Oct 01 2008
The Bailout Fails…..Once
Yesterday, as I am sure most of you are aware, the planned bailout of the financial system failed in the House of Representatives. This was a surprise to me. I expected most of the people in our government to see government as the answer to this problem. I am very happy that they voted in accordance with what their constituents asked of them. Apparently a majority of Republicans and close to a majority of Democrats voted against it. I applaud them. And now we are about to get round two.
The Senate is getting another verison of the bill ready with some “sweetners” (read bribes) in it for those who voted against it. If they voted against the bailout out of principle then it will fail again. If those who voted against it now vote for it based on a few additions then they don’t deserve to be in office. I can’t think of anything they could add that would make this bailout worth voting for. It is a bribe, plain and simple.
I guess the question now is, will it fail a second time and, if it does, how many times will our Congress attempt to pass this thing?
Click here to read an article that details out some of these “sweeteners”.
Brian
One response so far
Welcome all! My name is Brian and I am glad you found your way here.
Technically, “bribes” is an inaccurate term.
“Bribes” are monies that personally (not politically) help a public servant in exchange for publicl-given benefit. If a senator were to get a new swimming pool in exchange for supporting a bill, that would be a bribe.
“Pork-Barrel spending” refers to monies that are spent merely to placate the congressman’s constituents, doing things such as building a worthless dam just to keep people in one area employed. The net effect is probably pretty negative, but everyone wants to be sure that the money gets spent in THEIR area and not someone else’s, so very, very few senators or representatives get re-elected unless they manage to “bring home the bacon.”
The worst part is that those pragmatists who accept such riders as a necessity but call for reform eliminating pork-barrel spending tend to get accused of hypocrisy and also voted out of office. So basically at the moment it’s a self-perpetuated unwanted side-effect of living in a republic.