Putting a nasty bandaid on a gushing wound.

[syrah]

That's at least one way to describe the big fat 'bailout' bill passed by congress last week. One Georgia congressman, before it was initially defeated in the House, called it a 'giant cowpatty with a marshmallow on top, and I ain't eating that cowpatty'. Personally, I like that explanation much better.

Comments

[hasufin]

Hm... the pork - and it was pork, unquestionably - was used to buy votes for the second round. Look at all the congressmen who voted against it the firs time, and voted for it the second. Those are the ones who had all the pork added.

Mind, I'm not so sure raising the FDIC cap and AMT are pork. Those strike me as relevant. Not necessarily what *I* would do, but if I were in charge of our economy, we'd probably be fighting over cans of cat food by now.

I view the bailout situation as a lose-lose-lose situation for politicians of every stripe. Don't support it? Gee, thanks for not helping. Support it and it works? Guess we didn't need a bailout after all, right? Support it and it doesn't work? Then it must have had no effect at all and it shouldn't have been passed

[syrah]

I noticed the large difference in 'turnaround' votes as well, and it was split fairly evenly between the parties if I remember right. The vote buying is what really gets to me, though. I understand the 'rock' and 'hard place' mentality, but it would be nice to think that the people spending this much of our money really believe in what they are doing instead of just shrugging and waiting for some goodies to be thrown into the pile.

[hasufin]

On the flip side, viewing them as representing not the American people as a whole but their individual constituencies, wouldn't it have been negligent of them to not make hard bargains which favor the people they represent?

[crolack]

Neel Kashkari - Kneel, Cash n' Carry.