What happens when the President and his cronies decide to "Legislate from the Oval Office"? New word: Failout. This President and his cronies are now attempting to bypass the Legislative Branch by drafting laws themselves to provide more cash to a Wall Street that has managed to squander all of the cash that the under-regulated, free-market system once espoused by this President as the brainchild of his idol, Republican demi-god Ronald Reagan.
I am particularly displeased with the House and Senate Democratic leadership on this one. First and foremost, the legislature should have been all over this months ago. Specifically, I am pointing my finger at you, Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd. How could you allow the administration to one-up you like that and have a completed bill to put on the table last week? I mean, yeah it was only 3 pages, so they probably showed up early that morning and cobbled it together (much in the same manner a procrastinatorial high-schooler may utilize first-period Algebra class for their writing assignment on Chaucer). Either way, even with their procrastination the Administration managed to put forth a proposal that was allegedly a month or two in the making. Now, the members of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee, as well as their counterparts in the House, are stuck attempting to draft legislation which is based upon the Bush Administration's core intent, which is to provide some easy money to "stimulate" the credit market with new capital.
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be hearing the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, as a voice of reason in a crisis. Nonetheless, there he was, and the liberals and conservatives in Congress managed to actually reach across party lines and defeat the centrists in staving off the bailout bill. Everyone's favorite congressman, Dennis Kucinich was there to vote against it as well:
This is really a plan that should have input from more sectors of the population and the economy. There will be huge ramifications with regard to funding availability in the future for other parts of government (including the ones which are working very well). We need to put an end to short-term stitches, and endeavor to create more long-range plans. Otherwise, we will continue to rely upon debt as a vehicle for providing cash flow to support our half-baked solutions.
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