As I sit and ponder this terrible crisis that has hit us smack in the face. I decided to try to help some of us Smib’s down here in St Mary’s county to better understand what is happening in our government.
Wall Street wants us to hand them $700 billion to help bail them
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out of a destitute situation that they have created. Now, I cannot say it’s their entire fault, but as you sit and think about everything they do, it should make you wonder why our lives are centered on them. They have the ultimate power to cause panic and chaos among the American people.
Here is a perfect example: When a hurricane is forecast to hit the Gulf Coast they hit the panic button. Stocks and trade for a barrel of oil sky rocket because Wall Street hit the panic button. Causing our gas price’s to keep going up everyday. Once the storm has passed and everything is back to normal, I personally wonder why the prices don’t go back down as quickly as they went up. On the day of the vote to pass an enormous $700 billion bailout failed they hit the panic button again sending our stocks and trading into such a frenzy that it caused the market to plunge 778 points at the close of a business day. Only for the market to restart the next day with trading going back up. Do you think it’s possible that come Thursday they will do it again and hit the panic button if they don’t get their bailout? I am almost sure they will.
I decided to do a little research myself and here is what I came up with. I wanted my research to be factual so I chose to use actual quotes from our congressmen so that you will hopefully understand who voted in favor of the American people and who voted against the American people.
The reasons why became a bit more clear on Tuesday.
The House of Representatives defeated the plan by a 228-205 vote. A majority of Democrats —140 — supported the bill and 95 voted against it. Most Republicans — 165 — opposed the plan, while 65 supported it.
During impassioned speeches on the House floor Monday and a media blitz Tuesday, Democratic and Republican House members, who voted against the plan, argued that, despite the staggering price, the bill did not provide adequate protection for the average taxpayer and that it gave too much power to the Bush administration with little oversight.
“I want Wall Street to pay to bail Wall Street out rather than putting the burden on people who had nothing to do with this,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas. He also added: “My vote was a vote to say protect the taxpayer first [and] don’t give President Bush unlimited discretion. We know where that’s taken us before on other matters.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, who worked on the deal during the weekend but ended up voting against it, said the bill asked too much of taxpayers.
“You’re talking about $700 billion, a $250 billion blank check at this point for [Paulson],” she said. “But then, on top of that, when you read the bill, there was an increase in the federal debt limit to $11.3 trillion. Now, that is all taxpayer cost.”
Some representatives said the package was too significant a bill to consider in so little time. “We didn’t get into this mess in 72 hours, and we’re sure not going to get out of it in 72 hours,” said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Colorado Republican who voted against the bill.
New York’s Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who vot