Okay, so it happened.
Congress decided to bail out Wall Street in an unprecedented move:With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved
an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered
financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush for his
certain signature.
The
final vote, 263-171 in the House, a comfortable margin that was 58 more
votes than it garnered on Monday. The vote capped two weeks of tumult
in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the
country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great
Depression if lawmakers failed to act.
"We all know that we
are in the midst of a financial crisis," House Republican Leader John
Boehner of Ohio, said shortly before casting his vote for government
intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a
month ago.
"And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is
likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us
have never seen."
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the
bill was needed to "Begin to shape the financial stability of our
country and the economic security of our people."
I have to say when thinking about this bailout hypothetically, it sounds like a really bad idea. Why bail out greedy financial prognosticators who mismanaged America's money? Why give $700,000,000,000,000 (do you see all those f-cking zeros?!) to wreckless fat cats in designer suits when we have sick and starving children in this country? What about our horrifically underfunded public schools?
America has been spending beyond its means for so long that the natural fall out from that would mean a collapse of the economy so brutal that it may never recover. Isn't now the time to let that market correct itself? Isn't now the time to change our behavior?
I agree with the above sentiments. I think Wall Street needs to learn a serious lesson. So why do I feel so relieved about Congress' bailout approval? Is it because as a working adult I have money invested in the market? Is it completely selfish in motivation? Aren't those who have the most to lose the most vocal about needing this bail out?
So many questions. So few answers.
Talk to me. Tell me, what do you think about what went on in Washington today?
