Who’s Going to Bail Out the Bailout?

6 October, 2008. 314 words.

So let me get this straight.

House Republicans killed the first bailout bill because they claimed it was too much of a burden on taxpayers (they also claimed that Nancy Pelosi hurt their feelings, but that’s too ridiculous to contemplate seriously). Okay, no problem - they’re actually doing their job and listening to their constituency, who overwhelmingly oppose the bailout (at least, that’s what I hear on the radio and around the water cooler). Me included.

My representative Eric Cantor (R-VA), however, inexplicably voted for the bailout.

The Dow Jones fell 777 points after the bailout failed. But the next day, when there was nothing but financial ruin on the horizon, the Dow Jones regained 485 points. Everyone should have been happy that we’d dodged a bullet, cooler heads had prevailed, and the market was well on its way to stabilizing itself — down, sure, but certainly not crashing.

But no. The Senate got together, took the failed bailout bill and added $150 billion of taxpayer funding for everyone’s favorite pet projects, and suddenly the House Republicans didn’t care so much what their constituents thought anymore. They took the bait and the president signed it into law in record time. Talk about transparency in government: House Republicans were simply holding out until a sufficient ransom was paid.

Oh, and by the way, there’s no guarantee that the bailout will actually do any good.

The result? The Dow Jones has been steadily falling, and today, October 6, it’s down another 370 points. (And I’m still getting offers for pre-approved credit cards in the mail every day.)

Meanwhile, John McCain, who has built his entire career around fighting pork barrel spending and government waste, and built his entire presidential campaign around appeasing ultra-conservative Republicans, cheerfully voted for the bailout. (Obama did too, but that wasn’t exactly unexpected.) Yeah, this is a change election alright. *rolls eyes*

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