Please stop oversimplifying the bill and acting like it's an either pass and the economy get fixed or fail and everything collapses.
We are halfway across the world in Turkey right now so we are only getting this from the internet outlets, but everything I'm hearing is a pass / fail dialogue. Additionally, from what I've read this morning it sounds like the treasury has admitted that the limits to executive compensation were a farce.
I can understand "rescuing" the financial institutions, but NOT their captains. Executive compensation is already inordinately high. When I have made comments about this (esp. when I see afternoon exec. golf outings) I have been told this is because the extraordinary amount of ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY the executive bears for the welfare of the company. If this is the case then these executives have ALREADY been compensated by their regular / previous salaries and should not receive any compensation as a part of this bill. What they were paid in previous years is for their efforts now and zero or minimal compensation now is for screwing up in previous years.
Also - I have read mixed messages that the "rescue" shouldn't cost $700 billion, but then the treasury told bank leaders there is nothing keeping them from going to the $700 billion right away? Instead of picking a number out of the air - can we get some real analysis on what it is going to cost us all to "rescue" the financial institutions? Geez... we're supposed to have the best and brightest analytical minds somewhere in the upper eschelon right? Give us a real figure and make it a LIMIT.
So, my message is this...let's stop "speaking very slowly" about pass / fail and encourage our statespeople to get to work FIXING THE DAMN BILL. It still won't be a solution, but at least then it will make sense.
Please contact your congresspeople today and ask them to REALLY strip out executive compensation AND to give us a REAL number for what it will cost. This should not be a partisan issue for the American people. Those of us who are below the John McCain / Barack Obama qualification of millionaires (and that's a lot of us) should unite to get this thing fixed. After all, if you want something done right... you gotta do it yourself :)