Bailing On The Bailout

I think I like the message the House of Representatives sent today by turning down the $700 taxpayer bailout of major companies falling apart.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen and a host of other experts rung their hands and warned of dire days ahead if Wall Street wasn’t bailed out. And Congress said, you know what? We’re willing to let Wall Street take that chance.

Somehow, maybe because of the closeness of the 228-205 vote, maybe because of the odd coalition of extreme liberals and extreme conservatives who killed it, but somehow, a message was sent: Congress is willing to approve a bailout, but not this bailout. The House told Paulsen, you and your ilk got us into this mess; we don’t trust you to dig our way out of it. You want a bailout? You do it on OUR terms.

Of course the stock market tanked as this was happening. This is not, as some would have you believe, the beginning of the end. Savvy buyers have taken advantage of other people’s misfortunes for as long as there’s been currency, and that dynamic will bring the stock market back around one day.

And besides, is it really going to get worse for the average American? Housing prices are in the shitter, consumer prices are going up, unemployment is dangerously high and money is as hard to borrow as it‘s been in a generation or two. And the worst thing that can happen to the bungalow bunch is that their long-time investments are going through a correction?

All that being said, I understand that there is going to need to be a bailout, and it’s going to hurt taxpayers. But I applaud Congress for not letting the first one that came along get shoved down our throats.