I have to write this--I am so pissed. If you ever lived near the Atlantic Ocean, or the Gulf, you know what helpless feels like. The hurricane is forecast to obliterate your neighborhood and all you can do is use plywood and evacuate. Well, that's how I feel about the Big Bailout.
The argument for it is eerily similar to the argument for war in Iraq--an economic atomic mushroom cloud is on the horizon, time to give unconditional power to the Executive branch. And the scary part, many (most?) Dems are falling for it. The same incompetent ideologues that allowed the economy to tank will get $700 billion to bail out their mistakes--and their banks. Dems want to put lipstick on this pig by helping people stay in houses they never should have bought--keeping them in too much debt--until they eventually own it--wow--is that stupid. We all agree they shouldn't have gotten the liar loans--we're fighting to keep the albatross around their necks.
The bill should take equity out of any bank getting aid. Right now, they get gain without enough pain. They pocketed the ill begotten gains, why should taxpayers bail them out without retrieving those profits? What happened to capitalism--only good for profits but wrong for losses?
Paulson is the enemy--the Kaiser to the idiot king. He will save Goldman, Sacks--and some other buddies--he doesn't care about people--only money. The Republicans fear loss of access to the US Treasury in 4 months--this is their last gasp attempt to double their "winnings." This will become a political football--and we'll look like wimps and enablers and spendthrifts--and it will be partly deserved.
Just say no.