Yesterday came news that the Republicans in the Senate shot down the fledgling vote to bail out automakers to the tune of $15 billion of taxpayer (ie: OUR) money. Look, the bill used to be up at $25 billion and skeptical Democrats AND Republicans shot it down earlier this month, so I understand that fickle and jaded politicians feel this way when it concerns greedy autmaker CEOs, and that they felt that the BIG Three coming to Congress on private jets to plead on bended knee for this desperately needed bailout was asking "to seeing a man in a top hat and coattails come into a soup kitchen," to quote one displeased member of the House. However, you have to cut off a finger to save the hand. Fer God's sake, I feel the same about these men and their gold-plated wallets, but look at what's at stake!
By voting this down now TWICE, Congress has been shortsighted, it would seem, or at least mildly delusional in examing the effects on a a MAJOR portion of the working class in this country (we would see the size of the already ailing middle-class shrink once again, and it do so precipitously) much less a vital vertebrae in the backbone of our economy!
That the $15 billion version of this bill passed the House pacified me somewhat, but now I find out that Republicans in the Senate have stubbornly refused to pass the bill, I get angrier than ever before. This is NOT A GAME OF MONOPOLY guys! This is the already very dismal future of the economy for the United States of America, where our children and grandchilren will very likely reside (unless they are smart like the rest of us should be and ready to kiss this place goodbye). Republicans share some of the responsibility for our current situation (more, at least, than the majority of Democrats). Trickle-down economics and the spend-till-you-drop and buy-it-on-credit lifestyle of the American people for the past few decades are two primary influences on our currently ailing economy.
I laughed out loud last week when they officially announced we are in a recession. Ummm . . . wait to strike while the iron's hot, guys! Glad to see you've caught up with the rest of us! I've seen this coming for about three or four years now, myself. This season I'm working part-time at Starbucks Coffee in Ventura, CA, and we're seeing the slowest season we've seen, and there is talk of the store closing. I haven't been able to find a better job and I have bills to pay and a family to support. This is, in part, why I'm participating in this blog, and why I need to go back to school.
The credit bubble and lack of pay-as-you-go government policy has burst, and the resulting shrapnel is something each and everyone of us is going to be coping with for possibly the rest of our lives. More MASSIVE corruption is being found in D.C. (most notably the embattled Governor of Illinoise and freakin' sociopath Rod Blagojevich, and the alarming announcment of a $50 BILLION scam, one of the biggest in history, by the now incarcerated Barnard Madhoff). Pirates in the Middle East are seizing luxury liners and oil-carrying ships. In New York, an extra digit recently had to be added to a sign keeping track of our national debt. Not good, guys.
If the President fails to act on this after this weekend, the failure to pass this bailout will be at least a small footnote in textbooks our children and grandchildren, their children, and on and on ad nauseum will read in explaining the causes of the 2nd Great Depression. This one, too, will be worldwide. Let's HOPE it doesn't contribute to World War III.
It is a sad day. When someone thinks that the republican can control the senate. In my opinion we need the UAW union to give up a lot more in order to help save the big three. I fully believe in the free market. I wish that instead of bailing out banks that we had let them fail and let other banks buy them up for pennies on the dollar. I wish that government had never forced the banks to make loans to people who could not pay them back. Also now that the government has refinanced this loan so that they are lower payments these people still can not pay or will not pay them back. It is the union that is killing the big three and we need to let them fail. Then someone can come behind them and start a new auto company and not have to worry about the UAW. Let us put the blame where it belongs on the Democrats the Republican saw their mistake and tried in vain to fix it. The Democrats still do not think they did anything wrong.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
Wow. When you say you fully believe in the free market, you aren't kidding. As one who strikes me as a capitalist in the strictest sense of the word, I fully beleive that you beleive what you are saying. Free market does work, but not always in the interest of the many, in my estimation.
By the way, I didn't say a Republican can control the Senate. What I did say was that they sound as if they voted in droves against the bailout while most of the Dems voted for it.
I do believe in the free market I believe that it can fix itself, but not if the government keeps putting its dirty hands into the mix and trying to fix it. The market will always have its ups and downs that is it nature. With these ups and downs we get to weed out the weak and unprofitable companies. The only thing that I would like the government to do is keep companies from becoming monopolies.
The senate republicans keeping with conservative politics would of course vote against the bailout. I would love to see the government step away from the market and let it do what it needs to and then it would be good.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
See, here's the thing. that whole "let the strong survive thing" is the natural course of things, and on this I agree with you. However, we live in an organized society. It's still a jungle out there without having a totally unregulated, laissez-faire mechinic thrown into the mix. The "balance itself out" thing you speak of almost reminds me of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" metaphor. I'm just not sure I believe in this. Even if it exists, this up and down dynamic, if left to its own devices, will take a lot of people with it. And that's uhh not good. I subscribe more to limited government intervention in the Roosevelt and Keynesian model. Contrary to what some would now have us believe, this isn't socialism at its core. It just operates with some socialist ideals in mind.
I'm not a socialist, but I do have socialist ideals, and perhaps this is where we differ.
I believe that FDR economic plan kept us in the Great Depression longer then we should have been. Nothing that he did brought us out. What did in fact get us out was WWII. Also there were so many contributing factors that put us in the depression that we were in. amongst them were the drought and the run on the banks. FDR plan did not lock up these problems and fix our economy. So in my opinion (which does not mean I am right) I think the whole plan was a waste.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
You blame the Republicans. From my perspective it was the UAW.
My understanding is that the bill would have passed the Senate by a wide margin if the Democrats had agreed to a three word sentence that provided a date-certain for the UAW to bring their wages in line with non-unioinized competitors. But apparently the UAW did not want this and amazingly, though nobody elected the UAW to the Senate, they apparently have veto powers.
There was a deal on the table and they rejected it.
If the UAW loses their jobs they have themselves and their own greed to blame.