I am no fan of bailing out those who made bad business decisions, particularly when the top decision makers drew salaries and bonuses that border on the obscene and unconscionable. Nonetheless, allowing the economy to crash and burn is not a good idea either. A further irony, of course, is that it is the Republican Party in Congress and the Chimperator's White House, including John McSenile, who set the stage for the current debacle by seeking to strip away all regulation and oversight that might have constrained the greedy on Wall Street and also imposed some rationality standard to mortgage credit underwriting. Now, the very same politicians - other than the Chimperator who doesn't want yet another fiasco to happen on his watch - who allowed the crisis to come about are the ones who do not want to take responsibility and try to clean up the mess. Yes, Pelosi made a speech placing blame on the Chimperator and the GOP, but it was directly on target. They need to be held accountable. Here are highlights from the Huffington Post:*
In an extraordinary gamble on the future of the global economy, the House of Representatives voted down the $700 illion Wall Street bill 205-228, as Republicans defied their president, their presidential nominee and the congressional leadership to vote nearly two to one against the measure described as crucial to the prevention of an economic collapse.
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While the economic consequences of the vote will be determined during the coming weeks, the outcome this afternoon was a major setback to John McCain, who had backed the proposal and portrayed himself as a party leader who would help win approval for the bailout. . . . Instead, members of McCain's own party voted 133 to 65 against the measure. Democrats, on the other hand, voted 140 to 95 for the bill.
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In an attempt to shift blame for the defeat, House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri charged that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi provoked the 'no' votes by angering Republican members with an excessively partisan floor speech. . . . In her speech, Pelosi did place some of the blame for the current crisis on Bush: "Today, we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership that has left us left incapable of meeting the challenges of the future.
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There very likely will be an attempt to try to pass the bill again, although it is not clear how soon that would take place. Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas asked if he could move for reconsideration and if he did, how soon would it be taken up. He was told by House parliamentarians that it would be taken up immediately -- too soon for supporters to regroup -- so he put off his motion.
1 comment:
Michael:
It's not very encouraging that people don't seem to undestand how serious this mess is. Like everyone else I'd like to see all the Wall Street CEO's tarred and feathered and would like to find a solution that doesn't involve taxpayer money. But anyone who thinks that the Government shouldn't "bail out Wall Street" is still living in the economic fantasy that the Republicans have created through their dumb-ass "the market knows best" economic bullshit over the past 30 years. So tell me, how is it that people don't seem to care that the US Government (i.e. us taxpayers) spend billions of dollars every month in Iraq but when it comes to
$700 million - and presumably more - that seems to be fairly important to everyone's sconomic well being, everyone gets pissed off? Oh, right, the war is being financed through DEFICIT SPENDING that only shows up on our national balance sheet and hammers the dollar making everything more expensive rather than out there and discussed openly for the public to see.
Well, I guess people will understand then all their 401(k)'s have lost 80% of thier value or thier neighborhood bank goes under.
Thank god John McCain intervened.
Scott
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