… and even *I* don’t know what the hell is going on with this bailout thingamajig. I do know it’s a huge mess. Despite spending a good bit of time this weekend reading all the Pros and Cons of it, I still had no firm leaning one way or the other. The only thing that gave me pause was that Bushie and pals were demanding we do it RIGHT NOW or the end is nigh. Anything this administration wants done RIGHT NOW has to be a bad thing for us and a good thing for them.
Saw this posted over on Kos and it made sense of it for me and maybe for you, too.
Here’s Pete Stark, progressive caucus member.
“We now face a choice. President Bush tells us we must inject $700 billion into this market to avoid a total meltdown. He and Secretary Paulson say it is the only answer. Many economists – who don’t have a financial stake in Wall Street or an 8-year record of bad decisions – tell us it isn’t the only choice. An option would be to assist homeowners with their mortgage payments. By making sure these mortgages remain viable, the market should stabilize.
“The bill before us today is basically the same three-page Wall Street give away first put forth by President Bush. The fig leaf adjustments are not enough to outweigh the fact that no one knows if this bill is what’s needed. I’m not willing to make a $700 billion gamble that President Bush is right after 8 years of seeing all that he’s done wrong.”
Surely there are better ways to help put things on the right track. Right??
Oh, and while calling people on a list asking if they might be interested in volunteering for the Obama campaign, I realized something. I have absolutely NO persuasive skills at all. Out of 44 calls, I got one maybe. Talked to a few nice people who didn’t have the time but supported the campaign and one crotchety old man (how he got on a Dems for Obama list, I’ll never know) who said “I wouldn’t vote for him if you paid me.” Uh okay? Thanks for your time?
I am wondering if I wouldn’t be a better envelope stuffer or something. Well, gotta step outta that comfort zone sometime, I s’pose.
I worked the phones religiously four years ago when I was a Kerry Girl. I hated polling most, followed by asking people to volunteer. Amazingly, people were far more willing to — and way nicer about — parting with their money.
I heard someone say that this economic downturn has been brewing for a while, that it’s an unholy convergence of too much dependence on oil from countries that hate us, plus bad lending habits, and look! Here we are. He has no political ideology whatsoever, but simply believes that instead of paying attention to wedge issues like gay marriage and the Iraq war, we should have been concentrating on our infrastructure and energy and banking practices. But, now that we’re here, we’d better participate in the bail out and do it quickly. A little pain now is better than tons of pain later when we have a second unholy convergence — high unemployment and Baby Boomers retiring and needing their Social Security and Medicare … and massively devalued 401 (k)s.
Cheery, huh?