Making Sense Of The Financial Deal–Updated

House Republicans “rebelled“, eh? Maybe it’s because their constituents are burning up the phone lines in all out mutiny. The Republicans have acted like Democrats “lite” for years now. I have a newsflash for the Republicans, including McCain, about this whole bill: It feels wrong to fiscal conservatives and taxpayers generally.

My most liberal of liberal friends gloated in a Facebook message that Bush will be ushering in socialism and add an economic failure to his military failure.

The problem in America is cultural: a bigger portion of the populace lives beyond their means than ever before. Too much stuff, too much house (that isn’t worth the money paid for it), too, too much.

The great thing about America is cultural: risk-taking, the ability to make mistakes and survive them, the opportunity to start again. Americans get a do-over if they make a mistake.

The question facing Congress and the President is this: Does Wall Street deserve a do-over? Does Congress deserve a do-over? Their stupid regulations forcing bankers to loosen credit when people who were very bad bets caused this problem. Why should Americans trust Congress with the solution? I think that’s where the do nothing sentiment comes from.

Will business start-ups be harmed by the contraction in credit? Yes. Will businesses fail? Yes. Will people lose jobs? Yes. Especially employees of small businesses.

It’s no wonder Congress has themselves tied up in knots. There are no guarantees no matter the choices. And there are great risks no matter how it’s handled.

The American patient is sick. Any intervention could potentially make it worse. Lack of intervention, could make it worse, too.

Updated:

The Anchoress says this (mind you, go to her page where she has TONS of links–I’m at a conference right now and blogging during a presentation so I don’t really have the time to give all this the attention it deserves, I will however, try to liveblog the debate):

EARLY RANT: (Scroll past this for latest updates) I need to first opine that the Democrats yesterday blew my mind with their last-minute addition of 56 billion to the bail-out, their sneaky, slippery attempt to play political games with some of this money – directing it to ACORN (!) – and their subsequent attempt to lie and to blame the GOP – the president – anyone but themselves for not passing a bill which the GOP CANNOT BLOCK. We already know that Nancy Pelosi has no leadership skills except in spite and obstruction – we see she is completely out of her depths here, but Barney Frank’s behavior last night, and his disrespect toward the GOP and the President was particularly egregious in a time of crisis. He behaved like a trapped animal trying to distract the hunters toward anyone but him. Meanwhile Chuck Schumer is unusually, uncharacteristically silent; Barack Obama – except when mentioned by a press pretending he is leading – seems irrelevant to the process and to have no genuine ideas or input, or a desire to lead. All he seems capable of doing is whining about the debate while Rome falls about his ankles. McCain is quite right that the debates would be less urgent if Obama had done the Town Halls McCain had asked for – debates Obama said he’d have “anytime, anywhere” before refusing all of them. I say at this point SCREW the moderated debates that tell us nothing and insist that these candidates town-hall it and speak DIRECTLY to the people who will be most affected by all of this – that would be the ordinary folk. And do the same for Biden and Palin if they debate.

The longer this goes on, the less people trust these dolts to take a wise course. Pelosi and Reid act like children bouncing around in one of those ball pits at McDonalds. Obama seems like a vestigial organ on a worthless appendage. Why should we trust these people to fix this problem?

And there is RAGE and I do not use this word carelessly about executive pay. And well there should be. It is outrageous to walk away from failure rich. But, and I’d like to add this, if we’re going to get all socialist about executive pay, lets take the money from all the losing basketball teams, too. What about those fat cat ball players. At least they have a skill. Actors in moronic movies that make no money should also not make a salary. How about that? So, while I think the compensation is vile, I’d like to point out that Tom Cruise makes at least $20 million a movie for essentially playing the same part over and over and over. Good grief, someone actually pays Charlie Sheen. So, life isn’t always “fair” and can’t be “made” to be fair, either.

Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com

Posted in America • Corrupted Culture • Political Animals
Tags: America • Congress • Economy • Money