Congress Hammers Out the Bailout...

Uncle Sam.....Awash In a Sea of Debt.

We apologize for the two day delay in posts. It had nothing to do with the Ms. X brouhaha. I went to Carolinas Hospital to visit Bob's wife, Jean. She's pregnant and has diabetes, so she has to go in every once in a while for a Tune-Up blood sugar-wise. She's home now - actually she's sitting across the room from me. Then I had band practice. I kicked ass !!! Then tonight, Blogger had an outage. But, we are back.

After a week of Wall Street, DC and America collectively crapping their pants, Congress has reached a tentative agreement on the Wall Street bailout. Actually, I'm pretty surprised that it got done. Nancy Pelosi was doing her usual posturing to make sure that if this deal didn't work, that the GOP got the blame as well. Meanwhile, right-wingers in the Republican Party were revolting in spades. Fortuately, none of them were in the negotitaing room when the deal was struck.

So, how much cash is Washington willing to blow - I mean, spend - on this deal? They OK'd $250 billion off the bat, but the Bush Administration will have to prove that they need the next $100 billion, and after that, Congress can turn down the next $350 billion just for the hell of it. Basically, they're saying that they will have more control over how the Treasury Department uses this moolah. And Hank Paulson thought he was just getting an open check. NOT SO FAST, MY FRIEND........

Of course, the bill has to pass both the House and Senate - and that's not a guarantee. But, with the approval of both party's leadership, if any Congressman wants thier pork next year, they better vote yes. That means by Monday, we'll have a passed bill in record time. Stunning to see how fast Congress can pass legislation ( and spend money) when they're motivated..

The big question is: will this work? No one knows for sure, but if we can destroy and rebuild Iraq with that much, we should be able to fix a couple million mortgages, right? It actually should cost that much in the end game. In the 80's when they bailed out the S&L's , they spent $260 billion, but got back $180 billion of it. There are plenty of goverment programs around that don't return that much, so maybe we'll get lucky. We better.........

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