Sad times in the good old USA

I know things go in cycles, and maybe this is just a cycle, but whether it's a cycle or just a downward spiral, it's not a great future to be staring at these days.

I have no idea whether we need a bailout or not, despite what I keep hearing on the news. I'm not privy to the information that our so-called leaders have at their disposal. I'm not sure they are able to look at the full picture given the intricacies of the world's financial markets these days.

Some things concern me.

Nancy Pelosi said she wanted to support President Bush's plan and help him get it passed. When has Nancy Pelosi EVER wanted to help George Bush? When have the Democrats ever agreed on anything that came out of the Bush White House? Somehow I just can't see her swallowing that one without an ulterior motive, and I guarantee whatever the motive, it's one I wouldn't like.

If this plan is such a great plan, why did the Democrats need the cover of Republican votes to get it through? They had the potential votes without the Republicans. When the have to have the other guys on board, they want to make sure everyone has equal blame. Except when they can't get 94 of their Democratic buddies to sign on.

If Nancy Pelosi can't get 94 Democrats to go along with the plan, including some Party leaders, how can she and Barney Franks blame it on the Republicans? All she needed was to be able to whip a few more of her guys and gals into the chosen line and we'd have a bailout already.

Why did Barney and friends feel it necessary to muddy the waters by including money for groups like ACORN?

They keep saying it's the end of the world as we know it if this plan doesn't go through immediately. Thus far every deadline they've set for major calamity has passed. I understand that maybe there's still hope for the bill passage so maybe the markets are holding off until it passes or until there's absolutely no hope of passage.

If Nancy Pelosi is so sure we need bipartisan votes to make this go through, why's she calling Republicans unpatriotic and lashing out at them? Ya think that's the way to make the other side want to work with you? Or do you think she just can't help herself?

Why did some of her fellow Californians vote against the bill? You'd think she would be able to get her neighbors to go along wouldn't you?

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall and see what it is that has been going on behind closed doors? They've taken a 3 page plan and turned it into a 160 page document. I guess that takes a lot of wrangling when you have so many fingers in the pie.

Congressman Lynn Westmoreland ended his press release response with a comment about alternate plans not being considered. Why not?

From what I've heard, they're not really capping the golden parachute for CEO's and others in failed institutions, even though that's the way they're phrasing it when discussing the bailout. If I understood correctly, the government will impose a higher tax on the company if they pay a huge severance to a badly performing CEO while the company is going under (or something like that). Basically they're going to penalize the company so much they hope they won't make contract concessions guaranteeing a big payout.

Doesn't make sense if that's what they've truly put into the bailout plan. If the company is going down the tubes, what are they going to care if they're taxed higher? They're gone, finished and have no money to pay taxes.

I'd like some clarification on that one, even though I'm not sure I want the government interfering with setting salaries in the partially-private sector. I don't want these people who don't do well to be rewarded with money that should go to the employees and / or stockholders, but I don't want the goverment getting involved and setting pay caps either.

Don't you think that the conspiracy theory types are having a ball with this one? Can't say that I blame them! If you believe in that big bad business group that is written about in so many books (sorry, can't think of the title of the group) then this dovetails perfectly. I'm talking about the group of movers and shakers that some think control the world behind the scenes.

I don't know if the bailout will help, hurt or just postpone the inevitable. I don't like it. I don't want our government having control of this one. I haven't seen anything get smaller or work well once the government got into the mix. There will be many bureaucracies that pop up as a result of this! The bailout isn't going to be $700 billion, it's going to be much more when you add in the man hours we'll fund to monitor the oversight.

I've heard that they'll push this through before the end of the week.