A Good Year for the Outlaw

When I heard CNN and Faux early this morning going over some of the details of the “bailout bill”, I was initially in favor of it passing. But as I read further into it, I was hoping more and more throughout the day that it would not pass the House. It did not pass the House, of course, and the reasons, I think, are quite varied.

First, there are the “dozen or so Republicans” who apparently switched their “yes” vote to a “no” vote simply because they didn’t like their feelings being hurt by Nancy Pelosi’s speech. Imagine that…GOP’ers acting like spoiled little rich brats…why am I not surprised?

But even before that little group of temper tantrums, there were lots of things wrong with this bill, according to BOTH sides.

Over 130 Repubs voted against it, with, from what I can tell, the primary reasons being a) too much regulation and oversight is written into it, b) too much “assistance” for the middle class and poor, c) not enough of a bailout for the brokers on Wall Street and bankers, and d) not enough protection for the salaries and bonuses of the CEO’s of these struggling corporations.

Meanwhile, 95 Dems voted “no”, with the primary reasons being, again, from what I can tell, a) not enough government oversight and regulation, b) not enough assistance for homeowners in the middle class and lower, c) too much money being turned back over the Wall Street heads and bankers, and d) too much protection for the rich CEO’s and their obnoxious salaries and “golden parachutes”.

So, obviously, compromise needs to take place. I tend to lean towards the Dems on all four of the above points, and so do a majority of the citizens of this country. The far right wing of the GOP of today is so far gone it’s becoming a bit embarrassing. Richard Nixon would be a liberal to these people.

They need to get their heads out of their collective rich corporate CEO buddies’ asses and start to legislate better. (To the credit of MANY Republicans this week, while they generally oppose taking from the rich and helping the rest of us, many were willing to compromise, and to the credit of MANY Dems this week, they’ve been working hard to give the President and the GOP some carrots while still trying to make this as equitable as possible, so that it’s not only the middle class that suffers in this crisis).

But in the end, I’m glad it was voted down. No bill in this situation will be perfect to ANYONE, but a little more compromise on both sides is all that is needed to balance things out, IMO. They need to keep working, and keep talking. And in some cases the sane side of both parties need to take the wackos from their own parties out behind the proverbial woodshed for a quick little beatdown.