I like the word bicameral. And bipartisan, which usually means nothing and accomplishes even less. But yesterday's vote on the bailout got me to thinking (Warning: The following contains praise of Republican congressional representatives! If that is too much for you to take from me, stop reading now!) about how much the lower house in the US Congress is worth. A large body of politicians, all of whom are constantly thinking about reelection, has made me livid over the years. The impetuous nature of the House drives me crazy. But on Monday, we saw the wisdom of having that body balance out the Senate.
I am very pleased the the House defeated this bill. It gave too much protection to investors who made bad decisions, took much too much from taxpayers, increased an already outrageous debt, and gave virtually no independent oversight to an obscene amount of money. House Republicans who fought their own administration and congressional leadership showed some real spine (millions of outraged taxpayers and a national sense of distrust for an incompetent president helped too...).
I'm not sure how much of the House Republican opposition to the bailout derived from principle and how much came from political expediency (have we ever seen a big, unpopular piece of legislation being pushed by an unpopular lame-duck president 6 weeks before an election?), but all I know is that a cushy deal for Wall Street failed. I'm even less sure how many Democrats voted against it to avoid criticism from their opponents, but I like to think that our Senate race embodies this situation.
We have two congressmen running for Pete Domenici's Senate seat in New Mexico: Republican Steve Pearce and Democrat Tom Udall (disclosure: I support Udall, both because I think he's smarter and more honest and because I like LDS Democrats; there, I said it). Both voted against the deal, possibly to negate any chance that the other would benefit from the unpopular nature of the bill. (Lame duck Republican Heather Wilson, who lost a primary race against Pearce for the Senate seat, voted for the bill.)
Electoral-Vote.org has a good analysis of the vote; read it here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Roy, I hope you are sitting because I find myself agreeing with you. I get somewhat schizophrenic because I have so much money tied up in the stock market I hate seeing it dive. But I have huge hopes it will come back regardless of what happens over the next few weeks. I think that a bailout with the current methodology is wrong. I do believe some sort of intervention is required and someone more creative than I needs to come up with the right answer and not for political reasons. At the same time, I think there is some wording that makes the bailout plausible if it means positive returns to the taxpayers.
I do have to call you on your statement that you like LDS Democrats. I thought you didn't support party's as much as you support individuals with the right platform. What's up with that?
Scott, this trend of political agreement with my in-laws is starting to freak me out. The bit about LDS dems is based more on their rarity than anything else, lik eseeing a beautiful tropical bird in a temperate climate. That's right, stew, I just comared you to a toucan...
Your sister and I are socialists Dave. Just FYI.
In today's George Will column he states "Knowing that heat breeds haste, errors and unintended consequences, George Washington praised the Senate as the saucer into which legislation is poured to cool. In this crisis, however, the House of Representatives has performed that function." I hover between thinking that the legislative branch is fiddling while Rome burns and feeling grateful for the slow, but sure plodding along. Bottom line is I am poorly prepared to really understand economics. I hope somebody knows what they're doing and does it. A little divine intervention might be helpful here.
Pat,I usually disdain George Will, but his current critiques of Palin, McCain, and the bailout are interesting. It is interesting to see the House being more cautious than the Senate. The public response to the failure of the bailout bill on Monday has been interesting as well. It's pretty clear that none of us know what to do, and we're all nervous of doing things wrong. A little patience is a good thing...
Post a Comment