First and foremost….”Bailout” is such an inappropriate term. This bill was not just to “Bailout” Wall Street! This is/was a bill that had the potential to ease our nations (and the world wide) economic crisis and possibly pay down our national debt. What was the cost to taxpayers? Essentially, in the long run, little to nothing. This was not a bill that would have just thrown $700 billion dollars at those who screwed things up. The money wasn’t going to be thrown down the drain. The government was buying something for that money at a discounted rate. At that discounted rate, they were getting a bargain that had the very real probability of paying itself back plus trillions more dollars. Dollars which would have gone to pay down our national deficit, not gone to benefit the CEO’s who messed things up to begin with. Was this bill perfect, NO! Was it acceptable,YES! Was it needed and necessary, YES YES YES!
I know that there is anger out there because the economy should have never gotten to this point, but here’s an analogy for you: you’re a paramedic and you are driving down the street. You see a man on the side of the road who is in obvious distress. He is overweight and unkempt. You go over, ascertain that he is in cardiac arrest, but you think…”it’s his fault. He should have lost weight and taken care of himself. Man, if I tried to pick him up, it might hurt me a bit”. Because of your disgust for his lack of care for himself and your concern for some minor, temporary pain, and despite your ability to help, you simply walk away and do nothing: leaving the man to die. After the man dies, you realize he was actually a single father of 5 with no surviving adult family, no assets, and no insurance. Those 5 children, through no fault of their own, are now wards of the state….foster children! You could have help the man during his crisis and anaylised how he became overweight after his heart started ticking again!
This is essentially what our elected officials in the house did yesterday. They took a look at the state of our economy, determined that bad decisions by some politicians, CEO’s and financial executives caused the mess. They were angered by the stupidity and neglect of those officials and were concerned about what their vote could do to their individual career in a few weeks, so they walked away. They walked away leaving our economy to die.
What happened…the biggest lose in the history of the Dow. What could happen going forward: your credit card use could be stopped by your credit card companies because they can’t foot the bill, mortgages could falter, small business could go under, retirement plans could dwindle to next nothing, jobs could lost because people do not have funds to support local business, etc.
Me, your average American citizen, who works for a living and tries to do the best for my family, will be hurt by the inaction of our House of Representatives to get past their idiocy, stubbornness, partisinism, and selfishness. Shame on them! And shame on those Americans who can’t be bothered to take the time to learn what’s really going on instead of buying into the political mumbo jumbo on the media today!
I’m no expert, but I do have an opinion!