Like most regular Americans following the events that led up to the defeat of the Democratic-brokered Bush/Paulson/House Republican "Buy In" plan, I was not surprised by the outcome.
They say calls were coming in 10 – 1 against the bail-out plan - whoever they is. Yet the plan fails by a relatively close margin of 205 to 228.
But it was the spectacle put on by the Republicans after the voting session ended that was almost surreal. I’ve never thought I’d see a group of partisan cry-babies whine and belly-ache like they did when the House Republicans led by Rep. Eric Cantor blamed Nancy Pelosi for there own failure to gather support within their own party.
They were barely capable of rustling up 1/3 of their own party loyalists to support their own bail-out plan. It failed - so they blame the Democrats. Sure, Pelosi’s speech in the House was crisp and direct, but Republicans had to have heard it countless times before. Rep. Barney Frank responded best when he asked what honest civil servant would vote to punish the country simply because somebody hurt their tender feelings. Seriously folks, if it were possible, those supposed 10 to 20 tender-foots who changed their vote should be unceremoniously kicked out of the House. My advice to them is to take that secret to their grave.
The House Republicans hedged their partisan gamesmanship like they always do and bet the Democrats would pass the bill along a party-line majority vote......and lost.
This time around there was nothing partisan about the bill except for the excuses from the Republicans. There’s plenty of time to get back to the drawing board and draft a new plan, the free markets are not going to run away.
But who could blame the public for rallying against the plan after learning over the weekend that Washington Mutual's chief executive will be paid $18 million for three weeks work, while the institution declares bankruptcy. And who could blame the public for rallying against the plan after learning its chief architect, Henry Paulson, pocketed $500 million as the CEO of another one of the troubled Wall Street institutions, Goldman Sachs. And who could blame the public for rallying against the plan after it's number one supporter, George W. Bush, issued nearly an identical ultimatum of imminent threat with the financial markets as he did with the War On Iraq. Yes, taxpayers have been burned before.
The people have spoken.
Observation: Last week Thursday when the financial crisis reared its ugly head, Wall Street speculators spiked oil up to $25 a barrel before settling slightly lower. It sure did the trick - made everyone nervous. Yet, after the bail out failed, oil fell nearly $10 dollars. Why does this all seem staged?
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