Today, in a surprisingly wide margin the bailout passed the House. With a vote of of 263 to 171, the House clearly saw that this bailout must be passed. By of course, there is always the cynical side of the argument. In this case, that would be the $150 billion worth of incentives that would be given to the representatives that passed the bill. So did the House of Representatives pass the bill because they thought it was necessary or because they were getting some pork out of it. And if it were for the good of Wall Street, then how come the rejected an eerily similar bill four days ago.
So now Obama and McCain have gotten their bailout bill passed and Henry Paulson has now become one of the most powerful people in the nation. All that is left now is to wonder what will come out of this. Will our nation sink deeper into debt or will this bill be the antidote that our economy needs to rebound? Only time will tell. I originally criticized the bill but it no longer matters, now I just wait to see if it works or if it also fails. Hopefully in the future we will remember history and not allow to Wall Street to control our economy and force us to act and save it. Hopefully we can have oversight so that Wall Street and the government are not forced to be interconnected but seperate. Maybe this will allow the return of true capitalism.
Bailout Passes!
By cass24 - Posted on October 3rd, 2008
Tagged: Broad prosperity
• Better future
I don't believe they passed the bill for the pork and I don't think they passed the bill because they thought it was best for the overall economy. I believe they passed the bill because the media made it seem as though anyone who opposed this bill was commiting political suicide.
As for hoping that congress gains some foresight and doesn't let us repeat history, don't count on it. We just did. A bailout, although much smaller, was attempted before the great depression and we all know how well that worked out.
As for allowing for the return of true capitalism, true capitalism is what got us into this mess. People caring only for their profit margin. Although this doesn't mean that I'm for socialism (much worse than capitalism), I'm for a bit of regulated capitalism.
Sorry, if I sound harsh, but the passage of this bill means we are in for some hard times for a little while, and I'm going to go check right now to see if my state's congress men voted for this atrocity. If I found out they did I won't rest until their out of office.
You make some good points and I'm glad you originally opposed the bill as I did. However, you can't buy in to the media campaign and even the House of Rep. attempt to display Wall Street as the problem. Wall Street is not evil and it never has been. These so called claims of greed were not in fact wealthy companies trying to get more wealth, but financial businesses deciding legally to take riskier business options. The House used the "blame Wall street" tactic to gain support from people who just basically hate capitalism and those that have been more successful than themselves. If anyone is to blame, it is our government.
I would like to explain my point of view on this issue. To help you understand my point of view I would like to share with you an example. Let’s say our country is like a person who has cancer. Unfortunately, this person gets pneumonia while he/she still has the cancer. The doctors, who are the Congress of the United States in this situation treat the patient for the pneumonia but do not take action against the cancer. This is how I feel the 700 billion dollar bill will fair on our country. It may bail out the water in a boat for so long, but until you actually go about fixing the boat it will slowly, but surely sink. Congress has fallen away from the Constitution, and the wisdom of our founding fathers. We must ultimately lay the blame on their doorstep, for creating this mess with the Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac situation years ago.
I must admit, this bill is not what I expected it to be. Here, a bill, that has now become a law is aiding companies and businesses through the $700 plan. I for one believe that this is flawed. After digging through some articles in "The New York Times", I found a very important piece of information. The bill does not have any regulations for the companies that can receive this money. Now, a waste of money? Possibly, if the government does not create standards for the money to be given to these companies, I am sure that many will abuse it. Now that the issues of a recession , or another "Great Depression" are on the arise, we have to look out for ourselves more than ever. There is more of my opinion of this bailout on my blog, you might like it.