Bailout Takes A Political Twist!

Okay, I know what you're probably thinking... why should we have to pay for this bailout, this isn't our mess. Okay, first of all, yes it is. It is just as much Main Street's mess as it is Wall Street. I didn't see people protesting in the street when they were "Trading Spaces" on houses they got with a shady mortgage... knowin' good and well that when that interest rate goes up they would no longer be able to afford. Okay, so maybe you weren't the one who got that shady mortgage, and maybe you always pay your bills on time. That doesn't mean that this crisis won't affect you. If your neighbor's house gets foreclosed, the value of yours goes down. Okay, so maybe you don't care about that either. How about this... because this bailout didn't pass, banks have put a freeze on loans. That means that people can't get a loan to buy a house. If you're selling yours, good luck on finding a buyer that can pay with cash. Wanna go college? Hope you have a plan that doesn't involve student loans, because those are frozen too. Credit cards? Yeah, you can expect the interest rates to go up. Okay, okay... so you're one of those people who believe we should hit the bottom and everyone should just "live within their means." Trust me, it will still affect you. Many small businesses use loans to do their payroll. People will be laid off. And what about those business that thrive on people's ability to get loans, such as car dealerships? We all know American dealerships are struggling as it is. You can bet that many dealerships will be closing. Unemployment will go up even further. And then you're in a recession. So what's the big deal with a recession? See illustration...

Now you may be wondering, "Why on Earth did congress not pass this bill?" Well, frankly said, it's because of you. You see, even though this situation has been described by the incumbent Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, as "the most severe economic situation our nation's been in since World War II," it obviously wasn't strong enough language. For some reason it was not apparent to the American people that this would affect them... the most! At first all everyone heard from the media was the initial sticker shock of 700 billion TAXPAYER dollars to "bail out Wall Street". That caused an outrage and everyone started calling their congressmen, threatening their jobs if they voted for this. So, the incumbent Republicans whose jobs are already on a limb, decided to cover their own ass rather than do what was best for the nation. So much for "Country First." Here are some questions I've seen brought up:

Q:  Why didn't the dems just pass the bill themselves?

A:  And let the Republicans turn the public against them when they were only doing what they thought was best for the nation? Not likely to happen. Then Dems want this to be a BI-PARTISAN bill so that everyone shares equal credit and takes equal blame. Like the Republicans, Democrats put their jobs before the Country too.

Q:  Are there other ways that Congress can fix this problem without this bailout?

A:  I'm sure there are but no one has come up with a better way yet. And in the meantime, congress is on recess until Thursday. And seeing as how we have already lost 1.2 TRILLION dollars in the stock market today alone, you can bet your house (if you have one left) that in these next few days of vacation congress is taking off, businesses will close, and many, many, jobs will be lost.