Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Not Quite Like Sausage Being Made

Robert Reich on the bill:

"But whatever it's called and however it's financed, it's still an outrage. America's foreign policy is made no more flexible by going into deeper hock to the Chinese and the Middle East. And the deal still subjects American taxpayers to some risk, especially if the housing market doesn't bounce back for many years. Worse, the bill can't help but prop up the earnings many Wall Street executives whose malfeasance, greed, and stupidity got us into this mess in the first place. And it does nothing for average Americans except avoid economic calamity. (The provision ostensibly helping distressed homeowners is to be used at the discretion of the Treasury Department, so it's mostly a sham.)

The larger economic outlook is not encouraging. All signs point to the economy worsening, bailout or no bailout. Unemployment will continue to rise. Median earnings will continue to drop, adjusted for inflation. More Americans will lose their health insurance."

It's more than some risk, and , from my point of view, too much risk for the taxpayers.

Again, if we leave the government out, that's fine with me. However, if the government is in, the only way to truly guarantee the taxpayer's interests is a Swedish style plan.

This Hybrid/ Compromise bill is a risky, cobbled-together plan, with a bunch of well-meaning but irrelevant additions in order to buy votes. I guess that's our system, but it's not a pretty sight. It's an insult to sausage.

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