The Senate "Bailout" bill -- more of the same old, same old

Since Monday we've been mulling over the bailout bill proposed by Congress. The initial bill failed in the House, and I can't say we're unhappy with it once we discovered what was in that bill. In addition to the numerous earmarks within it were also provisions to help with car loans, student loans, and credit card debt. That's why we're glad the bill died. But we're discovering that the Senate is no better than the House. They're loading this puppy up with earmarks, and one pundit even states that this bill is the "what old, stalled legislation can I stuff into the bill” bill. This bill is literally a load of horse-sh*t with many a commentator stating -- point blank -- that there is little difference between the Senate and House versions of the bailout.

This isn't the way this was supposed to go. We were behind the efforts to stabilize the mortgage industry, and put an influx of capital into banks that were in danger of folding. However we can no longer support this. Why? Because Congress can't seem to buy a clue in this whole fiasco.

First off, NO ONE in Congress is willing to affix the blame where it belongs. That's with Congress itself. They passed the laws that lead us down this road, they dropped the ball on oversight, and now they want us to foot the bill.

Secondly, they can't seem to keep from loading the bill up with earmarks and legislation stalled elsewhere. Take a look at what's included in this bill, and ask yourself if you really want to be on the hook for this crap.

Third, and final point -- Why is it that Congress just can't let the markets take care of this in and of itself? The natural order of things is that when businesses fail, they're either gobbled up by other businesses, or they end up on the ash-heap of failed businesses. We saw it with Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and Merrill Lynch. What is wrong with that?

We really were hoping the Congress could do this in a responsible fashion. I can say we weren't surprised to see that Congress still lacks the adult responsibility of their jobs. They loaded the House bill up with garbage, and the Senate has done the same thing. If this thing passes, and chances are it will tonight, then when this hits the House, we expect to see the same outcome as Monday's bill. It should be voted down in favor of fiscal responsibility.

Anyone notice that after the 777 point drop on Monday that we gained a good amount of it back on Tuesday? 485 points, to be exact, and as of this writing the market is down around 20 points. The markets, folks, will balance out all on their own. Will it be a bumpy road? Yes. Should Congress intervene? ONLY if they actually do focus on helping those companies in trouble. No earmarks. No additional subsidies for anything else.

But because Congress can't help themselves, then we're not in favor of this attempt to help the economy. At a point where we have gobs and gobs of extra spending, a debt that is spiralling out of control, we have a Congress willing to make things worse. This is not how Congress should be acting. Additionally, anyone in Congress that votes in favor of this bill, or any other attempted bill that is loaded to the hilt with garbage spending, should be voted out of office. John McCain says that Congress is broken. He can talk about vetoing legislation, should he become president, that has earmarks and pork in it, but to fix Congress we need fresh blood. Keeping these has-beens around isn't helping this nation. It's hurting it because they don't care about the people being hurt.

All they care about is keeping their seat, and delivering pork to their states. That's not right, and it's not fair to the people that put these bums in office. We urge John McCain to vote against this bill (if he shows up in the Senate to vote), and take a stand for America. "Country First" is his motto, and this bill is the furthest thing from the definition of that phrase.

Publius II