Partisan Politics Kills Initial Bailout

Nearly everyone agrees the federal government should do something about the banking crisis. The economy is struggling, but not failing. Banks have overextended themselves on mortgages and credit. The fourth largest bank in the country is about to go under. The House of Representatives did not pass HR 3997 and immediately started pointing fingers at each other.

I don't necessarily support this specific bailout proposal, but I do believe Congress must pass some form of assistance in order to get the flow of credit moving once again. We are now in an environment where nobody is extending loans to anyone. This means large corporations, as well as potential home buyers.

Federal government's role in business should be proactive: NOT preemptive. Regulation of trading practices and credit limitations is not meddlesome government sticking its nose where it doesn't belong. Obviously, the policy of laissez faire free markets with little or no new regulation in response to arising conditions has FAILED.

I find it entirely ironic to witness the Democratic Party leadership rallying to the flag of a bailout program proposed by the Bush administration. Many of Bush's policies over the last 8 years have predicated these economic and political situations. The current situation is not the result of politics, however. It is the result of unsound extension of credit to borrowers, both corporate and individual, who were unsound risks for the amount of money they were borrowing.

The sound practice is to cut our losses. Some bailout is necessary, but only in order to effect the stimulation of the economy in the other direction. We don't want our federal government to own these private businesses. We want the federal government to protect the individual small to moderate investors whose entire life savings and retirement funds are dependent upon the modest investments they hold in the stock market in the form of mutual funds.

The House has failed in this initial attempt, but I don't believe this specific bill was the best they could come up with. Democrats failed to produce 2/3 of its members to vote for the bill, while Republicans failed to produce even 1/3 of its members to support it.

The notion of Republicans not voting for the bill due to the "partisan tone" of Speaker Pelosi's speech is ludicrous. What is even more outrageous, however, is the Democratic representatives not voting unanimously for this bill. This vote is completely indicative of the lack of direction from which the Democratic Party has suffered for the last 8 years.

It is as if the ship of the party has no direction since the Bill Clinton rudder was put into retirement. Say what you want, and we all know the president is not responsible for the state of the economy, but the economy was much better off when the end of the Clinton presidency was coming to a close.

I'm a Yellow Dog and I admit it. It doesn't mean I'm narrow-minded. It means I have chosen my ground to stand on and I am content to do so. I haven't claimed it outright in this blog before, though. The reason for this is because I don't like labels. When it comes down to it, though, I'm hangin' on the porch.

Largest single-day point drop in U.S. stock market history folks. It'll probably get worse before it gets betters. You can take that to the bank....

Just don't run to get there.