The big Wall Street firms aren’t facing bankruptcy alone.
President Bush, who once had more political capital than any modern president, is flat broke. As the economy teeters on the edge of chaos, he must now turn to Democrats to rescue what remains of his presidency.
Barack Obama and John McCain — the men who would succeed Bush — are looking for political bailouts, too.
“We’re seeing politics all over the place,” said Kansas State University political scientist Joe Aistrup.
The players: Bush, who just wants to avoid being the next Herbert Hoover.
Conservative Republicans, who oppose a bailout on principle, don’t think the public is on board. They’re pushing a plan they say reduces the risk to taxpayers.
Democrats — more willing to accept administration warnings that the conservative plan will not work — are nonetheless worried about climbing out on the ledge on their own. They can vote for the $700 billion bailout — with a few populist twists — but they want Republicans shackled to them before they leap.
Moderate Republicans, taking a cue from the White House, have also accepted most of the package now circulating on Capitol Hill. But they are not leaping alone either.
And then there’s the rest of us: Angry at whoever got us into the mess, but frightened that another Depression is around the corner.
McCain has tried to be a man of action — dramatically suspending his campaign, meeting with Republican conservatives, threatening to skip the first debate.
He has also declined to endorse any specific remedy, although he gave a push to the conservatives’ list of demands.
Obama — reserved — remains reluctant to scoot too far out front on a package that the public distrusts. So he offered a broad outline of an acceptable plan, but left most of the heavy lifting to his party and Bush.
I think the whole bailout is the biggest ripoff ever, orchestrated by Bush and Paulson (which Bush appointed). I don’t think there is any need for a bailout.
I think this whole thing is a scam created by Bush and Paulson who he appointed to the position. Paulson has over 700 million in assets, and was CEO of Goldman Sachs. The truth is that the market isn’t that bad, and that it will correct itself. Also, when banks go under they just get purchased by another bank. The papers change hands, thats all, its not nearly as big of deal as Bush and Paulson would have you believe, and certainly not a reason to give the richest people in the world an additional 700 billion dollars.
To prove its a scam read section 8 of the bailout -“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Lets examine what Bush says is the cost of doing nothing. Bush says if we don’t give 700 billion of taxpayer money to the super rich, then there won’t be as much credit to taxpayers. So let me get this straight, Bush is proposing we give money the taxpayer has earned, so that the taxpayer can borrow it back and pay interest on it? How does that sound like a good plan? Just say NO to the bailout!
I just weish that the politicinas would stop using the term “free market”, those died years ago and the markets depend heavily on government intervention.