may be only few brave leaders out there fighting for the country and not themselves. What a blessing that it is an election year. Our one chance to have influence on the democratic process of the country!!!

THE SENATE IS DIFFERENT. Only 33 are up for election this year. And guess what happened? In other words there is no accountability for most Senate members. I suspect financial Industry lobby Hill have had a larger influence on them. If I’m right then most of the 33 should have voted against and those not worried voted for the bill. Who Hill check? It might explain why the Senate decided to vote on a Hill already rejected by Congress. It would be a psychological boost to the push for the Hill. There is a huge amount of money at stake.

5. Gloria Poole | 10.02.08

It does not help the nation to buy debt from crooks with debt from the citizen taxpayers. If the US Senate intends to increase the national debt by $700 Billion and up to a trillion dollars, then it must increase the taxes to cover it, or shift money from some other source. If they are intent on creating a financial fraud, then let us as taxpayers dismiss the US Congress– send them all home and save their salaries, perqs, staff salaries, office expenses etc to apply to the Wall St bail-out. Let the Senators make the sacrifice and not the taxpayers or the nations’ defense or the elderly or disabled. signed gloria poole, RN and artist, Denver
CO 80203

6. huck | 10.02.08

The bailout is based on lies, voodoo economics and the obvious culprits are being covered up. The culprits are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who made a market in subprime loans. The losers are either the american people or the corporations that are caught with speculation:

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/housewealth.htm

Don’t buy into the lies. Call your representative.

7. Godheval | 10.02.08

Has anyone even READ the text of this legislation? It is over one hundred pages long, and has provisions for all SORTS of things that are completely unrelated to the bailout. Does the average citizen, or even the average informed citizen, have any idea what this bill actually says? I got burned out after just skimming the thing.

Are we supposed to believe that the senators all READ the FULL text of this bill? I sincerely doubt that. And even the part that’s controversial - regarding the bailout - how is the average citizen supposed to even understand the text, with it written in such verbose legalese?

8. John | 10.02.08

Can someone tell me how increasing the FDIC from 100,000 to 250,000 really accomplishes anything?

9. Glenn | 10.02.08

I am constantly amazed at all of the articles being published on this bailout. Apparently, “This was a very hard decision”, is the only complaint expressed for this bailout.
This is socialism in the making, and will change the United States forever. The American people don’t want it, and neither did the politicians, until they tacked on more money that doesn’t even deal with the problem!
This is a Bad Thing, and nothing good will come of it.

10. Bill Dugan | 10.02.08

If this is such a national crisis and the entire financial system could collapse if it isn’t worked out a.s.a.p. - why did the House take two days off for Rosh Hashanah. If our country had been attacked on Monday, would the House have taken a holiday and waited two days to figure out what to do about it? The entire congress seems terribly out of touch with the people they are supposed to represent. Their work ethic seems predicated on getting re-elected, regardless of whether the nation is in peril or not. I’m disgusted by all of them.

11. W Haas | 10.02.08

Attaching more “Pork Barrel” spending to the bailout bill in the Senate was a cowardly thing to do! Do these people have no fiscal morals?

12. Will Christensen | 10.02.08

How can you tell when a politician is lying?
They move their lips!

Secretary Paulson chooses which banks get the money, including foreign banks. What will he get in return for choosing one bank over another?

Mr. Paulson already has multiple conflicts of interest from his past associations and investments with banks, both Chinese and American. Are we to trust almost a trillion dollars on the judgment of one man, the Secretary of the Treasury, whoever that may be?

This Bill is fatally flawed! Tell Congress to vote NO!

13. Sage2 | 10.02.08

So, we’re going to Borrow $700B from foreign money-lenders and use it to pay domestic and foreign money-lenders premimum prices for IOU’s (or parts thereof) that they aren’t willing to sell elsewhere.

14. Blair | 10.02.08

The greatest US economic boom accured after the depression. I filed for bankrupcy two decades ago. As an adult with the same skills as before my bankrupcy I found myself for the first time in my adult life, out of debt. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. From that day forward I was forced to be fiscally responsible. I eventually became responsible on my own. I consider myself lucky to have found a way for a fresh start. Credit is a two way street. The bank runs a risk just like me. I lost what I had and started over, so should the banks of today. Risk is proportianl to gain. Let the world go through another correction. This time let the regulations stand beyond the turn around. We apparently didn’t have any lasting lessons learned from the depression and let greed and expectations overwhelm our markets.

15. john | 10.02.08

a country in debt deals with a lot of stress.reduce the debt and you reduce stress.same as any household.no president should be eligable to be able to serve a second term unless he can reduce the national deficit by at least 10%.this would give them the incintive to get the country on the right track.

16. John | 10.02.08

The country is ready for this bailout.

http://www.FastArizona.com/McCain.html

17. Don Mac Brown | 10.02.08

What is galling about the failure of economic leadership is the fact that ordinary citizens like me were writing letters to the editor and asking their representatives in congress years ago to take action to stop sub prime, no down payment loans. If ever a disaster was predictable, it was the one caused by the combination of irresponsible mortgages and exploding housing prices. Out on mainstream, we sounded the alarm and those elected to lead closed their ears.

18. Earl | 10.02.08

Well wall street won while laughing all the way. They are now totally convienced that everyone has their price. I wonder what the total amount spent by the wall st bankers to our “representives” will be. On thing for sure, there will be a lot of new cars and houses purchased with our tax dollars.

19. susan chapman | 10.02.08

I agree you have got to move forward - this situation that banks etc have got themselves into needs to be resolved asap and hanging it out like this is doing no good whatsoever. Money is already being pumped in so you may as well pump in another 700bn - just get on with it so we all don’t have to spend our evenings watching bloomberg, cnn, sky and various other news channels so we can glean further updates on this dilemma. The longer this drags on the worse it will get.

20. Fidel St. Cruz | 10.02.08

I consider myself an independent conservative-liberal and I like what I was hearing from, I think, some members of the Republican Senate. Don’t bail out the top and hope it trickles to the bottom — bail out the bottom and watch as the taxes, etc. trickle up, and then let the market take care of the market. A bail out of this magnitude will only set a very dangerous precedent.

21. R L Collins | 10.02.08

In the interest of transparency, I’d like to see the list of the house members who flip flop their votes on this bill on a second attempt to bail out wall street. I’d like to know just what the back room boys added to the bill to buy their yes vote on the $700,000,000,000.00 bail out.

I suppose the bill will pass, and the taxpayer will get shafted as usual. Money talks. People whisper. Thank goodness, the election is only a month away and we can hold our representatives responsible if they allow this monstrosity of a bailout bill to pass. And if those who go along with this bailout are reelected, we will deserve the consequences.

Instead of the gloom and doom predictions by those who desperately want to offload this monstrosity onto the taxpayer, I suggest that a work-out will be quickly found by changes in the mark to market accounting ploy and by applying other tools available to the treasury. Sure, some banks will go bankrupt and the stockholders will be wiped out. Happens all the time in small business. But we will always have banks ready to make a profit lending out the money they get from the feds at higher interest than they pay the fed. Those institutions with better management will survive and prosper. The only reason for a bailout at taxpayer expense is to protect the present rulers of wall street who created this mess.

22. Dena | 10.02.08

Let’s be straight about this. Large multi-national corporations, together with US Chamber of Commerce, both of which have been in large part responsible for the destruction of our economy by lobbying relentlessly for cheap, imported labor and tax breaks for companies that outsource American jobs, has begun a campaign to ram this bill through by refusing to make campaign contributions to Congress if they vote against it. Congress is voting in its self-interest, and if the taxpayer has to suffer, so be it. Just once, though, I’d like to see one of them stand up and say “my job is on the line” instead of this bull about doing it for the “common good…” I think I’m going to throw up!

23. judy harl | 10.02.08

I as a voting fixed income retired government worker think all of the House of Representaives and our Senators especially Indiana where I am from and a registered voter should all lose their seats. It is not fair to good hard working middle americans to bail out the “Super-Rich”

You should all vote NO

24. Lil Canopi | 10.02.08

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

Pelosi: “[R]estore … Main Street’s confidence …”? WE ON MAIN STREET DON’T WANT THIS BAILOUT — READ YOUR EMAILS! (Only the Wall Street types do.)
Conrad: “4 million Americans will lose their jobs in the next six months”? They/we will lose those jobs ANYWAY! That’s what a (Wall Street caused) recession does! We’ll hurt, but we can take it, helping one another. Help US!

The pundits and talking heads (unfortunately, Warren Buffett, too) are [foul language]. Will the banks stop lending? If they do, WHERE WILL THEIR REVENUES COME FROM? This is a “supply and demand problem” (like gasoline?). The banks will charge more; BUT THEY HAVE TO LEND — or dry up and blow away. They might not lend to risky customers; but that’s what we want them (not) to do!

The Senate put lipstick on the pig. The House should send that pig away, again.

25. Chris | 10.02.08

We are still “giving” $700,000,000,000 ($700 billion) to Wall St. – that’s right to WALL ST. - to bail out institutions they drove into bankruptcy with garbage products they created and sold.

MORE TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICH? The plan could attract Republicans because of the tax cuts in the revenue bill with no spending cuts or increases in revenues. The bill includes relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, without which millions of rich Americans would have to pay the so-called “wealth tax.”

The bill adds new provisions - including raising the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000 from $100,000 - and will be attached to an existing tax bill that the House also rejected Monday. Who has that kind of money in the bank? Senators? The wealthy who are getting the tax breaks?
The bill, if approved, would allow the federal government to buy troubled mortgage-related investments from financial institutions, freeing them up for lending in a bid to pull the economy out of its credit freeze.

SAY WHAT ABOUT THAT PURCHASE?
Lawmakers are also considering a change in the “mark to market” accounting rule for valuing assets, the Wall Street Journal reports. That could make it easier for banks to value assets when there are no buyers. Oh, the banks can value this stuff such as worthless “credit default swaps” at any value they determine and that price will be used to sell these products to taxpayers. And hey, you can’t say no. Gee, that sounds good, right.
TRANSLATION: this means that these “troubled securities”, i.e., securities you can’t sell because they are worthless and on one will buy them, can be given a value by the bank holding them and then sold to the Fed, to Mr. Paulson (Daddy Warbucks the former CEO of GoldmanSachs).

REPEAT THAT PLEASE: The bank values — give a value to – something they have but don’t want, that is, has zero value, and sells it to the taxpayer at a value they decide.

Let me see, you are forced to buy a car and I have a 1973 Ford Pinto in my field that has been in several wrecks, has old rotten flat tires, no window and frozen pistons for lack of oil. Oh, I value it at $35,000. Your car dealer in charge is my dad, and you have given him the money already to look out for your interests. You have no say in the deal.

The only problem with the above scenario, my dad is honest. Paulson et al are not! Cheating the American people is modus operandi in Washington DC.

EXCUSE ME BUT IS THIS WHAT OUR REPRESENTATIVE HELD OUT FOR?

I.e., an unbearable burden to taxpayers and a rescue for Wall Street and the rich. What changed?

The rich got a tax break and the banks can value their own worthless products and sell them at prices they determine and the tax payer is a guaranteed buyer with no say, since we agree to surrender that privilege to the former head of Goldman Sachs, the man who made millions on this whole scam.

YEA, LETS VOTE FOR THAT. …NOT!!! THIS IS INSANE, ABSOLUTELY INSANE.

IF YOU’RE NOT SERIOUSLY TICKED OFF YOUR NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD.

26. Joseph Miglietta | 10.02.08

The bill is still unacceptable, unless some provision is included to penalize those responsible for this precarious situation and avoid similar situations in the future.

27. Dirty Sanchez | 10.02.08

Mexico here I come ariba ariba andelay!

28. Jacob | 10.02.08

This is corporate socialism at its finest. Do the tax payers split the profits of these corporations? Should the tax payers split the debt?

Americans should be outraged. Silence = Consent.

29. Scott P | 10.02.08

Businesses are born and die every day as do banks. The underlying issue is the big banks made decisions based on greed and loans were done that never should have (creative lending.) I do not think that ANY american citizen should bail out the banks that made the bad loans. The events that are happening are a NORMAL cycle of the economic cycle and will eventually return after if goes through this growing pain…remember what happened in the 1920’s?

30. Dean | 10.02.08

The Great Bailout.
We are in challenging times. We all know the list. On the Bailout I must make my voice heard.
Running a small business in Midland is not easy on any day. Credit is hard to get, but it should be. I remember when my wife and I needed a washer and dryer. We went to the bank for a loan and were turned down. Did the world stop? No. We went to the laundry and in no time we had saved the money to purchase them.
When congress talks about giving financial institutions $700 billion, it makes me wonder why? When congress says “we must”, I realize that the big companies that need the money. give very generously to both parties. So it’s in your best interest to say “trust us” we can sell their bad inventory even though the professionals couldn’t sell it. I do not believe congress when it says the CEOs won’t get big pay checks. If I made 2 million last year and the government said this year I can only make $400,000.00, I would retire. I am sure the next guy can work for the lower wage.
Congress says “we need it so everyone’s 401K or IRA doesn’t contiuie to lose value”. I believe if they pass the Bailout our dollar will lose value. Stocks could rise, but trust in the financial institutions will be gone. Foreign countries that own stocks will sell them, causing the price to go down again.
When Congress tells me “we need it so people can keep their houses”, I believe your message is that you don’t want my house you want me to keep paying my taxes. I do believe if that if the financial institutions fail it will be hard on us, but we will still have our $700 billion.
I believe we are a great country and we can get through this. Don’t use our money to bail out the companies that got us in this situation, and did it under the watchful eye of the congress.
Dean

31. Carolyn | 10.02.08

Pls change the bill to limit what assets the Sec of Treasury can buy.

They should be limited to mortgage-backed securities unless approved separately by commission or congress. Why should taxpayers pay for other people’s credit card debt, etc.?

32. Alex Krahn | 10.02.08

Wayne Allard (R) of Colorado is not facing reelection. He is retiring from the Senate this year and thus vacating the seat. Bob Schaffer (R) and Mark Udall (D) are running for his seat.

33. Global citizen | 10.02.08

I fail to understand how cheap, imported labor or outsourcing could destroy an economy. I mean how could cheap imported labor push the people to take loans beyond their ability to pay them back or for that matter how could outsourcing push the investment bankers to buy stockpiles of mortgage based security, the value of which is now equivalent to peanuts. Please give relevant reasons.

34. blunderdog | 10.02.08

I find it fascinating that because the bill failed in the House the first time, the Senate has bolted-on another bill that hasn’t been able to pass in the House.

That’s supposed to help this pass somehow.

Hm. No wonder so many Americans don’t follow this stuff. It’s often hard to understand any of the putative logic.

35. Steve | 10.02.08

Use the money to pay off the peoples mortgages. That will boost the economy. No lets give it back to the people that put us in the mess. I fall behind on my bills because of stupid decisions…………who bails me out?

36. BigM | 10.02.08

Dean- the concerns you raised about lobbyists, cheap import labor, corporate tax breaks, and so on are very valid. However, I do believe that this is one time that the bill is needed for the common good…hence the non party-line split in voting.
The US markets lost 1 TRILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY when the last vote was rejected, who paid for that? Stocks, bonds, investments, retirements, insurances, 401K’s, all people that have anything vested in the market (even a savings account). If the second vote goes down, we will lose many Trillions of dollars in the markets before all of the technical economic issues rebound and re-balance.
In another words, if we don’t pass this 700 billion dollar stimulation package, our cost will be in the many trillions of dollars for letting it work itself out naturally. You do the math…pay 700 billion now or 10 Trillion later, kind of like the premise behind a loan, ironically.
BigM

37. pam | 10.02.08

The entire executive and legislative branches of our government have failed the citizens of this country. It is not a Republican or Democratic issue — it is the fault of all of them. Their lack of due diligence and their self-serving ideologies have wreaked havoc for the past several years. The term “bailout” is just one more failure — this time it is the failure in their ability to express properly to the American public that in fact, the bill proposed is not a “bailout” nor a “Wall Street loan”. It is the taking on of bad debt that the government can afford to wait to be repaid with interest to the American people’s benefit. It does not exonerate Wall Street and does not put money in Wall Street’s pockets. If the house of representatives does not pass this bill promptly, then every last person in this country is going to be hurt — hyperinflation is a real possibility — there will be no loans so food chains can buy food and store shelves will empty. There will be no loans to small businesses and jobs will disappear.
The litany goes on and on. Those people who think this is about Wall Street have got it wrong — it is about the government’s failure to regulate Wall Street. It is about government overspending on everything from earmarks to the Iraqi War (Iraq, which by the way, was the only country that kept Iran in place). It is about the government’s failure to explore energy resources in this country and move forward more quickly on implementing alternative energy (hence dependence on oil from other countries). It is about the government’s failure to finish the war in Afghanistan (hence the Bin Ladin is still around doing damage costing billions more dollars). It is about the government’s failure to shore up the infrastructure of this country (more jobs and more efficiency). It is the government’s failure of excess and borrowing (how much do we owe China?.

So, for once some people in Congress are actually trying to do something good to save everyone from the government’s failures and people are only now shouting “we don’t want it” and some of our legislators are listening to them so they can be re-elected (more self-interest and failure). We have a chance to make a little progress and prevent suffering — don’t blow it!

38. Sparta | 10.02.08

What stands out most about Paulson’s original plan is how adolescent it was. It reads as though it were written by someone who did not have access to competent technical and professional help.

If you were to have asked a class of high school seniors to wate a plan for resolving the credit crisis and one of them produced Paulson’s 3 pages, no one would have taken it seriously. But, Mr. Money Bags writes it and wow, gee whiz, far out. This is the best the government can do? Then we don’t have a government, not that I thought we did. What we have is competing gangs fighting for a slice of the action.

All this log rolling added pages and pages, but it doesn’t address the root cause which is mortgage failures, and one mustn’t even notice the cost of continual warfare.

The proposed 700Bn bailout is a very bad piece of public policy, not least because it will fail in its supposed purpose. There would be a bounce in the Dow Jones. Has high valuations in the NYSE now a matter of national policy? However, this does not compel lending, does not forbid the practices that got us into this mess, will not save the country from economic depression.

Paulson intends only to save his friends, past that he has no agenda. Many people saw this coming. If Paulson and his crowd had wanted to do something about this credit crisis, they would have started months ago, at least, but the didn’t because their friends were making too much money. They thought they could skate until it became someone else’s problem. When it became apparent that they were going to have to act, what did Paulson say? Hand over 5% of GNP in small, unmarked bills; put them in a brown paper bag and don’t ask any questions. Paulson equals bailout. Paulson should resign. He is incompetent.

The situation is of great magnitude. It is absurd to rush into a “solution” without discussion of the root causes and thorough discussion of alternative approaches. We can do much better than this, but it requires telling people the truth.

NO BAILOUT!!!!!!!!!
Look at the dismal record of Paulson and Berneke. Week after week, billions and billions with assurances that this time, we have a fix. Let me ask what if Paulson’s plan DOESN’T work? There will be no second chance, no Plan B. Congress needs to get this right and being in a rush is antithetical to a good decision.

Just in passing, we could get double bang per buck by launching a program to reinstate passenger rail in the country. Good on the energy side, good on the energy side, good on the less driving side, good on the cost/benefit side. If any national political figure is thinking about this, they’re keeping it a secret.

39. Brun Dirk | 10.02.08

This bill, not $700 billion but now $850 billion is only in the interest of the corrupt CEO’s and politicians not the American people. We are being fed a bunch of lies.Nothing will change in the economy for the average working class people….I just ask myself how much greed is needed by one person ?? how many houses and airplanes can one own ?? This is not what life is all about.

40. Mark | 10.02.08

This bailout is a scam.

Taking money from responsible people to bail out the irresponsible and reckless has got to stop. It’s outrageous.

If Wall Street wants or needs a bailout, Wall Street can pay for it themselves. I’m still not convinced there is a credit crisis.

Why have we not heard from any bankers on this so called crisis? Vernon Hill, banker who built Commerce Bank in northeast was on CNBC 10/02/08 and said this bailout is not necessary. He did acknowledge that credit is harder to get and you have to qualify and demonstrate the ability to repay a loan. If that’s a credit crisis, then bring it on.

Keep the pressure on your representatives to kill a taxpayer funded bailout and let them know they will be unemployed come November if they vote for a bailout. Here is a link to contact information representatives

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress

41. C. P. Klapper | 10.02.08

This will be a disaster if it eventually passes. The problem is that our banking is tied up with speculative investing and the solution is a national bank which does not invest. This package will perpetuate the dependence of the system on the health of a few firms and reward waste, mismanagement and greed.

Please visit my link for more details about my solution, which is a real solution, to the financial crisis.

Thank you,
C. P. Klapper

42. jones | 10.02.08

ditto.

43. wolf | 10.02.08

Has anyone noticed that the stock market has not been responding as the news organizations have been reporting? When they believe the bills are going to pass or when the bill in the senate actually did… the stock market has gone DOWN with this news, not up.

I don’t think, Wall Street really wants this package. The day after it failed the house, stocks went up. The two days it was at Congress, the stocks went down.

44. Kim | 10.02.08

Again it is the people’s fault. You elected the money grubbing Congressmen that took lobbist money instead of looking at our own interests. I can’t wait to see how many are still in office after the election- proving that America is stupid and will re-elect the same people that ruin their lives.

Americans didn’t pay attention to their loans, or got mortages they shouldn’t have. They borrowed when reason and logic told them not to. They should blame themselves.

So blame yourself! Americans do not have to be sheep to the greedy CEOs and congressmen!
Use your brain and think for yourself!

45. Phil | 10.02.08

They are gambling with the full faith and credit of the US. If it doesn’t work, taking on more debt will not be an option and the situation compounds. About $43,000 in debt for every person in the US is a lot to pay down. The credit crisis is really a debt crisis, and bailing out the banks so that they can make more loans is an unlikey remedy. It maybe too late no matter what they do, and it is now time for a big recession to get rid of the excess banks and high price homes.

46. rick386 | 10.02.08

I’m not planning on borrowing any money soon. This bill is not gonna help me pay my mortgage. Why should I be in favor of me and my children paying to prop up the guys who caused the problem? I think if a few of these companies fail, someone else will take their place. And, I bet they won’t use the same practices that caused all of this. The big difference between now and the great depression is our midwest farmers aren’t dealing with a dustbowl. As long as we have food, we’ll get through. This may even help encourage a stronger shift towards energy independance. Has anyone noticed that illegals aren’t wanting to flood our workplace with cheap labor as much anymore?

47. Eli King | 10.02.08

When will America say enough is enough? These people are in office to represent us. (No taxation without representation) The majority of Americans are against this bill. Look at any poll that you want. They all say that America is against this bill. (Does everyone realize that our grandchildren will be paying for this bill?) But the powers that be are forcing this through the congress. Defeat it and we will just put it back through again until you don’t. Stand up against it and we will pressure you to change your mind. Where are the backbones of these leaders? Just say no. “The people I represent do not want this bill. I vote NO!” Please have courage enough to JUST SAY NO. Enough is enough!!!

48. Xios117 | 10.02.08

Ron Paul was one of the few who warned against this and told us how to prevent the crash… then we turn to the people who caused the problem to fix it?

This is unbelievable. I’ll be calling every member of the House tonight and tell the to vote this monstrosity down; for the sake of both capitalism and the dollar.

49. Mark | 10.02.08

If you are fiscally responsible, as really every American should be, the handwritting is on the wall for America and the message is not good!! We (the US)have now spent our way into 11.3 Trillion Dollars of debt with another 53 Trillion of promised Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid coming due that we will never be able to fund with our “house of cards ecomony” that has now collapsed before our eyes. And sadly, we Americans believe that the very same government that tried to legislate our “prosperity” over the past 25 years by spend spend spend will somehow rescue us with this short sited 700 Billion Dollar BAILOUT, from ecomonic pain we all will soon experience. Our President, the Media and most in Congress want a “yes” vote on the BAILOUT BILL to save our economy. But the “no” voters really see this problem for what it is and throwing 700 Billion Dollars at it will not fix it. America’s real threat is not an “economic credit crisis” but rather the American CREDABILITY CRISIS in Government, Business, Wall Street and Main Street that is being experienced all over the world. THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO FIX and most of our current elected officials are spineless and do not represent the real interests of their constituencies and should voted out of their offices. Those elected who can vote “no” on really difficult issues do so because they are concerned about who they represent. I VOTE NO!!!

Mark

50. George | 10.02.08

There is no guarantee that this bill will solve the problem and not only that, it’s $100 billion bigger. This bill mustn’t go through. It will screw all of us and will kill the dollar in the long run. If that happens, its over then..

51. matthew | 10.02.08

We do not need credit. We need money not Large multi-national corporations.
I think this is a good thing that this is going on. B/C it will help the martket find the true and show that the law makers give alot to do with this problem. STOP giving your money to the branks and wall street.Those people are the hole problem here and now.

52. Brian O, Webster, SD | 10.02.08

Ok, so if this bill passes, I will have to work 2 jobs(which I already am), for about an extra year and a half, so politicians can keep receiving campaign funding, and all these “financial institutions”, that made bad loans, can recover from stupidity.

I already work 2 jobs, but it is supposed to be a temporary measure to alleviate my financial situation. Why on earth should I have to work 2 jobs to pay for someone elses mistakes !!!???

I got a better idea, instead of 700 billion to these jerks; why not give all US citizens, 18 and over, $500,000.00 and let us decide how to spend it.

That is roughly 300 billion dollars, LESS THAN 1/2 of the current bill. With 30% going back to the government right away !! In the end, we all get $ 350,000.00 to pay off our debts, and spend frivolously, both of which stimulate the economy, and would replace the bad notes these banks gave out with cash in the end.

Main street survives, just in time for Christmas, Wall street survives (as if they would fall anyway), and everyone is happy; except the CEO’s of the giant banks, who won’t get to put more excess millions and billions of dollars of our tax payers money, in their pocket for a rainy day, or more bad lending. How’s that for a run on sentence?

These institutions need to be held accountable for this crisis right now, not watched in the future for similar activity, and then held accountable. If this means that some of them will have to be bailed out, or go under, so be it. There will be plenty of banks in line to take their places.

Sorry for my rant, but this is a bad deal for ALL AMERICANS !!!

53. Robert Novak | 10.02.08

this bill is loaded with [inappropriate language]. what a shameful thing to do. 800 billion dollars for what? where is the money going? i used to support Bush, but what is he thinking? let’s talk a solution first, then we’ll talk about money. where did they come up with that figure 700/800 billion anyway? the same idiots that got us into this mess (democrats and republicans) are leading us down a horrible path toward socialism.
i’ll never forget this day.

54. tom | 10.02.08

The politicians didn’t pass the bill initially on Monday ON PURPOSE, so they could get some cheap stocks out of it (Dow Jones had it’s biggest loss EVER on Monday… think about that). Now that they robbed the market, they’ll pass it on the second attempt so the bargain investments they made earlier in the week don’t tank.

55. rick | 10.02.08

Come on…….this bill is worse than the one the house turned down. Pork Barrel spending…it is ridiculous. After passing, the senate gets on TV and slaps each other on the back for job well done, meanwhile, they pull a George Bush by telling American public what they want them to hear and omitting the pork barrel spending they added. Don’t they get it. Main St hates Lobbyists, Special Interest Groups and Wall St and when you cater to their needs and try to appease Main St by throwing us grains of salt (i.e. raise the FDIC to 250,000), the senate is insulting our intelligence. Omit your self-serving interests all you want, Senators, Main St can read and knows how to use the internet. You proven again you are not to be trusted.

If you want to pork barrel the bill, at least spend it on Main St (i.e. stimulus check) and not on Wooden Arrows (yes you heard me right, 6m for wooden arrows).

Lets hope the house represents Main St, uses commons sense and gives Main St the respect it deserves. The elitists in the Senate showed us who they represent.

56. Tucker | 10.02.08

There is 1 thing that really bothers me and thats the part where it said “The proposed rescue plan provides as much as $700 billion for the Treasury secretary to buy “troubled assets” from financial institutions, including foreign banks doing business in the United States.” If we are going to save some banks and let others fail why not save only American banks.

57. powertothepeople | 10.02.08

This is the largest robbery in the history of the world, and it is happening in broad daylight. This bill will not help anybody but bankers on wall street and the richest people in the world. Meanwhile, nothing is ever being done to help ordinary americans. Our “congress” will not help us with lenders charging usury rates of over 20% on credit cards, bankruptcy laws that favor the same credit card companies, adjustable rate mortgages, and on and on that continue to screw us in favor of them. I will not vote for either party. I encourage you to also stop voting the lesser of “two evils”. All you keep ending up with is evil.

58. Arvel Hathcock | 10.02.08

This is not about saving the economy. This is about the executive branch taking the largest power grab in history. While other options are available to solve this crisis, the executive insists upon 700+ billion of our money so that it can extend it’s reach into the lives of ordinary citizens.

Our government does not listen to the people of this country. Voting again on what was rejected and forcing it to pass is proof.

59. Ted 999 | 10.02.08

It’s the same story over and over. They rich get bailed and the poor get the shaft. You can continually try to prop up an old building but if the foundation is crumbling and old it’s better off to rebuild. If Congress bails out Goldman Saches and Morgan Stanley they will be making a big mistake. They are the ones responsible for jacking up oil prices on the commodities exchange along with Vitol and Lehman Brothers. They messed up royaly in the financial markets and a bail out for them would be like rewarding the child that smashed down a glass house. Of course, It will take longer to recover if they don’t bail them out but in the end the economy would be beter off and stronger. This bail out is a huge mistake. Who cares about them I don’t. I don’t even want their credit thank you very much

60. H. Seyoum | 10.02.08

Given the kind of unprecedented losses that stock investors are currently suffering, is it not high time that both Congress and the Senate reconsider the $3,000.00 that individuals are allowed to claim against their capital losses? Inflation has already taken a huge bite of the long-unchanged $3,000.00 currently allowed. $5,000.00 may now be a fair allowance especially to those millions of small investors who more than likely should have lost their life long savings. Thank you.

61. Taxpayer | 10.02.08

The consumers that signed their names on contracts of risky mortgages and the lenders approved these loans are the issue.

Now we the American tax payers get to bail out the mortgage lenders. It’s not like they are giving away these foreclosed homes, they are selling them. They still own the asset they are just disappointed because they will not get their usual profit from the adjustable rate mortgages and now call them “Toxic”. High risk lending is high risk lending these mortgages were “Toxic” when you offered them!.

Who are all these so called “victims” that “unknowingly” signed contracts for sub-prime loans? You really think someone with a 750+ credit score does not know how to read a contract? Just because a lender approves you for a loan or mortgage does not mean you are immune to making good on the note later. And for all the people that thought it was a good idea to over mortgage your homes far over the actual value of the home to purchase cars or wrap in credit card debt…great, we all own your problem.

62. Scott Pearson | 10.02.08

I completely agree with the previous commentor. I think that Congress is acting on it’s own and NOT speaking for the People. If they wanted to help Americans then they should prosecute these CEO’s that are so greedy that they will sacrifice an entire nation to get richer. I say throw them in jail. There also needs to be legislation passed the allows for regulations and stiff penalties for businesses that are continuously gouging the consumer (i.e. the Petroleum Industry, the Pharmecuetical Industry etc.). This problem is only focusing on Mortgages and the housing market but it’s root cause comes directly from the absolute unecessary greed of big business.

63. rick | 10.02.08

Come on…….this bill is worse than the one the house turned down. Pork Barrel spending…it is ridiculous. After passing, the senate gets on TV and slaps each other on the back for job well done, meanwhile, they pull a George Bush by telling American public what they want them to hear and omitting the pork barrel spending they added. Don’t they get it. Main St hates Lobbyists, Special Interest Groups and Wall St and when you cater to their needs and try to appease Main St by throwing us grains of salt (i.e. raise the FDIC to 250,000), the senate is insulting our intelligence. Those nit wits can omit from their speeches their self-serving interests, but Senators, Main St can read and knows how to use the internet. You proven again you are not to be trusted.

If you want to pork barrel the bill, at least spend it on Main St (i.e. stimulus check) and not on Wooden Arrows (yes you heard me right, 6m for wooden arrows).

Lets hope the house represents Main St, uses commons sense and gives Main St the respect it deserves. The elitists in the Senate showed us who they represent.

64. digger | 10.02.08

Americans mainly made this mess.
Americans have to clean up their part of it.
They can do it now and stop whining or they can do it later and dearer.
The rest of the world is suffering badly from it too, and won’t foget it.
So show some guts and deal with it.

65. Enough is enough! | 10.02.08

These financial organizations took investor’s money in good faith and knowingly originated bad paper with the intent on selling it to suckers or dumping it onto the backs of the citizens. Most citizens are struggling to pay their loans and mortgages, and 75%+ of the sub-prime mortgages are performing also. Massive interest income is still flowing in, and responsible people can still get loans.

With bilked investors moving their cash to other markets, these financial organizations want more cash to originate more bad loans to people who should not be borrowing money. This minority of citizens that is addicted to credit and loans are like drug addicts. They need to live within their means and adjust their lifestyle, not look to the responsible majority to adjust their pocketbook for them. Enough is enough, turn off the tap!

Call your elected officials like I have been folks! Lets tell them they are out of a job if they do not stop this insane scam!

66. Tamara | 10.02.08

I think that the global crisis is very bad . But i found the article very intresting and i would like to learn more on this cause i think the global is a very helping thing in the future.

67. R-Me of None | 10.02.08

As a young American, this is very dissappointing me. I hope that the proper safeguards are in place to guarntee that this will be a profitable decision, and not a handout for execs who have already taken too much. Also from my understanding this will not help me, but the businesses who have put the economy in the current situation,

what, a, shame…

68. The Rock | 10.02.08

Of course there has been monetary recession. The Federal Reserve has been pedalling “worthless paper”. Whenever they have needed money, they have just had it printed up and delivered to their Federal Banks and handed out by their bosses (Citicorp, J P Morgan/Chase et al) Now the “american dollar” has only the American peoples’(consumer number one)”sweat equity” left to sustain it. We the people, have got to be tied to the dollar to hold it up long enough for the rest of the Council on Foreign Relations members (Dodd,Leiberman,McCain, etc…) to switch their dollar holdings over to a more “Allan Greenspanesque” diversity (foreign currency, Dubai, Belize, or Swiss Bank account…). Woe is us little buddies. They want to ride us hard and put us away (wet or dry). The triumph of usury and the specter of “666″ awaits. The Senate,(House of Lords) calls to their wannabee members of House or Representatives, who are supposed to represent “we the working income people”, to join in “saving America”. Bunk! Something they have apparently NOT BEEN DOING during the last 20 years of governing. Take note of the votes and throw the bums out. If the house had any real concern they would vote NO unanamously. The train to “Aucswitz” awaits the American people. The conductors, Bush,the current treasury sectretary, and the current chair of the federal reserve have our tickets ready. Its going to be a long and bumpy ride. And some of us may not make it. But they and their ilk have been told that there will be room for them at the international ball. Citicorp and JP Morgan/Chase will be there waiting with Allan Greenspan and Katie Couric. They took the earlier train.

69. Ken | 10.02.08

HOW MUCH OF THIS MONEY IS GOING TO BE USED TO PAY BACK FOREIGN INVESTORS? IS THAT WHAT WE ARE DOING, IS PROVIDING INSURANCE FOR THEIR LOSSES? HOW MUCH EXACTLY IN DOLLARS IS GOING TO END UP GOING OVERSEAS? AND WHY IS NO ONE ELSE ASKING THIS QUESTION? IT SHOULD BE ON EVERY BLOG!!!

70. Dwight | 10.02.08

Again, this is the rich telling there puppets, Congressman, Senators and most of Bush, to give them more money. Our politicians have forgotten who they work for, the American People and we need to vote everyone who votes for this bill out of office when they are up for re-election and elect people who remeber who they are supposed to be working for. I don’t buy the scare tactics they are trying to use on us.

71. adro | 10.02.08

if Ron Paul is right like he always is…

72. Frank Williams | 10.02.08

If the bill is not passed you state that 4 million Americans face losing their jobs in the next 6 months, would it not be cheaper to bail out 4 million Americans than spend 700 billion with dubious checks and balances.

73. Jim Lundberg | 10.02.08

Let me get this straight. The taxpayers will loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks, in order to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them.

74. William | 10.02.08

This legislation not only bails out Wall St., but also London, Shanghai, and other foreign banks. The very idea that this is about Main Street is ridiculously absurd.

See interview at cnbc: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=873682522&play=1

Call your congressman and tell them that their job is on the line. It won’t matter how much money they get for their campaigns if we don’t vote for them.

75. Les | 10.02.08

Well I for one will sleep much better if they raise the FDIC limit from 100k to 250k. Just knowing that the 500-1000 dollars that I may be able to scrape into my bank account before the next bill comes will be over-insured by at least 249,000 dollars sure makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

This nonsense of attaching good bills to bad bills just to get them to pass has got to end. If a bill has merit it should pass, if it has no merit it should die. Simple really.

76. Rajeev Rawat, Boulder | 10.02.08

Should politicians be required to have an education in international finance and economics, and be mandated to be certified in public administration skills every 4-6 years? We permit our lives to be governed by many people in congress who lack a sound basis for assessing the global and local consequences of their actions. A global economy requires balancing access to capital, gaining education and skills to power economic and scientific growth, and assessing short and long term implications of decisions on other quality of life measures such as health care, environment, taxes, and energy sources and supply. Ideology, morality, and spirituality are important considerations and politicians will be differentiated by their preferences. However, is it time that we institute proof of performance in basic core knowledge skills, economics, finance, and math as a minimum job qualifying criteria?

We seek out a certified plumber, a master electrician, a highly trained police officer or firefighter, board certified doctors, licensed teachers. Is it time that we administer an SAT, GMAT, LSAT, or an MCAT equivalent test for political leadership?

77. Taylor | 10.02.08

It is ridiculous that the government wants to stop a recession cause by bad credit practices by borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars. If they continue deficit spending, they will end up pulling investment money away from the market and into government bonds. The fact that the Republican leadership is shifting away from their fiscally conservative roots in order to spend money to prevent market correction is outrageous. We need a recession right now to reshape the financial markets. The so called “Main Street” people who took out bad loans need to scale back to smaller homes and less extravagant lifestyles, the predatory banks need to fail, and the banks with strong ethics and good business models will then find themselves ready to bloom in a less crowded financing market. There will be a lot of unemployment in the interim, but the economy will correct itself within a few years, and be better for it. When politicians interfere with this process, they allow financial schemes to pass without consequences.

78. Thomas Dark | 10.02.08

Of course the Senators are full of it. They didn’t hold a single hearing where outside economists were invited; over 200 of them say it is the wrong bill. The Internation Monetary Fund already released a report saying bailouts like this don’t work. Diane Feinstein, who I now loathe, said “that’s why we have six year terms; so we can make the tough votes”. Basically…sorry to you taxpayers but since you can’t vote us out…we will do what we want.

However…many in the house are open for re-elections. Do not be confused, this is is not an either or issue. Either you vote for this bill and dodge economic Armageddon or you won’t even be able to afford soup. There are alternatives, REAL ALTERNATIVES that have been put forward…but none looked at or listened to by the Congress. We can fix our economy, stop the Wall Street debauchery AND do what’s right. But first we have to say No! to this bill! Call, fax or email your representative. http://house.gov

79. Andrey | 10.02.08

I am with you Deana, and let all of us collectively throw up on the steps of Capitol Hill. And how does the treasury secretary would know that 4 mil. jobs will be lost in the next two months. This comes from a guy that never had a real productive job. After all he was one of the traders on Wall Street that got us in this mess now.
The nerve of these senators. Just because they are not up for reelection now, they think the public will forget by the time next elections come and get reelected (probably all true). let vote all congressmen out of office now and replace them with monkey from the zoo. Hopefully they will remember who feeds them and vote peoples wishes.

80. Dan | 10.02.08

I don’t think there’s anything straight about this matter. On one hand, we face a potential economic crisis which could upend Main street. On the other hand, we have greedy fatcats who wants nothing more than to see this bill pass. I honestly don’t know what to make of this “crisis”. As far as I can tell, it’s a hazy situation at best, and no clear explanation seems to exist why all these “troubled” loans will bring down the economy. This will be an interesting chapter in the history books for future United States historians. 700 billion dollars will make a dent in history, make no mistake about it. I wonder if this will go down in infamy or lavished with praise? However, like all other crisis, they pass and life goes on.

81. Nikki | 10.02.08

I agree with you Dena. This bill talks about bailing out these corporation that put themselves in this position. But what happens to the little man. The people in foreclouser are still going to lose their homes and still be homeless. The banks are still going to get the money from the sell of the house. If the banks had not loaned these people money on a flexible rate instead of a fixed rate this may not have been such a bad hit. The feds raised the interest rate not the American people. Congress and the house need to insure that the rich don’t get rich and the poor don’t get poorer. Maybe these companies should give up their high end payroll CEOs and use that money to bail themselves out.

82. Andy Lavarre | 10.02.08

Maybe someone can explain this bailout to me …
* Why do we need to bail out some people to the tune of $700 B-B-BILLION?

* Whom shall we be bailing out?

* What happens if we don’t?

* Will someone bail me out?

Guess what:

* We are not bailing out the Government. The Government will not go bankrupt.

* We are not bailing out the poor people on welfare. The Government pays them.

* We are not bailing out people with savings accounts. They are insured by the FDIC to the tune of some $100,000 per person per bank. If they are keeping more than that kind of money in a bank uninsured at typically stupidly low interest rates then they are not very smart and deserve to lose it. (Yes, Social Darwinist, deal with it.)

* We are not bailing out those of us who choose to park our savings in real estate and durable goods. These shall not lose their value. They are real and durable. Duhhh…

* We are not bailing out the cash economy. You know, like Newport, RI, where all transactions are in cash and nobody reports any income.

So who is left? Shareholders, stock brokers, corporate magnates, money people, that’s who.

Which is where all this problem started: People trying to be cute, knowingly at the expense of others, with rampant disregard for their fiduciary responsibilities to others:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122273029076687929.html

This citation recommends reestablishing a standard for value that is independent of the “unbridled greed and recklessness” of men. A standard such as gold or a bimetallic (gold and silver) that would provide such a buffer. The point is, that if you back your value with reality (gold, silver, real estate, durable goods) then you are insured against the stupidity and greed of market manipulators.

* So, why should I bail them out? Guess what: high risk investment is just that: possibly high gain, but possibly high loss. This time they got caught out and should pay the price.

—–

Here is some basic math; all it takes is simple division:

+ Let’s see: I have some $300K left on the house mortgage and another say $50K on various personal property items. $350K in round numbers, which happens to divide nicely into 700,000,000,000.

+ 700,000,000,000 divided by 350,000 gives 2,000,000. TWO MILLION people like me.

* So who is going to bail me out? Why not bail out ME?! Isn’t it better for society at large to bail out TWO MILLION honest, hardworking, and responsible people than a much smaller number of predatory and irresponsible people?

How much smaller a number? The census bureau points to some 3,512,000 people working as financial specialists:

http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032008/perinc/new06_001.htm

83. Jason Knight | 10.02.08

The multi-millionaire CEOs of these “troubled” corporations, collectively, have MORE than enough $ to bail out their own companies. They’ve been paid millions and millions of dollars each year - is that not because of their supposed enormous responsibilities? Why are they not owning up to that responsibility now? Why is the US Government so keen to use my tax dollars to cover the irresponsibilities of these companies when I’m struggling just to make ends meet and these companies’ own CEOs are holding the billions of dollars paid to them by the companies who are now, surprise, surprise, cashless in the economic downturn? Why shouldn’t the CEOs be forced, in this emergency situation, to return that surplus pay back to their troubled companies to offset the losses?

Oil companies are allowed to make ridiculous profits from overblown fuel prices, and credit card companies are allowed to charge ridiculous interest rates that keep the lower and middle-classes in a cycle of debt that ensures they remain financially enslaved, and then when the money-rich corporations run dry (let’s not kid ourselves: ridiculously high executive salaries, bonuses, kickbacks etc have played a part in this), we’re expected to cough up yet more money that we don’t have, to bail them out?

If a government bailout is truly the only way to solve this, then the government should do it fairly. They should calculate, based on tax liability, the amount collected from each taxpayer who’s funding the bailout, and when the economy rebounds and these companies begin making money again, the corporations should have to pay a special tax that the IRS then redistributes back to each taxpayer who funded the bailout, reimbursing them for principal plus interest. But of course that would never happen, because the super-rich (legislators and President, this includes you) who are running this country know they can continue to get away with robbing the poor to fill their own pockets.

84. Chris | 10.02.08

Just for the record, this bill is NOT about giving money to the rich CEO’s in corporate America. It is about the common person. From what I’ve been hearing, if you were to try and get a car loan right now, you’d need a credit rating of about 900 to secure one. Hoping for a student loan? If this doesn’t pass, forget it. How about that insurance you have on your car, house, medical plans, or even your life? Since the insurance companies are on the brink of bankruptcy and all their money is tied into the financial markets, you can say goodbye to that too. And chances are, if you aren’t in a position to worry about any of those things too greatly, you have enough in savings to “get you through.” Of course, when the run on the banks happens (which likely will once the banks start to collapse), you’ll lose out on that savings. Thank goodness for the $100,000 insurance from the FDIC. How’s your retirement plan? When the banks can’t survive, I don’t see how companies can either. So I hope your retirement isn’t held up in your company’s pension plan or tied up in mutual funds on the stock market. But hey, why don’t we just complain about how the taxpayers are having to give $700 billion (which will really end up being $1 trillion) to the elites in this country. We can survive another great depression so they can too - that will teach them. Give me a break!

85. Jesi | 10.02.08

I agree with all 3 comments posted before me. It is ridiculous that a House, who “stood up for the American people” by not passing a bailout plan that would send tax-payers into debt for good, would think to pass this revised bill with EVEN MORE DEBT added on!! They don’t have any plans to cover these extra tax breaks in the budget that I can see. This plan should not be passed just because a few tax breaks might pacify a small minority of constituents.

House of Representatives, PLEASE come to your senses and come up with a reasonable alternative!!!!

86. saugatachatterjee | 10.02.08

all bad deeds persistently followed end in catastrophy.so don’t blame any system, or a person, but blame yourselves how you have wasted your resourses.

87. Al Oliver | 10.02.08

Are you kidding me? They tacked on other stuff to this bail out bill? Not content with 700 billion they added other stuff?

Someone really needs to get out the ole tar and feathers for these folks.

This is one reason I steer clear of politics and voting. No matter who you vote for, it still keeps getting worse and worse. I suspect a day of reckoning is coming. But let me be clear, it won’t be at my hands. I may shake my head at the shenanigans, but I want no part of it. I don’t like stepping in dog excrement, don’t like the smell of it, don’t like to be anywhere near it.

88. Aaron | 10.02.08

November 4th ‘yea’ = ‘nay’

89. Sean | 10.02.08

The problem with a democracy is that the people (or in this case the interests) are allowed to vote themselves the treasury…

90. Alex P | 10.02.08

It must be obvious to all rational people that the powers that be in the financial sectors together with the treasury and many politicians have no idea how the economy works and so when all this money is printed we can expect further foreclosures of normal good mortgages not just sub primes because the rate of inflation has reached a point where in the last few years the cost of living has doubled removing peoples safety margin.

Basic economics is not rocket science. If a a country is worth say $1000.00 and works hard exports a lot and takes raw materials in manufacturing to produce a end product and the countries value goes to $1100 then it can print $100 and the value remains the same.

Our problem is the reverse. We are moving out of manufacturing and so the countries net worth is now only $900 and so the treasury should pull in $100 and destroy it to maintain the value of the $1.

To increase the problem the feds have got used to the over budgeting and then add a war, bailouts, and handouts to business at a time when the countries worth is only say $500 requires the treasury to remove 1/2 the value and burn it to maintain $1.

Letting the market crash does the same thing only suddenly in an un controlled manner. The treasury should have been reeling in the purse strings for years.

Its time to re group America and get back to manufacturing which is the basis off all strong economies.

91. David Hazen | 10.02.08

A crisis in credit is a crisis of credibility. The attempt to restore confidence is a con job. If we had no Iraq war costing us directly and indirectly in the multi-trillions of dollars, we could bail ourselves out several times over and have no need to do so, anyway. We are at war with ourselves, we are deathly ill with interpersonal and systemic violence inflicted on ourselves. Our vain attempts to be secure have left us exhausted, empty of resources, and questioning. The time is ripe for genuine weeping, empathy for ourselves and others, and a radical shift in our strategies for achieving security, health, and growth. Rugged individualism has lost its virtue. Compassionate community is the more believable, trustworthy focus of our efforts.

92. sonicadventures | 10.02.08

“We’ve got the chairman of the Federal Reserve telling us that if we don’t do this, 4 million Americans will lose their jobs in the next six months,”

That is true even if you pass this bill Mr. Senator and there will be more of that same coming your way in just few weeks - as soon as Paulson pays his buddies he will extend his hand for more cash!

Shame on all politicians who will vote in favor of bailing out the wall street crooks! Your children and grandchildren will hate you for this vote and most smart people will move out of this once used to be great country to seek happiness where fairness predominates.

Shame on you Congress for letting this happen. Lobby has messed up your heads. If this goes through, it will be regarded as biggest theft in the history of man kind. The market will crash anyway. $700 billion is just a drop in the ocean here. Mark my words.

93. Jason Praxton | 10.02.08

“Don’t expect any ribbons for this one… If it works, the cataclysmic event won’t happen and you’ll never be given any credit for avoiding a problem…”

Trust me Senator Dodd, you won’t be getting any. You guys can lie all you want, but the fact of the matter is that when you tell use the money will come from budget cuts and won’t affect the taxpayer, we all know you’re lying. If, over the course of my life, the federal budget managed to shrink the previous year, I might be inclined to believe that. However, it hasn’t and whether it happens directly or indirectly we’ll be paying for it. Particularly as it further inflates our currency while simultaneously driving down its value globally which raises prices across the board.

To make matters worse, we’re axing a tax on the superrich here? We’re handing money to these monsters and additionally the Senate wants to cut their taxes?

You really wanna stimulate the economy? Let these Wall Street dogs jump out their windows like their forebears during the Great Depression and give every adult making less than 6 figures a year get an equal cut. That’s an ACTUAL stimulus package.

“Lets hope the house represents Main St, uses commons sense and gives Main St the respect it deserves.” Don’t count on it. And I don’t know how much respect Main Street deserves, while we claim to detest lobbyists and special interests, we continue to vote for the same bought and paid for candidates and parties over and over and over again. Call the Senate elitists, but who elects them? As of the time the 17th amendment was passed, that blame was shifted directly to the American public.

Every last person out there registered as a Democrat or a Republican has their own hand in this mess. I just don’t know how many more times y’all have to get your just deserts before you wake up and stop carrying the rest of us down with you. Every incumbent needs to be voted out of office as does every member of either of the twin parties. If you actually care about change, you’ve got to stop voting for the same thing each and every election!

McCain, Obama and Biden voted for it. I’m glad to see we have so much choice in the Presidential race this year.

94. Wayne | 10.02.08

So let me get this straight - banks can’t loan money becaues they already loaned it out to people who can’t pay it back.
Donald Trump of all people had an interesting notion; instead of the government buying up all this bad paper, buy the good mortgages. For less than 700 billion, the government could pay off the home mortgages of everyone in america holding a mortgage less than 100 thousand dollars.
The banks would suddenly be flush with cash, allowing them to absorb their bad investments and start loaning again, and about nine million voters would suddenly own their homes free and clear. What used to be house payments are now a recurring, monthly economic stimulus package.

95. stephen dee | 10.02.08

The US is in for a market correction in house prices after the bubble. The correction will make them more affordable to the average American. The mortgage interest tax deduction combined with artificially low interest rates incentivized taxpayers to withdraw the “value appreciation” from their houses amid the bubble. This enabled them to invest their borrowed money in markets, or make leveraged consumer purchases. Now that the house “values” (think stocks) are falling, the lenders are making a margin call on the most leveraged people. Sure, they didn’t think the house would depreciate, but markets rise and fall.

Every mutual fund investment comes with a clause that says the investment could lose value. For accepting risk, there is reward, but that does not mean the risk goes away. The people who invested in mutual funds and any other risk-bearing assets did so at their own peril and should not need saving by the American taxpayer.

Finally, the mortgage losses arise from lenders allowing borrowers to overleverage their collateral during the housing bubble (regardless of the NAR fantasy). In this scenario, it seems that neither the borrowers nor the lenders were financially savvy, but that does not mean the public should be held responsible for their stupidity. If the government wants to institute some sort of law that apportions responsibility for the losses between the lender and the borrower, fine, but they don’t have to spend taxpayer dollars to do it. The risk, right now, lies with the lenders who should be writing off massive portions of their portfolios that use houses as collateral. Some will fail for their follies and, in doing so, the costs will be borne by the shareholders who purchased and accepted the risk of their investments. Other, stronger firms will purchase the assets of the failed institutions at discounted prices and the market will soon reach an equilibrium. Yes, this will have a short term effect on the economy as housing prices fall. This is the cost of running an artificially high GDP for the last couple of years based on credit-based consumer spending rather than productivity-based consumer spending.

The taxpayers do not owe the financial institutions any backing, nor the risk-takers who invested in market stocks or mutual funds. This is the nature of free market capitalism. The SEC has already banned short selling of some stocks but doing so actually hampers the ability of the market to efficiently reach an equilibrium. This might help delay the market correction until after the election, but it will occur in any event. This is the reason that so many economists submitted commentary to the government that this bailout will not aid the economy in the long term.

If the government wants to do something with $700B dollars, put the money aside to help unemployed taxpayers until they can find a new job. Make the money available to small and medium sized businesses at fair market rates. Invest in “zero-emissions” transportation technologies and other infrastructure. The theory that buying up the “toxic” (read zero value) debt from the financial institutions is fundamentally flawed. Sure, it’ll save the institutions in the short term, but more of their debt is going to become toxic over the next couple of years and America simply doesn’t have the credit rating to acquire enough debt to continue propping up the housing prices ad infinitum.

It’s time to face the music. Some of the people who purchased risk will now lose some of their money. The people who bet that their house value would not fall and leveraged it will have to move to smaller houses or rent until they can straighten out their debt-to-asset ratio.

If you want, you can blame the Realtors for selling you the “everlasting story” about how house prices will continue to rise. Or you can blame the government for providing the mortgage interest tax deduction that motivated you to refinance your house so that you had as little principal in it as possible. Or you can blame the mortgage brokers who told you “you can afford $X” when, in fact, what they really meant was “we will lend you $X” which is all the rope you will need to hang yourself when the bubble bursts!

It’s my hope that the House of Representatives manages to listen to the taxpayers and shoot down this largest-ever attempt to swindle the taxpayer. Government intervention is certainly warranted in terms of instituting regulations that do not permit lenders to, in aggregate, overextend credit to borrowers, but the taxpayers have no obligation to defend institutions or risk-taking investors from losing money not matter how much money they lose.

If the government starts this today, you can bet that just around the corner, will be socialist caps on earnings intended, at first, to pay for this gigantic swindle, and secondarily, as a repository to defend other risk-taking shareholders from future losses. This is not the free market that allowed America to become the land of opportunity it is today.

Wall Street: Heal thyself!

96. Traci | 10.02.08

I’m stunned. If this isn’t the finest example of how totally out-of-touch our leaders are with the rest us, I don’t know what is. There’s no one left anymore who really serves this country. I will never take for granted my right as a voter again. I will do my homework and make sure I do my job too — keep these rats from going from local to national seats. Our Senate leaders should run out of town by angry torch-carrying mobs. How dare they totally ignore the peoples’ will and approve that [foul language] pork-laden bill. We give them time to come up with plan and what do they do? They all kinds of [foul language] to the bill that has nothing to do with the crisis, and boost to cost… I’m so mad.

97. powertothepeople | 10.02.08

But one must always consider that usury, in historical context, has always been inextricably linked to economic abuses, mostly of the masses and of the poor; but sometimes of the financier and royalty, as bankrupt royalty has led to many a demise, thus frowning upon lending at interest or for a euphemistic “just profit”. The main moral argument is that usury creates excessive profit and gain without “labor” which is deemed “work” in the Biblical context. Profits from usury do not arise from any substantial labor or work but from mere avarice, greed, trickery and manipulation. In addition, usury creates a divide between people due to obsession for monetary gain. Most importantly, usury commodifies biological time for profit, which is linked to life, considered sacred, God-given and divine, leading to excessive worrying about money instead of God, thus subjugating a God-given sanctity of life to man-made artificial notions of material wealth.

98. Ignatius J. Reilly | 10.02.08

I hate to say it, but Ron Paul and 3rd party candidates are looking good right now.

99. ron | 10.02.08

750 B BAILOUT = FUZZY MATH & VOODOO ECONOMICS
Remember the China Syndrome? The nuclear reactor meltdown on
Three Mile Island was calculated by one of the most eminent scientist
in the world to burn into the Earth until it reached China! Well, the
calculation was based on faulty math. And the economic meltdown that is
predicted by the Wall Street Greedy, Political Bambi’s, and Media-The
End Is Here Pundits! Is based on George W. Bush “Fuzzy Math” and
Ronald Reagan’s VooDoo Economics!
ron

100. Nate Polaski | 10.02.08

We as the people don’t have a choice whether or not they pass this bill so when it does pass and they all pat each other on the back lets make their debt even bigger. Everyone go out and take out as big of loans as possible, max out your credit cards and don’t pay them back! I’ve been saying this for years, It’s the best form of protest one can achieve these days without getting maced or hit with rubber bullets. If a majority of American citizens would say enough is enough and protest using this form they will not be able to stop us from taking back our country and setting it right.

101. G_R | 10.02.08

We are all right and all wrong!

What are we thinking? Who would be so naive to think, that the next president can keep their promises with no money. Maybe we need to see depression, we will all suffer yes, that might be reality.
It seems like were paying to keep the machine running against us. Mean while O’ Blame a’ is hoping to pass his “global poverty tax” if elected, you can look it up, it is a tax on the entire US economy which would be disturbed to his people in Africa by the UN. That tax certainly effects everyone not just the 5%!
Let’s face it if Dem’s control congress, the white house and the media, we have been taken over.
For as much as the Dem’s criticize PRES. BUSH, he has been pulling their strings right along. I think he
may be the clever one. Now he is causing Obama to fall in line too.
Loosing the war at home enemy tactics, division, illusion and fear.

102. Steve | 10.02.08

Yes, keep close eye on the bums who are running this down our throats. In November you can offer your response to their “rescue” plan. Let them know you do not appreciate handing your grandchildren’s grandchildren a debt legacy so that corporate irresponsibilty and greed win the day! Nakita Kruschev once stated,”we will never have to fire a shot, you will be defeated from within”….guess what!

103. Guy Chowning | 10.02.08

The bail out is by no means a way to cure the financial ills. They deserve to fail for making such poor business decisions. Why not put this into a fund to develop alternate energy which would put people back to work and generate new jobs. Lets face it, congress says $700 million but with all the pork it will end up costing 5 times that, lets say $3.5 TRILLION.

The American people need to vote these greedy overpaid never worked a day in their life politicians out of office NOW!

104. Chris | 10.02.08

We, the people of the United States, simply no longer have control of our government. It is the exclusive property of the corporations that buy it via their lobbyists.

This is not a government that represents us and I for one am getting tired of hearing politicans say they have to save something by trying to identify it as being the same as me.

This morning some politico is saying We have to save Wall St. because it is us, it is Main St.

Give me a break.

I am sick of it.

The time has come to take it back from these politicans and their employers, the lobbyists. I propose the following:

5 ESSENTIAL POLITICAL CHANGES.

1) Outlaw political parties: Make politicians stand on their own ideas. George Washington, one of our founding fathers and the first president, never supported having political parties. Politicians must represent their own ideas, not those of a domineering party controlled by corporations.

2) Outlaw lobbyists: Money does not equal speech, imprison violators. For CEO’s and lobbyist, any corporation caught giving money to buy influence or lobbyist caught writing bills for any government committee or representative will face imprisonment and huge fines. What is more, any future sales of stocks or bonds on any U.S. market for the purpose of raising money will be forbidden to such corporations that violate this restriction. No corporation with government contracts can hire a politician for a period of ten years after said politician’s term ended. They must be out of political service, and for military retirees above the rank of captain, out of military service for a period of ten years before accepting a job with a government contractor. Any politician caught violating the lobbyist law will be immediately imprisoned for 10 years, no parole.

3) Limit campaign contributions to $1000 per registered voter, no corporations allowed: Make this a tax-deductible expense for the donor. Open two public TV stations, one for the federal level and one for the state. Alternative hours for each politician running for office or submitting a new bill for vote.

4) Divide Congressional /Representative bodies in quarters, state and federal: One quarter professionals like lawyers, doctors, etc; one quarter teachers, college and lower level; one quarter business leaders and managers, small or large; and one quarter workers that are non-managers, family farmers, etc. Any change to the constitution is submitted to the people of the United States for a vote, who are the only ones with the authority to make such changes. This would have prevented the interpretation of the Constitution that said giving money (common bribary) is equal to free speech.

5) One bill, One issue: No pork barrel tactics allowed. Each law must stand on its own merits and no other issues can be attached to it. Each issue, law, etc. must be submitted on its own to the Executive Branch. This will end pork barrel spending (which is legalized corruption where politicians pay back their big business pals with taxpayer dollars) and such things as happened under the Patriot Act, or the current financial crisis 2008 style.

105. Lady M | 10.02.08

How in the world does a 3 page request grow to hundreds of pages - PORK! It is unbelievable what these career politicans/lawyers are doing to this country. This proposal is socialism - if you can’t pay your mortgage (which you should never have been given in the first place) don’t worry “Daddy” will bail you out. These people are not economists and have no business involving themselves in the market - it is a FREE market economy and was what made our country great. Now, I’m not too sure. And GOD help us if the dems get control of the congress and the presidency. Pretty soon we will all be singing “Mother Russia” and LIKING it whether we want to or not.

106. Patriot for Change | 10.02.08

I am hopeful that the bill will balloon so out of control that the dollar will crash in worldwide monetary markets. Yes thats right I am hoping for a worldwide depression, collapse of the dollar as the premier world currency and the reduction of the US from the only super power to a normal nation.

The reason I hope for these things is that it appears to be the only way for us to rid ourselves of the criminals who claim to be our leaders, to eliminate the corrupt fascist system of government we have today and to eliminate the Federal Reserve Banking system

107. Father Wolf | 10.02.08

Everyone in support of this bill says the people against it don’t understand it. The vast majority of Congress have said they don’t know if it will work or not, nor do they really know the consequences of not passing it - yet we don’t support it because we don’t understand it. Yet, they vote for it.

How can we hold them accountable? They have voted to support the very people who spent millions on contributions to them. If we vote them out, they leave fully vested in their retirement plan (only takes six years), they will go to work for these same people as “consultants” for millions of dollars a year, lobbying their replacements to support these same people.

We have had 8 years of Congress complacently supporting an administration who has shaped the facts to fit whatever conclusion they want. Rational people generally gather the facts - all the facts - and let the facts take them to the conclusion.

Ronald Reagan gave this country a wonderful gift - a peacetime economy. Bill Clinton left with a budget surplus as a result. This administration and Congress has squandered all of the plus the futures of our children and grandchildren.

We have seen a 40% growth in government over the last 8 years. The Budget deficit, trade deficit and national debt are out of site. Congress has voted itself 9 pay increases in this same period of time. We have over four thousand of our young people killed in Iraq, over 30,000 wounded and maimed while billions are spent on waste and fraud. Graft and corruption in the Justice Department, FAA, FDA, Agriculture Department and many more.

Hundreds of thousands jobs have been lost, hoping to be replaced by jobs in small businesses which pay less and have fewer benefits.

A government that has effectively PERMANENTLY transferred hundreds of billions of dollars from the middle and lower economic classes to the wealthy.

As an independent who has tended to vote Republican for 40 years, I have to ask myself how much worse can Barack Obama be? Anything would be better than another week of this.

108. Don Smith | 10.02.08

The leaders of this country cannot pass a bill that is actually in the best interest of the country without adding pork spending to buy votes from various congress men/women to get their votes. Are you telling us that if you add to the bill an “Exemption for excise taxes of certain wooden arrows designed for use by children” or “Tax break for Puerto Rican and Virgin Island rum producers” or some of these other pork items that it would actually change someone’s vote??? If it does you can see which leaders put their interests ahead of what’s best for the country. This is why Main Street is so disgusted with our so called leaders. Why can’t the leaders of this country sit down with the best financial minds in the country and decide on the best plan to prevent a financial collapse before it’s too late without porking a bill up?

109. WayneL | 10.02.08

The fox is watching the chickens with this bailout. We have politicians who could not understand or recognize the problem as it unfolded, so how could they fix it. This is a good money after bad deal that will make the middle class be once again the victims of a major transfer of wealth from their pockets to those of rich and greedy investors. I say let the free market work. If the free market can be free to profit it must be free to fail.

110. Wayne | 10.02.08

Does anyone know where the number (700 billion) came from? What calculations are involved and how did they decide this was the number that would work? And what next, the aerospace or automative industry will need to be bailed out, will there be no end for the tax payers if this bill passs? Am I wrong in saying that the elected officials that have landed us in this mess shouldn’t be in charge of getting us out or at least should be monitored and answerable to us at this point for making so many blunders? If I make bad decisions on the job, I am and agree that I should be, held held accountable. Why should anyone be forced to buy something which has relativley no market and is essentially worthless? And why is this an emergency all of a sudden… I’m assuming the elected officials in Washington are very intelligent, so why the big surprise and the instant knee jerk reaction? Without good explanations and concrete data to help my understanding, I am inclined to vote for anyone who didn’t support this bill this next round at the polls. I agree with McCain, life’s not fair and especially unfair for the working class.

111. Anonymous | 10.02.08

Both Parties (Republican and Democrat) have completly sold out to special interest groups from Wall Street. From now on I’ll be voting for anyone who is not a Republican or Democrat, I don’t care if it’s an Independant, Third Party or the Local Dog Catcher.

Vote for anyone who is not a Republican or Democrat in 2008.

112. ej preston | 10.02.08

Agreed with Stephen Dee - the market needs to correct itself. That’s the key - “ITSELF”. That’s how a proper market functions. If we keep injecting fiat cash into the system this problem will continue until our currency is so inflated that the world dumps the Dollar as its reserve of choice.

Let the system fix itself, keep the government out of it.

113. Mike | 10.02.08

Let’s be honest: our financial system depends on our acceptance of a simple con. Most of the time it works just fine, and much good business gets done. But once in a while our confidence is shaken, and it can quickly falter - until we restore what wasn’t working, and start it all over again.

Just like a typical electrical fuse or circuit breaker system. If you keep adding perfectly good uses to your circuits, eventually the capacity limit of the system’s main switch will be reached, and it will shut off, even though low-level circuits are not overloaded, and there’s no malfunction. It isn’t hard to fix. A full system shutdown doesn’t happen very often. We do more with less this way.

Many of our financial systems work the same way.

Banks don’t keep enough cash on hand to cover withdrawal of all accounts. As long as depositors don’t panic en masse, much good business is conducted. Creditors also loan more than they have, at least in readily available (liquid) cash assets.

None of this is new.

So what has caused the current loss of confidence?

We’ve known about many problems for years - we’ve heard warnings about the real estate bubble at least as long as warnings about the internet bubble, the S&L fiasco, and so many other growing challenges. As long as conditions remain fairly stable, we tolerate a great deal of bankrupt government practices and corruption.

With the sudden declaration of an emergency, however, is followed by a push to some of our worst legislation ever, it’s no wonder a panic has ensued.

Individual market segments have failed before without setting off a system-wide shutdown. Banks have failed before without setting off others. Emergencies and disasters occur, and many keep their composure.

But when a government is stampeded into legislation that only makes matters horribly worse, the entire world will take notice.

Instead of removing the overload, a bankrupt, suicidal bill is being ramrodded through Congress.

Will sanity return in time?

114. Gus | 10.02.08

The Credit Crisis goes Main street. Let me make sure i understand

The Financial firms are in deep trouble.
The financial firms want a bail out
The financial firms warn that the crisis will hit main street
Main street voters oppose the bail out
The house votes “NO” on the bail out package because they want to strip the golden parachutes from the leaders of the financial services firms
The financial services firms want to pass this bill before the parachustes are yanked
the day after the house votes “no”, the leadership of the financial services firms order the restricting credit
The press begins to report cases where “main street” is feeling the credit cruch
People become scared and now want the bailout package
The senate rushes to vote (beacuse main street is feeling it)
The financial services industry get bailed out, parachutes intact

Are we getting played? Again?

115. Chris | 10.02.08

Nikki, Deana and Audrey

Don’t throw up on the capital steps to show your disgust.

Get some baseball bats, tar and feathers and show up!

116. Michael Lewis | 10.02.08

If Ron Paul is still running for Prez, vote for him. Both McCain and Obama support this “bailout”. I’m fed-up with both of them. And, I’m going to vote out every incumbent who votes for this bill.

117. ODST Spooky | 10.02.08

Main Street USA my arse. I am Main Street USA, and since the market fell, I’ve had absolutely no impact, nor have the vast majority of American citizens. But oh, DOOM AND GLOOM… All the government and the media have to do is start wailing and moaning and everyone panics…
This bailout is ridiculous - it raises my taxes to pay for the mistakes made by those corrupted by their positions of power. I have never been late on a bill, I rent, I owe very little credit card debt, I bought my car in cash, and now I have to pay for the screwups of someone else. It makes me want to ask where’s my piece? Where’s my bail out?

118. Troy | 10.02.08

The last time we hapazardly passed Legislation out of fear, we ended up with going into war without an exit strategy, and we ended up passing the Patriot Act. This is exactly the same type of fear-mongering that you are witnessing today.

I can’t believe both Obama and McCain put their heads in the guillotine, and are now asking the rest of the Representatives not to drop the axe.

They are literally asking everyone to set their integrity aside and vote like your party depended on it.

119. Chris | 10.02.08

Warren Buffet has it right; he is capitalizing Goldman Sachs ($ 5 B) and GE ($ 3 B) with big money and has secured very favorable terms. He is a bull willing to invest the equivalent of 1.1% of the proposed bailout because he gets value in return. We either watch out for ourselves (Mr. Buffet) or allow others (Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernake) to predestine an outcome by influence. I resent that I will get nothing but the obligation to shift what little wealth I have to those consumers, bankers and politicians who decided on disproportionate risk.

This $ 700 B bailout is a classic dead weight loss and will yield no value for anyone. The current bill will only benefit the pigs, who by the way reside on Wall Street and Main Street. Where the heck did that number come from? It is hardly ponder-able let alone knowable. The current administration deserves to be called The Pig Farmers, keep this in mind when you vote.

I accept that we must respond and will be forced to do so through the worst possible economic gate, our government. The current legislation is not the way forward and I urge you to counsel your representatives to take time to discover the facts. Lest we forget, WMDs was the last alarm rung by this government demanding quick action.

120. msgijoe | 10.02.08

My understanding is that is just not the risky mortgages. It is how they were bundled in ways that made high priced derivative paper that no one could evaluate and were sold around the world to folks who were looking for a high paying (high risk) investments. They then tried to hedge the risk with insurance that was not sufficiently funded and when big payments on losses were required the insurance companies could not deliver. The house of cards (derivative paper) collapsed.

121. ATR | 10.02.08

Forgive me if I repeat something that someone else said, the list of comments is really long.

If this is a global economic crises where is the contribution of foreign governments to help strengthen the economy? Why does the US taxpayer have to shoulder the entire burden? Don’t our allies in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world have a stake in this (and some culpability) as well?

122. huck | 10.02.08

Letter to the House:

Who’s head is going to roll? Yours, or the [foul language] liars? You decide. See you at the ballot box.

123. Mark | 10.02.08

This is really sad. They know that Americans DO NOT want this, yet they go ahead and push for it anyway. And after the first bill got shot down, they have the audacity to throw all their pork into it and make the bill even worse. Instead of spending time thinking of a good bill, they spend their time thinking what pork to put into it. The bill went from 3 pages to 450 pages. So 447 pages of pork?? These people are out of touch with the American people have to be kicked out of office. I am going to vote in November and I am going to remember whoever votes for this bill, both Republicans and Democrats.

124. Lil Canopi | 10.02.08

I agree with 62.Chris, at least on point 1. But, in the upcoming (House) elections, voting for “the other guy” — that is, against those incumbents who voted “Aye” on this pig — may be producing the more unknown “pig in the poke”. (The “other guy” will almost certainly be either a Republican or Democrat, also beholden to monied interests to get elected.) What to do? What to do?

Well. we could all write in the name of a different candidate (or, perversely, write in “None of the above”). Or, we could begin considering the “R” word. (Boston) Tea, anyone?

We citizens aren’t done here after this House vote, no matter how it turns out. (They’ll be baaaack if it fails again.) In fact, our work will have just begun. If you’re that angry about what’s going on here, do something about it. (The “max-ing out your debt and not paying it back” idea might sound good, but it’s flat theft. Please don’t do it.)

Be pesky. Be persistent (to ALL politicians, at all levels). Pull a Howard Beale if you have to. Just don’t go back to sleep (or, for those who that phase offended, don’t just opt out). Work for better candidates AND changes out of the Two-Party system. But do something.

After all, it’s OUR country.

125. Nate Peacemaker | 10.02.08

For the common person:

Its time to realize we don’t need their system of control. People go to their jobs to pay the gov’t money that doesn’t belong to them. Taxes imposed so they can make money off of us while they sit around with their pockets loaded. Banks that have no problem charging 15% interest on a loan but WHEN WE LOAN THE BANK OUR MONEY ON A DAILY BASIS WITH OUR PAYCHECKS THEY GIVE US NO INTEREST OR SO MINUSCULE TO MATTER!!!

But like i said earlier, feel free to take huge loans and max out your credit cards and then don’t pay them off. It’s the best form of protest a common person can do in this day and age.

Wake up and learn to trade with your neighbors and local community. You would be suprised to find people like you. Stop spending your money at corporate businesses and most of all STOP SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS THAT AREN’T A NECESSITY.

126. Steve | 10.02.08

The bill is not a bail out. It’s not perfect either. It is simply what is needed to restore some confidence in an American finacial system that is as close to broken as it’s been in about 75 years.

Over a trillion dollars of invested capital is gone on wall street. The bill will not give that back. Many of my friends who worked at Wachovia or Washington Mutal have lost the bulk of their invested funds as the stock of their employer was devalued in bargain sales - the didn’t get million dollar plans when they left, they are hoping to find a job and they don’t have much to live on until they do. This bail out is about bailing out the many additional people who will be out of work and have no access to funds if the financial crisis worsens.

If the liquidity in this country gets any tighter, the small and medium sized companies will begin to have no funding. It will take maybe a day after that for the big companies to slow to a stop. Will the utilities keep your lights on or water flowing when they can’t borrow the money to make payroll next week? Maybe they should draw down their money market accounts -oh, sorry, the 10% of investments the fund had liquid is gone - get in line and your money will be available in a few months.

Don’t think can’t or won’t happen. The bill isn’t great - it’s just critical.

127. Lil Canopi | 10.02.08

PS: Want the simple solution to this complex financial mess? It’s jobs, stupid. Green jobs, infrastructure jobs, health-care jobs, teaching jobs. Want to spend tax dollars? Spend them on US: the people, where we live, and how we live.

BEST bang for the buck, no doubt about it. NO BAILOUT!

128. Bill | 10.02.08

Can someone explain how it is that this bill originated in the Senate?

The Constitution says “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives”. Given that this bill contains a tax package, that says to me that the House must pass a bill before it can be taken up by the Senate.

129. Timbo | 10.02.08

We should remember that this debt is ultimately backed up by American homeowners and their promise to repay. First, the Wall Street elite loved these securities way too much, but now they have taken an overly negative view of the securities and the American homeowners who back them up. I take a more positive view of those Americans, they are not toxic and neither are these securities. It is only right that our government show its confidence in American homeowners by purchasing these securities. Some day those Wall Street fat cats will wish that they had persevered with similar confidence when the value of these securities goes right back up.

130. Kenya | 10.02.08

I can’t stand this country any longer. The rich are too greedy and the think the middle class is poor. When the economy does revive, I’m going to run up my the credit and file bankrupcty like the corp and rich. CEOs and excut are always stealing and lying to their workers. I work for a company and they haven’t paid us on time for a year but their paychecks get bigger. Their much like Bush (don’t stop spending) keep working everything is going to be alright. Yeal right. I hattttttttte this country.

131. David | 10.02.08

For anonymous idiot
You pay for the bailout then and don’t ask us to do it.
Why not use Bernie Sanders suggestion and add a 10% tax on everyone earning over $500,000 - This would raise $300 Billion half of the bailout.

This is nothing but a bailout for risk taking banks. And better yet your tax dollars will pay off foreign banks. How’s that sound!

Also Paulsen, ex Goldman Sachs who got a $38mil bonus in 2005 will pick and choose whow will survive and have complete control with no guarantees that money will be paid back.

Wake up ! This is scare tactics only. Take 2 weeks and build a good bill.
Hear from all experts.

Thanks to the doddering old men of the senate who made it worse by adding more pork to the bill.

This is a no brainer. NO BAILOUT FOR THE FAT CATS

132. S. Curtis | 10.02.08

I’d like to know why no one in Congress sees enough importance in the underlying problem of stopping the foreclosures to do anything except through taxpayer $$ at Wall Street. That’s going to cost much more and do much less for the people in trouble. If my house is on fire from a gas leak I can either through so much water at it to overpower the gas fueled fire or I can turn off the gas and then work on what’s left of the fire. If we stop the foreclosures long enough to put a solution in place between the homeowners and the lenders those bad loans won’t have to be purchased by the taxpayers because they won’t be bad loans anymore. It can be completed in 60 days and here is how: DO THIS FIRST, fix the adjustable loans , THEN THE REST CAN FOLLOW …

1. Stop all foreclosure actions nationwide for 60 to 90 days
2. Convert all adjustable loans to 30 yr fixed rate
a. Interest rate to be 4.75% for owner-occupied
c. Interest rate to be 5.0% for non-owner-occupied
d. An incentive interest rate reduction of .25% to be given if the Borrower pays off all amounts in arrears or reduces their loan balance by 5% of its original amount, whichever is less
3. Permit a one time retirement fund withdrawal for the paydown
4. Homeowners must “Opt-in” in writing
a. Borrowers who have stopped making payments MUST make a partial payment, which the lender MUST accept.
b. Loans must stay current.
5. Within 60 days the Lenders will receive a NET INFLUX OF CASH THROUGH PAYDOWN OF LOANS / AND BACK PAYMENTS of approximately $39,000,000,000 … and that doesn’t count any funds from those whose loans have not reset yet (potentially $300,000,000,000 in paydowns).
6. Within 60 days the modifications can be in place and generating approximately $6.6 billion per month
7. Cost to Taxpayers close to $0000

133. Stephen Trent | 10.02.08

why don’t they take the 700 billion dolars that they are going to buy bad debts with from the banks, and distribute it to the people that are actually losing their homes or have already lost their homes, and let them make the payments to the banks to get it all back in order. forget the shortcut, it will not the American people. this idea would help everyone involved. it gives the banks the money owed to them, and the money owed to them would come from the customers that borrowed it. they get the money, america keeps their homes. then mkae them lower these interst payments on ALL home loans so people can afford to make the payments. it would not work over night, but it would build up from a solid foundation. we americans always want a quick fix for every thing.

134. S. Curtis | 10.02.08

The changes I propose above would result in homeowner payments that are very close to the initial payments the homeowners were making when they could afford the loans that are now sideways or will be shortly

135. A | 10.02.08

The market is adjusting! Let it adjust.. Buffet trying to save a few of “his” billions by spending 700+ of ours….

136. Thomas Dark | 10.02.08

The proof of concept here is very simple.

1.) If there were a serious issue then Congress would have all sorts of hearings and various professional economists would come before Congress and the televised media and give their opinions. In this case…only Paulson and Barnacke (Bush appointees who have shown they don’t understand the economy) give their opinions and pressure over several days. So we are given only one bill…originated by Bush and his appointees and told that billions of dollars and millions of jobs will be lost if we don’t do this. Yet EVERY single quote from Congress is “it is either this or nothing and we must do something”…yet no other alternatives are even being discussed.

2.) Several banks have tightened their credit up during this situation and the President and Congress start giving sound bytes saying, “See? I have this person who has owned a car lot for 50 years but now they can’t get a loan to buy more cars…etc”. Several economists say that liquidity is not the issue. The banks have the money to loan right now. But they purposefully constrict lending to push the crisis in order to force the governments hand. The gun to the head concept. But…even if we do this once…then Wall Street can come back again and Congress will have set a precedent.

3.) This is not transparent. Let’s say the bill passes. Paulson is allowed to buy up illiquid assets. There is no formula or regulation to restrict or control who we buy them from and what their value is. In another way…he will buy up the worst debt products from the most damaged institutions to push liquidity at above market values. Financial institutions are not going to sell their ‘good stuff’ to the U.S. government; there is no need to. They are and will continue making money off it. It is akin to you going to a garage sale and buying some broken piece of junk with the hopes that someone may decide to give you more money in the future. No one but Paulson decides which debt to buy and for how much.

These are not logical issues. You would not buy something in the real world under these terms. We must stop Congress now!

137. richard | 10.02.08

Sweeteners in this bill are nothing but bribes given by congressional leaders to members for their vote to support this bill. As long as the electorate reelects these people such atrocities will continue. Scrath my back and I’ll scratch yours. Corruption anyone? Whoose “Moral Hazzard” are we talking about. Richard

138. taekwondodad | 10.02.08

The lie that there is no credit available to buy homes cars and use your credit cards unless the emergency $700,000,000,000.00 Bill is signed off by the House if finally exposed. Try using your credit card, or see if you yourself (if qualified) could buy a new car! Just try. Our politicians have just pulled on us an October Surprise. Surprise we Democrats are scaring the [foul language] out of YOU! Just think you got scared Senators and Congressmen. Oh yes what are the names of the Senators who actually read the bill that they signed off on? NO ONE!!!! So after the bill is signed by the House members, then the President (who should surprise everyone and veto this thing - but he is a compromiser) the value of the dollar will drop to a new low, gas prices will go up because of the low value of the dollar, food prices will continue to rise and more jobs will be lost. What the H*** is going on here?

PS There are a lot of congressmen who are not up for re-election who need to be reminded that they will be revisited when there election comes up, and if they signed on to this crazy RIP OFF bill (in time our economy will even be worse because of it)that they will be thrown out of office by their ears. How many house republicans (forget the democrats who may lose their seat this election) did not vote against this insanity in the first place. If they are not afraid now, tell them that voting for this bill will be a shot heard around the country. To be AFRIAD be VERY AFRAID

139. Enough is enough! | 10.02.08

That’s right folks, McCain is going to post the names of these pork mongers and make them FAMOUS! Oh look, both he AND Obama are on the list!

140. taekwondodad | 10.02.08

For those who believe that all of us is responsible for the actions of the financial quarter of this country, please, keep it to yourself. The solution that everyone seems to swear on IS THE PROBLEM. STOP spending. Get rid of these people in congress, as many of them as possible who are not able to stand up for what we do in our daily budgets. Both McCain and Obama make me sick, and so does 40 percent of the house and 75 percent of those in the Senate. We are stupid, we don’t know how to run our lives, but these Pre Madonna’s have all the answers. This Voting Season Vote everyone Republican or Democrat who voted for this Bill (who are up for election) OUT! Put in the alternative. TED STEVENS you voted for this bill - you’ve got to go.

141. David | 10.02.08

I guess we know the financial system is broke.
But after watching the doddering old fools in the Senate and the morons in the house I think our government is broke too.

This is a no brainer. NO BAILOUT FOR THE RICH

142. David | 10.02.08

We need more Jewish holidays. Keep the morons home so they can’t vote.

143. Nate | 10.02.08

The addition of the $110 billion worth of tax extensions and incentives on to this bill is exactly what is wrong with government, and why this country has such a negative view of its political leaders. I am, to be frank, actually a bit torn about the whole idea of the bailout, but one thing I am certain of is this:

If basically everyone in the House and Senate are saying that some form of intervention is necessary to maintain stability and that action needs to be taken now, that should be the priority. It is disgusting to me that some members of Congress (read, Republicans) would take advantage of this opportunity and play with their constituents’ futures and prosperity so they can finally pass a set of tax extensions that basically help out the wealthiest companies and people in the country.

Call me a socialist, call me a communist (I’m not either, btw - far from it) but a little redistribution of wealth wouldn’t hurt - especially now.

144. Rachael | 10.02.08

PUSH PEOPLE PUSH HARDER…GETS OTHERS

this site allows emails to bush (if he actually can read), Paulson, and your reps by zip code…easy…get people to do this now…dont wait and let these greedy [foul language]:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=11957686

and online petitions (more to come), like boycotting banks getting our money should the bailout pass:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/government–bailout-madness/sign.html
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/great-bailout-madness/sign.html

YOUR VOICE HAS POWER NOW…33 days worth of power…PUSH THE ENVELOPE
OTHERS WHO HAVE NEVER DONE THIS, like myself, ARE DOING IT>>>PUSH!!!!!!!!!!

145. stephen dee | 10.02.08

Someone asked:

Q: “Where did the $700B number come from?”
A: Paulson surveyed the financial institutions and came up with a very rough estimate of the amount of basically unrecoverable debt sitting on the books of the major players right now. This debt threatens to send the institutions into bankruptcy. This essentially means that if the bailout goes through, the banks that haven’t written down their toxic asset values can unload their junk to the Treasury. This would mean that, through the magic of leverage, the depreciation in housing prices will be borne by the taxpayers.

Q: Why was everyone leveraged?
A1: Government incentive because they can deduct their mortgage interest.
A2: Personal profit incentive because as houses increase in value, the more they are leveraged (mortgaged), the greater the profit (and loss) an owner can make.
A3: Third-party profit incentive because Real Estate agents earn commissions and push buyers and sellers together to maximize their sales. Did anyone notice how the NAR persists in denying there is a housing bubble?

Paulson is attempting to sell the representatives (most of whom have never seen a 10-k or a balance sheet) on the idea that the government will not lose money on these purchases. In fact, the government will ONLY lose money on these purchases, because the financial institutions aren’t stupid. They’re not going to unload the debt they think they can collect for pennies on the dollar, instead, they’re going to deal off the bottom of their collective decks up to the point where they break even no matter how noble Paulson tries to act. This is because these firms are publicly traded; the CEOs and CFOs open themselves up to law suits from the stock holders if they sell their assets at a discount just because Mr. Paulson asked them nicely. The big dogs don’t run that way!

Regrettably, the solution to this dilemma comes at an unavoidable cost. That cost is a market correction for all with investments in housing, and while that’s a lot of people, you can bet that 100% of the wealthy stand to lose large sums, and the 100% of the poor aren’t going to lose a dime. Of the people in the middle, the ones who tried to act like they were rich will take a bath, and the ones who acted like they were poor will not make any money, but they won’t be losers either.

There is one other alternative, but it’s ugly: The US could print a LOT of money .. say $700B today, and a trillion next week .. and the US Dollar would plummet next to the Euro and most other Western currencies.

Q: Why would a devaluation of the US Dollar save the value of the US home prices?
A: The price of the houses in USD could stay the same, and the properties would become cheaper to foreign investors. At that point, the oil sultanates come in and buy up all the “cheap” (to them) land in the US. They’re buying farm land now and they’d like to buy up the ports. Just think .. if the US Dollar depreciated, they might “invest” in Manhattan at fire-sale prices and sell when the Dollar gained some value back.

The best way for this to play out is for the risk takers, here and abroad, to eat their losses and for the government to leave the taxpayer’s dollars in the taxpayer’s pockets.

Someone mentioned discount interest rates for properties that people do not treat as their primary residence. Those people are called speculators and the non-primary residences are inventory. Those people are a significant part of why the economy will sputter over the next couple of years. I would advocate that, because people in North America generally need residences, the opportunity to speculate and subsist on renters should be seriously curtailed and regulated to the point where this activity would interest only those who seek to provide a genuine and compassionate service to the truly needy, or to the dependents of the wealthy who can simply afford to add to the government coffers in return for the luxury. To accomplish this, the government needs to tax capital gains on the sale of all non-primary residences and eliminate the 1031 “like kind” loop-hole.

Elimination of the tax deduction on interest income would substantially reduce the incentive to overleverage properties. I don’t think this can be accomplished overnight without killing the middle class as they scramble to down-size their residences, but it could be phased in over five years. Now that house prices are dropping anyway, it would be a good time to kick this upper-class tax break off the books. Sure the middle class get it too, but they get the caffeine addiction version .. when you’re seriously wealthy, this particular tax break is like free heroin .. who could really fault them for trying to stay on it?

Most people want to throttle me when I suggest eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, but tax revenues there would allow the government to raise the lower limit of the AMT and probably even pay for a part of the Iraq war to boot!

Oh .. yeah .. America is spending billions in Iraq too .. Can’t America just get over the word “losing” and re-frame an exit from there as a “strategic realignment of troops that focuses more strongly on Afghanistan” .. speaking of heroin .. because right now about 92% of the world’s heroin comes from there which is up from around 75% in 2004. Who says America’s got a war on drugs?

Man, I’ve got a lot to say today.

146. Paul & Nader v Bailout! | 10.02.08

Staged “debate” dance now ready for 24/7 consumption -
Bailout Barack Obama w/partner Bailout John McCain.

Full-spectrum media suppression/distortion
target Ralph Nader and Ron Paul.

Your vote is your power,
they fear it, use it.

147. jw360 | 10.02.08

NEWS FLASH!
According to Countrywide / Bank of America, the $300 billion dollar homeowner bailout bill (FHASecure refinanace program) has not yet been passed. It was supposed to go into effect yesterday. I called them about it, and they are saying the legislation has not yet been approved. They said someone still needs to pass it. I told them the President signed the bill, who else needs to pass it? They told me that they don’t know. I asked to speak to a supervisor to ask her who else needs to approve the bill and was given a voice mail. I was also told recently from a different person at Countrywide that they supposedly sent out letters to people that qualified and if you didn’t get a letter you don’t qualify. They also told me that if HUD qualifies someone for the program and send them their way, then Countrywide automatically approves them. I talked to HUD, HOPE Program, and the FHASecure Program and they do no such thing of approving people. They told me that I need to work with an FHA approved lender that participates in the program. Countrywide is FHA approved. So evidently according to Countrywide the homeowner bailout bill was not passed.

148. Daryl Ducharme | 10.02.08

The reason everyday American’s don’t want this bill to pass is because it is our money and we want it spent a better way. Bailout the banks? No. Buy the banks? Maybe. Call your representative’s office right now and tell them to vote no on the bill and come up with a brand new one. We don’t want more of the same but we do want this problem solved.

I repeat! Do not be cynical. It is the power of the American people that kept it from passing in the first place and that same power can do it again.

149. katie | 10.02.08

Sarah ‘Joe Six Pack’ Palin?

The Palins’ family total income last year included Sarah’s salary of $125,000; Todd Palin income of $46,790 income as a part-time oil production operator for BP Alaska in Prudhoe Bay plus $230,000 commercial fishing income and $10,500 in Iron Dog snow machine race winnings. These figures do not include nearly $17,000 in per diem payments that Palin received for 312 spending nights spent in her own home, the $43,490 she received to cover travel costs for her husband and children, the state oil royalties that each family member received, returns from several private investments and 401(k) retirement account. The Palins’ assets include a half-million-dollar home on a lake with a float-plane at the dock, two vacation retreats, and commercial-fishing rights worth an estimated $50,000 or more. With other friends, the Palins own a cabin on five acres southwest of Wasilla and the Iditarod National Historic Trail. The Palins own several snow machines and an airplane. She is tapped to pen a book after the elections, win or loose.

According to Palin, “it’s time that a normal Joe Six-pack American be finally represented in the position of vice presidency,” However, Census Bureau indicate that in 2007 the median income for a family in Alaska was $64,333 and $50,740 in nation. Either mentally or financially does fit the Joe six-pack characteristics? Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you!

150. jw360 | 10.03.08

For those that vote for this bill. Everyone will know you names and I’m going to help make them famous. You just gambled your political careers away.

151. jw360 | 10.03.08

I don’t see how people think this bill is going to write down the principles of 2 million at risk mortgages. That would be a much better bailout bill if that was the case, because it would be preventing more foreclosures and putting out the fire so to speak. This bill is going to absorb all the foreclosures the banks have on the books already. All home prices are coming down with or without this bill. That means Americans are going to be paying a big price for the banking systems relaxed rules. Home values are overinflated, because it was too easy to get the loans. That caused demand to skyrocket along with home prices. Smart and or lucky people have sold their homes prior to this bubble and getting out of the market and did alright. Everyone else? Prepare to lose a lot of money. Yeah some just in value and some don’t care that have their homes almost paid off anyway or have a lot of equity. But for those that bought their first homes interest only, nothing down and lost up to 50% or more of value in the home after buying it maybe 3 or 4 years ago; have not missed any payments; didn’t buy more than they could afford; now can’t even sell their homes unless the principle is written down. Their only options are to live there for another 10 years and hope it goes back up, or foreclose. Those are the people that need bailed out, not Wall St.
The problem with this bill is that by taking over the bank’s foreclosures, this will give them even less incentive to write down the principles of these homes that are in trouble. They will simply allow even more homes to go into foreclosure and then maybe 6 months or so down the road, we’ll be seeing another request for an additional 700 billion dollars to take care of even more foreclosures. Then home values of course will continue to drop. People will continue to lose equity; the economy will get even worse because people will have even less money to spend and so on. Instead the banks should hold on to the foreclosures themselves and sell them, while the government prevents even more foreclosures from happening and keep the people in their homes. This is the big flaw of this bill and really makes no sense why it’s passing in this form. It needs to be directed at homeowners that are underwater and that’s all. Then at least they can sell their homes, otherwise we’re looking at letting more homes go into foreclosure just so people can move. In order to make up the loss to taxpayers, there should be some kind of penalty they should pay. Add an insurance policy like Republicans were saying or something. I don’t know something. But yes I do agree the banks should somehow end up paying for it, not taxpayers. Maybe add some kind of tax in order to pay for the bailout over a period of time. Make them go bankrupt and put them on the 0% bankruptcy payback plan to make up for their losses.
And here’s another thought. If the government buys all these foreclosed homes from the banks and they don’t sell, who is paying for the upkeep? The banks? I don’t think so. If they are destroyed and need fixed up in order to sell who’s going to pay for it? The Taxpayers that’s who. If these foreclosures don’t sell right away the government will have lost more in upkeep of the homes than they are worth and will never recover taxpayer money. This is not the same situation the government is getting into like the Chrysler Bailout where they made money. In my neighborhood there are homes that are available for a significant discount and have not sold for over a year or even two years. No joke. It’s not a bad neighborhood, and they are brand new decent homes. Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep people in their homes? Maybe even put people back in their homes that were foreclosed on, because of being underwater. This plan stinks. There are better alternatives and they know it. That is why over half of Congress voted against it. And now they are going to be for it? Why? Because it has some pork and a little horderv added on the side? Come on. This bill stunk from the beginning [foul language].

152. Rachna | 10.03.08

I agree that it’s clear from the reaction of the Congress that most of the politicians don’t have a clue what the bail out is for or just don’t care. There is way too much partisan talk about blaming one side or the other (Dems vs Reps). My main concern is that I don’t believe the primary culprits in all of this are being appropriately held accountable for their greediness.

My suggestions:

1) Any company that has one of the CEOs of companies that had to be bailed out MUST be required from now on to clearly identify to its shareholders that this person is on their staff. These people are threats to taxpayers and investors bc they are clearly willing to take self-serving, risky moves at others’ expense. I would even say that those companies should be FINED by the FDIC for hiring them. It is similar to having a higher insurance premium on your car ins once you have an accident. These people are liabilities.

2) Loan officers and mortgage brokers must clearly present upon request how many subprime loans or defaulted loans they have brokered. Thus far, good brokers that dissuaded people from bad loans just lost business. Those bad, predatory lenders must be identified clearly. If they grossly and knowingly misrepresent themselves, this should be punishable first by a fine, second from being banned from practive, and third by jail-time.

3) People who have foreclosed should not be allowed to take on another home loan for 5 years. This should prevent anyone from dumping their own loans onto taxpayers and buying the devalued property down the street.

Anyone with me?? I have no idea where to even begin to push something like this forward. Petition?

153. Rebecca | 10.03.08

This is a sham, a travesty and a robbery of the American people who pay their mortgages, pay their taxes, pay their own way. The greedy politicians and Wall Street types have shot themselves in the foot. Let them either bleed to death or stop the bleeding themselves. McCain has lost my vote on this hustle, so has Spencer Bachus if he votes for it the second time. Not that I would ever vote for the Marxist Obama, but I will vote for a 3rd party. For someone who wants to do away with “pork barrel spending” McCain and Obama are right in the thick of the other hogs.

154. Sari | 10.03.08

Take back the power: We create a List of those in office that allowed this to happen and NEVER VOTE FOR THEM AGAIN.(Everyone - Senators, Advisors, House of Reps) Take them out of office. Put yourself or your own child in.Their suposed pedigree didnt stop this, their suposed higher education or ivy leage school didnt prevent this. I am going to run for any office that comes up next, on the platform that i would not have voted yes to ever allow CEO Compensation (of the CEO’s in office during this issue and in office up to this issue (as some ducked out when they saw the tidal wave approaching and or some were forced out in the hopes that investor confidence could be won). EVERYBODY STAND UP AND TAKE THE POWER BACK. You and I are getting nothing for this and will have to pay out of pocket for it. They (Paulson’s ex co-workers, friends, colleges ect…got to keep their hideously inacurate comp package (the bubble burst -why didnt theirs??)

155. Carl Peter Klapper | 10.22.08

I am now running a word of mouth, write-in campaign for United States Senator from New Jersey. In the unlikely event that I actually get elected, I will submit legislation to establish the Third Bank of the United States, tasking it with taking over the administration of mortgages, starting with the defaulted ones, reversing all recent foreclosures, converting the mortgages to the non-leveraged Adjustable Equity Mortgages (AEMs) that I have proposed and redesigning all derivative instruments based upon them. I will also call for the repeal of the “revitalization” act and the prosecution of former chief executives of the investment banks and seizure of their assets here and abroad.

I urge all voters to vote for Independent candidates or those from minor parties.

Thank you for your electoral support,
Carl Peter Klapper
Edison, NJ

1. Stinkin’ Bailouts/Stock Market Crashing (Merged) - Page 31 - BuckeyePlanet Ohio State Forums | 10.02.08