I was willing to support this bailout. I thought that the bill was bad; I thought that the probable alternative was worse. We'll see. (Sometimes people say "we'll see" as in "only time will tell"; this is an occasion when we can say "we'll see" because we will see -- and probably very soon.)
My only condition for supporting the bailout, once the worst excesses of the original Paulson proposal were eliminated, was: 109 House Republicans and 25 Senate Republicans. We gave the Republicans a very good deal, for them. More Democrats voted for it than I wish would have. But the Republicans could not take "yes" for an answer.
So be it.
We're tried to be nice. We've tried to be adult. We've tried to be prudent. We're tried to be responsible. We've tried to be cooperative.
We tried all that because we wanted to get a bill passed.
Well, now let's be nice, adult, prudent, and responsible by saying to hell with being cooperative.
Let's pass a bill we'd really like to see enacted.
A bill we'd like to see enacted won't likely be signed into law. It also may not make it past a filibuster in the Senate. But we should put it forth anyway, and justify it as follows: "it's an emergency -- we have to act now."
In other word, we should feed Bush his own medicine. He could have had a better deal. His party blew it.
So: a transaction tax of $0.25%. (Better economic policy analysts than I am can figure out exactly how that should work and suggest the right tweaks. I know that the UK has such a system; sounds good to me.)
So: a 1% surcharge on incomes greater than $250,000.
So: an increase in the capital gains tax.
So: financial institutions would pay into a common industry self-insurance fund.
So: foreclosure relief for homeowners in bankruptcy -- if they can stay in their houses, they can keep contributing to the economy.
I'd like to see these proposed as individual bills. Make the GOP vote on all of them -- make Bush confront them -- with an eye towards the need to act in an emergency.
Let Obama support them; let McCain take whatever stand or stands he likes.
We tried being non-partisan and I'm glad we did. Now let's be Democrats.
Once these bills are proposed and pass or fail -- putting us on record for what we stand for as Democrats -- we can discuss what the third plan should be. But, the Republicans went on record as being "anti." Time for us to go on record as being "pro" something.