Hows that bank bailout going

[username]

"President Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the leadership of both parties pushed for a $700 billion financial bailout plan intended to shore up the nation's lenders. Such consensus is rare these days in American politics, but the bill still failed in the House on Monday afternoon.

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.

New York's Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who voted for the bill, said, "The people that have been responsible for the reckless lack of regulation of the industry have come to us at the 11^th hour with a gun to our heads.""

That's interesting. I wasn't completely wrong; the first paragraph supports my memory that leaders from both parties were pushing for its passage.

I can't (won't) defend the bailouts because maybe they didn't help (maybe they made things worse) but I don't think that anyone can say that with 100% certainty. I could go find a dozen articles supporting them and I'm sure I could find the same number that discredit them.

I fell for the campaign of fear though. I had a vision of credit lines shrinking to non-existence, ripple effects felt throughout the economy if the automakers failed blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I'm with Cracker about what to do now. We've got to address the debt/deficit situation. It's a fucking mess. I'm glad Moody's is threatening the US credit rating--all the politicians need a kick in the ass to get this done.