It will come as no surprise to anyone that George Bush’s speech last night angered me. How dare he step in at the eleventh hour in this financial crisis and pull scare tactics on the American public! We didn’t create this problem. We have no vote on the bailout plan. We’ve been scared for months, watching the housing market tank and banks going under. What we needed from our president was reassurance that Congress is working on a plan that will avert disaster.
I’m mad as hell at Wall Street, at the president, at the Republicans, at the people who were supposed to be overseeing the system to make sure this sort of thing didn’t happen. I’m mad at the profit-taking, money-grubbing institutions who gave loans to people who clearly couldn’t afford them. Where were the regulations? Where was the oversight?
And now this bailout plan is being hatched in Congress. A plan that will cost every man, woman, and child approximately $2300, or about $6000 per actual taxpayer! I understand the urgency for doing something quickly; it would be far worse if Washington let everything collapse. But I’m always very suspicious when someone says, “quick, don’t just stand there. Do something!” The “something” that results from a knee-jerk reaction is often not very good.
The economy is extremely complex, and I’ve never understood it very well. Apparently the guys in charge didn’t understand it very well either or we wouldn’t have gotten into this mess. But now we’re supposed to believe they understand it well enough to fix the problem in a week’s time? I have a terrible sinking feeling about this whole situation and I can’t do a damn thing but sit here and watch the train wreck.
How dare George Bush address me last night and tell me I should be scared! I’ve been absolutely paralyzed for a year or more! He should have been addressing Congress and Wall Street, and he should have been doing it long before the subprime crisis ever began.
Where the hell is my bailout!?
Between this bailout and the Iraq war, and the Patriot Act, Bush has managed to transfer the greatest amount of wealth and power FROM the middle class TO the wealthiest, most powerful corporations in America, with himself at the top.
Sounds like fascism to me.
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I agree. And for the most part, Congress sat on their hands and let him get away with it.
Hopefully Congress will at least insist on lots of strings being attached to this package and lots of oversight, unlike what the Treasury wants.
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Assuming a bailout like this is really what’s required, yes, there’d better be all kinds of restrictions and oversight. I can’t believe Paulson had the nerve to suggest he be given control of that much money without any oversight (although that does sound just like George Bush). In fact, I can’t believe the “plan” he presented was only 2.5 pages.
I was thinking along the same lines tonight, major scare tactics! Feeling scared is such a horrible feeling, and yes, you are right- we’ve already been scared for long enough.
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What makes it worse is the feeling that it’s totally beyond my control.
I thought Congress controls the purse string, and the Democrats control Congress. Does it mean George Bush is a Democrat? I am confused.
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Bush’s bailout plan called for giving Paulson $700 billion to spend with no oversight or review or responsibility of any kind. The Dems put a stop to that idea. So now the two parties are trying to hammer out a compromise. At least that’s the way I understand it.
“I’m mad at the profit-taking, money-grubbing institutions who gave loans to people who clearly couldn’t afford them. Where were the regulations? Where was the oversight?”
Where was the self-restraint among the people who applied for mortgages they couldn’t afford?
Don’t get me wrong: I agree with you that there should be some oversight in lending.
But I don’t really feel too much sympathy for the people who let their materialism run away with them and bought too much house and later lost it in foreclosure. Jake said something interesting last night, “People think they’re entitled to own homes.” They’re not.
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Oh, I couldn’t agree more. I have no sympathy at all for people who took on loans they clearly could not afford. No matter how sneaky or persuasive or underhanded the lenders were, nobody forced those people to sign those loans. I’ve gone off before on the idea of bailouts or rate freezes for them.