11 zeroes and all for what?
There are three pages that started this, and now there are 110 pages. Even though my office has CNN playing all day, I still don’t know a single point that those pages make. I have heard no definition of the problem, and no delineation of the solution.
I don’t know what that 700 billion dollars is supposed to do, for whom and for what.
I fell asleep Saturday afternoon to Bloomberg telling us that the market was very sensitive to what would happen with the bailout. I heard Palin tell Couric that the bailout should not reward mortgage misconduct.
But I have not heard what it SHOULD be doing. Or what it THINKS it’s doing.
I know that it’s unpopular. And somehow the TV pundits (who are these people, anyway?) and Nancy Pelosi seem to be implying that it’s shameful and irresponsible to not support it.The representative who are listening to the many many voters calling in to say “DON’T YOU DARE DO THIS! THINK!” don’t really coalesce with Pelosi’s opinion.
The word from the capital is “Don’t listen to your constituents! Just vote yes on the bill in front of you!”
The bill did not pass. In a remarkable bi-partisan move, most of the house republicans voted it down and almost 100 democrats went against their “leaders” to reject this bill.
I am glad it did not pass. I believe that congress should take some action, since it is a certainty that federal agencies and regulators have been and will continue to be called upon during this mess.
McCain said:
“We won’t solve a problem caused by poor oversight with a plan that has no oversight,”
In the same article, Obama said congress needed to:
“work quickly, in a bipartisan fashion, to resolve the immediate crisis and avert an even broader economic catastrophe.”
Before the vote, both candidates seemed to agree on what it should have in it to pass.
Obama seems to want credit for crafting the bill, and McCain seems to want to emphasize the effect of the bailout on average people.
In another odd twist, MoveOn has decided that the Bush-delivered and Democrats-backed bailout bill, limply endorsed by both Obama and McCain, is BAD and therefore must
BE MCCAIN’S FAULT!
I am finding this process to strain credulity. Opinions and actions in this matter are unmoored from facts.
I remember thinking that when McCain asked Obama to stop campaigning and go deal with this issue, it was an act of integrity. The fact that he backed down and went forward with the debate did not impress me.
But in this empty cupboard, I’ll take the crumbs that he at least had the impulse.
I don’t know. I’m starting to regret paying attention to this election after all. It’s just too tiring.
What the heck is going on around here?