The big, bad bailout plan failed yesterday. So far, we the people are not on the hook for $2,300 each to pay for Wall Street’s boo-boo. I, for one, say “Woo-hoo!”
Listening to Anderson Cooper last night, it struck me that the only people who really want this $700 billion bailout to pass are the wealthy — because they’re really the only ones worried about this problem. The wealthy live off their stock dividends and mutual funds, and they’re all tanking right now. By my standards, they’re still raking in the dough, but by their standards they’re watching their incomes plummet. Heck, they might have to postpone buying that new Bentley, and keep driving their V-12 Mercedes for a second year — could you even imagine that horror?
All the “party line” keeps saying is that Wall Street needs bailed out, and they keep waving the boogey-man of recession at us. I now dearly hate the catch-phrase “From Wall Street to Main Street,” by the way. It’s on the lips of everyone in the news now; it’s like a white-collar version of “Git’R Done,” and I dearly hate that mindless phrase, too. Regardless — the White House is blatantly trying to scare the American people into knuckling under and agreeing that we each have to pay thousands of dollars that we don’t have. The “experts” keep bleating that “the people don’t understand.”
You know what? That doesn’t help. Trying to scare people and call them stupid isn’t the way to get their blessing — anyone with children should know this. “Hey, dumb-ass! Vote for the bailout or I’ll kick your ass!” How’s that sound? Good? No? That’s essentially what Dubya, Paulson, et al are saying on the TV. “Submit or suffer, you weak-minded fools!”
I, for maybe the first time in my life, am GLAD that the elections are a month away. The politicians are actually listening to their constituents right now — mostly out of fear for their jobs, yes — and their constituents are not just saying, but screaming at the tops of their lungs, “NO, DON’T PASS THIS THING! WE CAN’T AFFORD IT! WE DON’T WANT IT!” CNN polls run 20 to 1 against the bailout. Online message boards get 2,000 angry messages in an hour. Chicago radio shows get five people in the entire week in favor.
Yet, the politicians keep trying to push it down our throats…again, threatening us with plagues and boogey-men, and telling us we don’t understand. I think that We the People understand more than Congress thinks — we understand that no matter what the market does, or is supposed to do, or didn’t do, they’re asking US to pay for it. Is this any different than Dad gambling away the mortgage payment at the casino, then asking 8-year-old Timmy for the money? No.
Hello, Congress? We’re not buying it. Literally. Enough with the “bailout.” Find something different. Or don’t. Whatever, we don’t care. We’re just not paying for it.
