The Bail-Out Mess

I've been thinking a lot lately about the bail-out bill that was proposed in the House this past Monday, and subsequently voted down by Republicans and Democrats. Ever since the start of this bail-out talk, I've been unsure of what to think of the idea. On the one hand, I want to see the free market take it's course. You make a bad business choice, you go down. Someone else makes good business choices, you move up. It's the way our economy should work. But on the other hand, I don't want to see corporations that effect so many parts of our economy go out of business, causing many of us to have problems from losing jobs to losing money. But on the third hand, I don't want to see $700 billion of taxpayer money go to businesses on Wall Street to bail them out for making idiotic decisions! But on the fourth hand...I could go on, but I'll end it here.

Along with all of this indecisiveness, I've found comfort in the thoughts of that wonderful conservative, Newt Gingrich. In a recent NPR transcript, I found these words from Newt: "Congress was designed by the Founding Fathers to move slowly, precisely to avoid the sudden panic of a one-week solution that becomes a 20-year mess." (And for the record, I don't listen to that liberal NPR. I just found the quote online when I Googled Newt and his bail-out thoughts.) While I see that haste is necessary to save our economy, I also realize that a quickly pieced-together solution, isn't always the best solution.

Perhaps another thought from Newt would be helpful to realize how un-reassuring this bail-out plan actually was: "Well, the last time we were promised they were going to save us, it was $300 billion; it was a housing bill. Now we have brand-new liberal Democrats, many of whom — for example [Connecticut Sen.] Chris Dodd — was the largest single recipient of money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and he is the chairman of the Banking Committee. So the guy who got the most money is now going to write a bill to give taxpayers' money to the people who gave him money. Somehow, I am not reassured."

All in all, I'm just saying that I'm not entirely disappointed that the bail-out bill didn't pass on Monday. But, I must say that I am disappointed in the way that Nancy Pelosi handled presenting this bill to the House. After a weekend of working together with the Republicans, the Democrats, led by Pelosi, decided to dash the bi-partisan efforts against the wall, and use the opportunity to tear down the Bush administration and the Republicans. Hearing her comments made me sick! She had to use this opportunity as a platform to promote the political times that we are in. Why not take the chance to denounce Bush, and therefore sneakily promote the Democratic party and th candidates who are up for re-election? That's really what she was doing.

Oh, and don't bother telling me that the Republicans in the House were the ones to blame for the bill not passing. It seems as if the media has been blaming the Republicans for this very thing. That's funny, considering that 40% of Democratics didn't vote for the bill either!!! I guess we can instead say "Thank you" to both the Republicans and Democrats who voted against this bill. (This is a rare moment--me thanking a Democrat.) But they saved us $700 billion. Hopefully now more thought can go into creating a better plan to save our economy.

Oh, and by the way, I find it funny that the Dow dropped around 700 points yesterday. And today, even though the bill wasn't passed, it went back up more than 485 points. It's interesting how the market sometimes has a mind of its own.

This whole post has been a jumbled mess of thoughts. But I guess it makes sense, because that' what's been floating around my head the past day or so. I was hoping to type it all out in my post in a way that would flow and be easily understood. But perhaps this situation just isnt' that way. Perhaps it's not easily understood...by any of us.

That's it for now. I'll go on being confused about what should be done. But at least I've gotten these thoughts out.