Failed bailout vote
WSJ.com
America has survived a feckless political class in the past, and it will again after this week. But Monday’s crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can’t even make sausage.
[The Beltway Crash] APHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi ( D-Calif.) with Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.
The 228-205 defeat reflects badly on all concerned, starting with the Democrats who run the House. The majority party is responsible for assembling a majority vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed in that fundamental task.
Her highly partisan speech on the floor — blaming “right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation” for the financial distress — is no excuse for Republicans to vote no. But it is indicative of the way she has governed for the past two years — like Tom DeLay without the charm. The cynics are saying Ms. Pelosi deliberately tanked the bill by giving 95 Democrats a pass, knowing failure would hurt John McCain, and given her track record we can see why people would believe it.
House Republicans share the blame, and not only because they opposed the bill by about two-to-one, 133-65. Their immediate response was to say that many of their Members turned against the bill at the last minute because Ms. Pelosi gave her nasty speech. So they are saying that Republicans chose to oppose something they think is in the national interest merely because of a partisan slight. Thank heaven these guys weren’t at Valley Forge.
I don’t have the technical knowledge to fully assess the bailout plan. The basic idea of it seemed pretty good to me, but up assetts at a discount to restore liquidity and then when the markets stabilize sell them (hopefully at a profit.) Certainly it is true that their is risk to the taxpayers, the reason their isn’t liquidity in the markets is because no one knows how to correctly value the assets after all, but it seems like a lot less risk then continued financial paralysis and the very real economic costs that will cause.
There may well be a better plan then this one, but there wasn’t a better plan on the table yesterday and in this sort of thing time matters.
Regardless of that though, it seems to me that our Congress has failed to exercise any sort of leadership here. They have put short term political gain over the long term benefit of the country. For many, re-election in November is more important then making the tough choices now. No one has been very happy with congress for a long time, but this is a new low in my opinion.
My congress woman, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers was one of the Republicans who voted against this bill. I think this was the wrong choice, and perhaps more importantly I suspect it was a choice made based upon political cowardice rather then principle. As a result, although I have been fairly satisfied with her in the past, I will be thinking very hard about whether I want to support her for re-election this year.
