"We're There" Logic

Well, the House defeated the bailout bill today:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Monday rejected by a vote of 228-205 a Wall Street bailout bill that would have authorized the Treasury Department to spend up to $700 billion to purchase broken mortgage-backed bonds from banks with the goal of jump-starting stalled capital markets.

Defeated by skeptics from both parties who questioned the need for it and whether it would work, the bailout plan was proposed by the Bush administration on September 20. Congress modified it in just days amid warnings from the White House that urgent action was needed to prevent economic disaster.

As I've stated before, I'm against the bailout. Yes, I know it will wreak economic havoc, especially for the rich and, quite frankly, for poor li'l ol' me as well. My business has taken a complete dump because of the DEPRESSION in which we are now firmly ensconced. And the market crashing also screws my father-in-law's investments, thereby screwing my father-in-law.

So, WHY am I against it? Because reaching this stage should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Rampant Republican "profit now, don't worry about later" deregulation has caused this problem. Frankly, as a friend of mine at the Federal Reserve Bank told me, this $700 BILLION bailout would have only been an expensive Band-Aid on a festering wound. In a couple of years, we'd have been in the same situation.

But Republican logic states, as it did with the war in Iraq, "Yes, it was a mistake, but now that we're there, we have to deal with it, and if it costs that much more, so be it." This is wrong-headed logic because, once again, THIS SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Now it's time for Wall Street to deal with its own greedy fuck-ups.

Well, we're there now and we're there in the war. But "We're There" isn't any more of an excuse than a person running a stop sign, getting caught, and telling the cop he "didn't know you had to come to a complete stop." Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Neither is pretending ignorance of what absolutely HAD to happen when Congress allowed such rampant deregulation, and neither is claiming "Bush lied to us." Everyone was so gung-ho for the Iraq war that no one bothered to check deeper and find out Bush was LYING to Congress and the public.

But in the present situation, the excuse is even less useful. It's less useful (useless as it already is) because we have historical precedent! How can you ignore that?

Well, you can ignore that because greed blinds all. And now greed has pushed us over a cliff to descend into a VERY deep canyon of a very bad depression.

Happy New Year.