Can you say "great depression part II"

GOOD!! Hopefully we'll be able to keep paying our own mortgages instead of paying even hight taxes to mop up the latest and greatest S and L scandal.

Won't have to worry about obesity any more.

This is interesting. Herger voted for the bill.

I heard this bill was poorly written. What about the concept of "moral hazard"? Which according to wikipedia as the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk. Will this type of bill just lend to the same thing accurring in the future?

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! If it were you or I that had gotten into business and totally eff'd it up, they'd tell us "Sorry. Maybe you'll make better choices next time". Good going House of Reps!!!

Buy your rice and dried beans. Hope you can hunt or fish.

the news media and Democrats will try to 'blame' this 'defeat' on House Republicans, but the fact of the matter is that there are enough Democrat votes in the House to pass any bill -- they are the majority party -- and with 60+ Republican votes, Pelosi could have easily secured passage of the bill if she really wanted to -- obviously they, the Democrats, did not want to take the hit for this massive 'bail out' bill and the total intertwining of WallStreet and the federal government -- and many of them, Democrats, were not happy with agreeing to any Republican conditions, such as eliminating the payoff to the leftist ACORN project. also, this action in the Democrat controlled House allows Obama [and McCain] to avoid voting on this horrendous proposal. ah, politics! is it any wonder that the public rates the Congress even lower than PresBush?

I don't remember seeing any poll numbers on how the public saw this, the percent for and the percent against. Just vague talk about it being very unpopular with the public, which is the reason given for this House vote to reject it, these guys all being up for re-election of course.

It just occurred to me the media may have been sitting on the actual poll numbers, in a weak sort of "I'm hiding you can't see me" routine.

The hosts of my morning radio show said anyone that compares this to the great depression needs to read Grapes of Wrath.

You've said it best. The sheeple of the world are at this minute pulling their money out, buying up supplies of dried goods and hiding the rest of their cash in the house. If you wan't to buy into what the media lies to you about, I guess that's your perogitive. I'm going to keep on keepin' on. It's not the end of the world, so let's not act like it. Keep your money in your banks, keep it in the market and in fact, buy more. Buy more now so that when this crisis is over, you will better off for having done it.

While I'd be the first to hail the coming of an economic doomsday that will hopefully open the eyes of the wealthy minority...

Has anyone seriously thought about the impact this will have? The stock market is spiraling downward, and as it stands right now, many of us can hardly pay for basic living as is.

That and the fact that the same democrats who cursed this bill are also in staunch opposition to offshore drilling and other implementations to decrease our dependency on foreign resources...

Honestly, I'm beginning to think if Nancy Pelosi is intentionally trying to run this Nation into the dirt.

Correct vote. If my business tanks due to poor business managment is the goverment going to bail me out?

Remember the democratic party has only controlled congress for 2 years, as opposed to the President 8 years, whats accomplished. Oh wait destroyed the country. all congress did was finally do what they are supposed to do, be the voice of the people. Maybe President Bush should write a check and fix his mistakes he's made enough from the oil crisis....

I've seen Clint Eastwood movies, and you, sir (or madam) are no Clint Eastwood.

Are you kidding? You really have the gall to think Pelosi is trying to run Our Country into the dirt anymore than Bush, Cheney, and their cronies? Bush and Cheney should be tried for treason.

A lot of conservative Republicans opposed this bill too - as they should have.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of reloading and stockpiling to do.

It is strange to see our leaders do the RIGHT thing. We have to let these companies fail or we will face a larger fall in the future. We are foolish to think that the market can be controlled. It will solve itself if we let it.

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

Ahh, an Armstrong and Getty listener too eh? :)

Who's the majority, the DEMS.
Did they know this would fail? Did they allow this to fail? Who declared Martial law? Pelosi tried to squeeze this vote through even when it had not been read and debated. Go tell her martial law on voting didn't work, and will never work! And while you're at it tell her to try a little respect, and communicate to work together with the republicans. Tell her to stop slamming the republicans, and ask her why so many of the democrats (90) voted against the bailout.

Who wanted all the pork barrel? And who said no to the pork barrel? And then who came back and said if I am elected I will revisit this bill, and make the needed changes (in other words add Acorn to get a slice of the pie).

What does it mean when the speaker who talks of Bush failed policies, stands up and backs him on this plan? How does this help the deficit?

Wally Herger voted AYE. Just like his leaders asked him to.

On a piece of legislation as important as this, what does anybody in his District know about his plans for voting for or against this? Has he held any town meetings? Has he made a strong case in the media about the need to vote for this?

Of course not. He doesn't need to know what we think, he has his Party leaders that tell him how to vote.

He needs to go!

Lots of A&G listeners up here. Glad to see so many have seen the light. For those of you who don't know, AM 650 out of Sacramento from 6-10AM. Great show.

Wow - I was really shocked this did not pass. Like Cptcrazy stated, it is strange to see our leaders do a RIGHT thing. They listened to the People. Something I was NOT expecting. Too bad it probably did take the upcoming election to scare them into listening to us. Representatives are here to represent us, the People. Funny how the names are so similar. They are NOT to represent government wants, needs or wishes. If the Government wants something to pass the House, they need to sell it to the People, and the people in turn need to inform the House if it's okay or not. The President should not be calling these Representatives directly. I'd hang up on him personally if that happened. The President did a pathetic job "selling" this bill to the public, in a speech that followed the exact same format, almost verbatim script, as the Iraq war speech (see The Daily Show 9/25 episode for the scary truth). The People do not want this bill, in its current form as we know it, to pass. Thank you House.

If you really want this thing to pass, educate the public more, tell us exactly what's going on here. Be transparent, sell this to us. Until then, I hope and pray our Representatives listen to the People they represent.

Herger - absolutely pathetic, but we all know that.

Here's the roll call...

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml

this situation originated during the Clinton administration -- and it has come to this 'doomsday' during the Democrat Congressional majority -- SenDodd and RepFrank and SpeakerPelosi are responsible NOW, and they need to deliver the votes of their party if this is to be resolved -- 93 Demos voted against the boondoggle!

Are you kidding me people? Screw them!?

Okay I am all for "them" paying for this, but then cant complain about education money....Have you seen our schools? The nice paint, new tracks and football fields everywhere, even if funded by grant money the maintenance is not. All the Public service folks (Fire, Police, and yes teachers) have helped this mess, with everyone playing "keep up with the Jones"....Comparing county to county everyone matching pennies with LA and SF, the best wages, equipment, etc etc etc, nevermind the lawyers and workers compensation....Guess what? we could not and still cant afford it.

We as a whole group of citizens built this mess. Some realize it. Some continue to blame. I realize my own personal part however minuscule. And now? Well I agree with the above poster...WE MUST invest and believe in our country, If you pull your money and stuff it in a bed......Guess what? it will just lose value. We as a country must UNITE and believe in who and what we are, or face the consequences of a disastrous economic down turn.

Thank you congress. You did a good thing today. If our tax dollars must fund some backlog of protection we must look closely at it and make sure that we "sheep"(Above) believe and will reinvest in this THE GREATEST NATION. I believe in this country and its future, I will invest more today and tomorrow. What will you do?

Well Stated!

By 1933 the depression had reached its depth and FDR stated in his first Iinaugural Address, "...Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself."

Wise words to live by still!

Lee, Are you sure about that? I thought FDR said that at the beginning of WW2.

"Have you seen our schools? The nice paint, new tracks and football fields everywhere, even if funded by grant money the maintenance is not. All the Public service folks (Fire, Police, and yes teachers) have helped this mess," Are you freaking kidding me???the nice paint and new tracks, i am talking about teachers, the people that are teching our future...have gotten us in to this mess, are you stupid or dumb? Spending money is ok, just in the right places. But if you think it is ok t give this money away to rich pigs then i guess you must be one of them, normal hard working people like us trying to raise kids these days are not having it ! iam sure you are in your 65 + years old and have surley lost sight of what is going on so go back to watching fox news 24/7

If you think your Congress Representative is dumb, the common person is dumber. After all, we are the ones who put them in office.

Harry Truman said, " The buck stops here". We need not say any more.

You wrote..

"Of course not. He doesn't need to know what we think, he has his Party leaders that tell him how to vote.

He needs to go!"

Why hasn't Senator Obama spoken out against this bill?

Got this in an email today sounds good to me:

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. (yes that would be BILLION and just to put that into perspective)
Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.
So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – it’ll be there Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Hey I won't be greedy, just give me a cool 200K to pay off my debts and house and I won't ever bash our self serving gov't again. Bailout hard working americans so we can all afford to spend our money on products and services made in America.

In fact, If I had the $$ to invest, I would start a chain store & call it "AmericaWorld" & go in direct competition with wallyworld...the big difference being that all products sold must be 100% American Made--nothing foreign allowed, not even parts. 100% red white and blue baby.

Wait... did you seriously just say that $700 billion isn't much money? Dude, you and John McCain must be very close. He thinks that being middle class means you make less than 5mil. I think you have issues with reality.

yeah camomama- you hit it on the head there this burbon guy thinks that our schools are good just look at the paint jobs. 700 bill is not that much money ???? wtf, where is he living in one of his 11 homes. i think he can just go suck an egg, iam suprised he knows how to use the internet, i say NO TO THE MAVRICKS, i don't think we need mavricks in the white house we need some with brains, an educated person who will make the right choices for us who are middle to lower class, making less then 5 million a year. and only have 1 house. Burbon have a drink watch some wheel of fortune and go to bed by 8pm.

Anyone know where I can get some chickens, a couple of pigs and a good milk cow?

The Depression WAS the start of WWII.

yeah i felt spendy with the tax relief i spent it right down the street on gas, that was nice , my family is struggling everyday, each and everyday ( family owned business) and i can tell you one thing it would not make me feel good if they let that bill pass, it would make me more pissed then i am now with them just asking for it.

Read what you just wrote again. $700b is roughly $3500 per US citizen. To me, $3500 is a lot of money. I am not asking teh government to give me $3500, i'm asking them not to take it from me and give it to a multibillion dollar company who happened to have screwed up. I can't afford it.

I've seen the words, great depression bandied about today by several posters.
George Bush was asked about this possibility recently and he responded, "I thought Eli Lily invented Prozac to prevent this from ever happening again".
I am not comfortable with having this numb skull as the point man to lead us out of these difficult times.

If Obama was in the white house now, him and his 300 lefty advisors would set down to talk about the crisis over tea...and then punish the productive people with more taxes and giving more aid to the unproductive people...Under this socializm unproductive people thrive...creating more unproductive people.

Those of us living at or below the poverty rate already know what it is like to barely scrape by. For those on a fixed income, the rising prices have already scared the bejesus out of us. This latest "crisis" probably won't affect us too much. We have 4 chickens, beans and rice and pay the lowest rent possible. We drive an old pickup and only drive when absolutely necessary. It will be interesting to see how the rest of society deals with hard times.

The great "liquidity crisis" is a sham. Many investment banks and commercial banks have made terrible business decisions and have lost a great deal of money. Many others did not and will make loans to credit worthy entities. 700 billion to make the losers whole will not make any difference to capital availability as they will be very careful with lending going forward. The real question is are we ready to have an economy based on something other than prolifigate consumer borrowing and spending. BTW, Herger is an absolute empty suit, and I'm a Republican.

I say fire all of our government representatives

You must be one of those rich "productive" people who got us in this big mess.

It's a catch 22.

We can say no to the so called 'bailout'. In truth it's an investment, but that's beside the point. As we have seen from the reaction of Wall Street today, Americans are in for some real hurt. Everybody here will get a chance to practice what you preach in regards to living within your means. Americans have feasted at the credit table and now it will come home to roost. When you can't refinance or get a home loan, or any line of credit for that matter, we will see how 'penny thrift' we are.

In didn't take the USSR very long to crumble economically.

Whether you are for or against a 'bailout', in the end, either option is very painful.

This makes for interesting times. Maybe we can all live within our means now.

Keeping up with the Joneses (aka, "Equal Lending")doesn't work. You don't give credit to those that can't pay you back; no matter how much of a minority, or special case they might be. Poor people don't own homes because they can't afford to. No one likes to say it but there it is. Banks got in this mess with the touchy feely give everyone a home loan crap (Barney Frank). Sure the greedy banks tacked on outrageous interest rates for these high risk loans in an effort to reduce the risk, but the reality is, no matter how high or low the rate, insolvent people can't pay debts. And the insolvents were the ones the banks were counting on.

Real estate agents were getting fat off the drippings two years ago, then the market started slowing down. "It's a bounce, the market will bounce back., etc." No bounce yet, eh?

This is just a bounce too, huh?

Amen. The party is over.

Could not start my day without my Armstrong & Getty fix!
Still waiting for my 10th anniversary CD...

To bail out a business that made bad decisions is contrary to the free enterprise system. When that business's failure threatens many other "innocent" businesses, and therefore the entire economy, it gets a little more complicated. I believe pragmatism must always trump idealogy, but apparently many disagree. I suppose some of you out there feel that since you have no investments, a dependable income that is not tied to the national economy and no kids who will have to live with the future consequences of all this, its really easy to say "Let the sucker Fail". Does this make you a patriot?

So could you tell us if you wanted the Democrats to pass the rescue bill because you thought it was important for America or did you just want them to have their brand on it so you could criticize them for passing George W. Bush's socialism for the rich plan?

"...it is strange to see our leaders do a RIGHT thing. They listened to the People."

Let's just hope THE PEOPLE made the right decision. I don't have much confidence in the decision making of a nation that elects George W. Bush to one, let alone two terms.

Do we "stay the course" if it all goes to hell without the bailout?

"Anyone know where I can get some chickens, a couple of pigs and a good milk cow?"

I wouldn't recommend a Chinese milk cow, they're full of poison.

Effect? I was eating beans and rice for years. Thank god for garlic and onion powder. While I am a poor slob in a single wide, I won't hurt at all. It's the rich no good for nothing slobs that turn thier collective noses up that I am going to enjoy seeing plummeting. Screw em. The reason things are so expensive now is because of corporate greed. Let them all hang out at the soup kitchens now. In the back of the line!
Oil and gas is expensive because the rotton SOBs want more money, not doing what is right is why they all are sucking pond scum! They don't know when to back up and let the pond fill up again for everyone. They think just because a person is poor they be dumb...soaking them beans. I think I'm going to put some burger in the beans tonight, Imagine that, meat twice this month!

Is Wall Street running the Country? They made billions and billions on loans, but got caught with there hand in the cookie jar.
I heard the CEO of Bear Sterns will get 35 Million.
Perhaps we need change the way Wall Street does business, from the ground up.

everything was a-ok in the housing and bank and mortgage business a year ago, wasn't it? Dodd and Frank were seeing to it that everything was being done correctly through their congressional oversight positions. then all of sudden, Iraq starts working out and wham! we have a crisis and Democrats who are in control of Congress start pointing a finger at PresBush to help Obama's campaign -- and now with a solid Demo majority in the House, the bill fails and you all still blame it on Republicans? how? 95 Demos voted against this bill. any chance that is was just a bad bill?

I didn't want the bill to be passed at all. 95 Democrats didn't either. There are enough Democrat votes to pass the thing all by themselves, you know. This whole problem started long ago, under Clinton, when rules were rewritten to help 'poor' and 'minority' borrowers get into a home ... it has been a cash cow for many, many people -- builders, realtors, mortgage brokers, bankers, investment brokers, homeowners who sold their homes for what they KNEW were inflated prices, etc etc ... somehow it all came to a crashing halt just in time to divert attention away from the successes in Iraq and in time to help Obama's campaign ... I'm no fan of PresBush and his administration's support of WallStreet ... but you know what, stockbrokers and attorneys make money on the way up, and on the way down ... and so did the DNC and Dodd and Frank ... Paulsen should step down, but so should the Congressmen and women who have allowed this -- mostly Democrats -- Schumer, Dodd, Frank, Rangel ... no bailout ... let it all sort out ... have you noticed the price of oil is dropping rapidly? ... you'd be surprised how things would most likely work out if the 'free market' were really truly allowed to sort all this out without Democrats and Republicans rushing to inject even more government into the equation ... most taxpayers do NOT want government money going into this mess ... and how convenient that the automakers get bailed out by a Democrat Congress during all this divesion ... gotta keep those unionized auto workers happy with their big bucks to the Democrat candidates.

Maybe you should leave the country if you don't like it so much cry baby.

oh yeah! and the guy who was head of WaMu for 17 days made $20 million -- and didn't save the company!

there will be no 'depression' -- other sectors of the economy are doing just fine, and with the price of oil dropping, a recovery is just possible WITHOUT a massive infusion of taxpayer dollars into WallStreet. that would also allow Obama to realize his plans to spend those billions on socialized medicine and his other pet projects.

Now I know that this was a whole 11 days ago, but as I recall it was the Republican President's cabinet members that were calling for action.

Thinking like your's probably led you to vote for W. (Worst) twice and it is why Barack Obama will be POTUS in January.

The Republican answer was more tax cuts for the wealthy. Don't they ever learn from their own mistakes?

I won’t even get into how bad your math is…what I would like to talk about is this idea that the AIG “bailout” was in fact a loan with an interest rate over 8%. Now if AIG neglects to pay their debt then you can have something to complain about. Here is a tip…don’t believe everything you read in your inbox.

You could save money by cancelling your internet subscription. You would have the added benefit of not having to read moronic posts like thehermit's.

"somehow it all came to a crashing halt just in time to divert attention away from the successes in Iraq and in time to help Obama's campaign ..."

Wow, I didn't know George W. Bush likedBarack Obama so much that he would set this up for him.

Apparently one of the current successes in Iraq is elimination of Affirmative Action for Christians. The law that provided that Christians got a quota of members in the Iraqi parliament has been eliminated.

You can't win a lie. How much less safe have Americans been since we "lost" in Vietnam 34 years ago?

"Maybe you should leave the country if you don't like it so much cry baby."

Could you be specific? I don't recall crying.

TEOTWAWKI!

It's an acronym for "The End OF The World As We Know It".

Just kidding, I'm glad this bill didn't pass. It's not the end of the world. Most of us will be just fine.

Sigh. You're talking to the wrong person, I referenced teh other person's post, but I don't agree with him. I am not saying anything about money going into the pockets of the people. I'm talking about money that is COMING OUT of our pockets. This bailout is the equivalent of every adult American paying out $3500. This is A LOT OF MONEY. The government has NEVER handed that amount of money to any one entity before. To say that it's not a lot of money is idiotic and shows that you cannot be not in touch with the rest of the world.

Remember it was Obama during the debate that said
$700 billion is potentially alot of money! What?

Today, the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker of the Democrats said 700 billion was staggering.

I beg to differ, he would be telling everybody things are going good and there was no crisis!

That's the way, go shopping!

Who the hell are you?

How can you lie so effortlessly? Why do you lack a conscience?

You are really one for the psychiatric journals to figure out.

Since nobody here knows much about economics, I think we are all trying our best to figure it out.

I think the best analogy I've heard is that the human body is our economy and the financial sector is the heart of our economy. If the heart fails, the body dies.

I think that's why you've got both liberal and conservative economists agreeing that something has to be done. And the rescue of the banks is the beginning. I don't know enough to understand it. Both sides - for bailout and against - make sense to me.

So, today on the Dow the taxpayers lost $1 trillion because the Senate doesn't want to take the responsibility for a $750 billion bail out.

hmm.

And it's Obama's fault because he "phoned it in" to Washington to the Congress but the Republicans are the ones that defected (coincidentally by the 12 votes needed) because those 12 Republicans were all butthurt about Pelosi's speech.

This is surreal stupidity.

And that they have to break for a Jewish holiday in a country that still, despite the right wing's best efforts, has a separation of church and state is beyond me. McCain had to cancel the debate and put his campaign on "hold" (*cough*) because of this enormous crisis but Rosh Hashanah takes priority over our economy?

Bizarroland.

Sounds like Pelosi blew it in my opinion. She had to open her mouth right before the vote and take a bi-partisan effort and make it political and dump blame on the GOP, and cause both Democrats and Republicans to bail.

Sure the GOP had complicity, just like the Dems, but what was her point? Was she trying to sabotage the whole effort?

Oh well, maybe it'll get re-written better. Of course we'll lose another 1.2 trillion like we did on the markets today in the process...

It is too bad this isn't the finale of the great bailout. An amended bill will be worked out and the American taxpayer will get an even greater indebtedness.

As you will see tomorrow the sun will come up and everyone will go about their business and each day will follow.

We need to let the system of American enterprise work itself out. Capitalism should be able to find it's way. People who make bad investments should fail, companies who make bad investments should fail and the stock market should correct itself and the greedy who fixed the game should fail. Time to pay the bill. NO BAILOUT!

If you think this is partisan you are clueless.

Congress failed us today, Democrats and Republicans. Today the elderly lost savings the were going to use to support themselves and will have no means of regaining. Decades of hard work and hope was washed away, like Ike hitting Galveston. Sure some survived, some can rebuild, but faith in our leadership has betrayed us. The ramifications of today will ripple beyond the lifetimes of those of you reading this. This is what Osama and other terrorist have been trying to accomplish, fracturing of our financial system.

The trillion dollars spent on prosecuting the Iraq war just came due.

I respectfully disagree. I think this bailout is needed and now. While I don't personally rely on credit (just makes me uncomfortable), I know that many small business owners do. We need to stop the credit freeze and then hash out the details when it's not so chaotic.

I'm also very concerned about the ramifications world wide if our credit dries up. I'm very concerned that China will decide we're not worth the risk and call in our debt.

In a nutshell, I'm very concerned. And I'd like to order the #3 special, Mongolian Beef (just want to get my order in in advance!).

I respect your opinion so, if you want to present your case for delay or no bailout at all, I'm open. But that 1.2 trillion loss today of people's investments and retirement savings is, in a word, bad.

I feel bad for Obama inheriting this mess. But if anyone has the wisdom to fix it, it's him.

Sad and true.

Bin Laden must be dancing a jig in his cave.

$%(*&!! Bush.

I respect your disagreement. My justifications for not supporting any bailout is my trust and belief in capitalism. The investors and the government have been playing the system like a pyramiding scheme. Their are no more franchise buyers and we have reached the peak of the productless pyramid. It is time for the system to right itself. Capitalism will out.

I am not being facitious when I say what if the Chinese do call in the debt? What exactly do you see them doing, moving in and taking over control of the United States Congress, installing a CEO, not likely. Like any addiction (greed in this case) has to bottom out, make amends, and a day at a time stop greedily ripping off the public.

Yes people are going to suffer and they are going to suffer for their greed and for not managing their own well being. If people had heeded that old homily "if it looks too good to be true....it probably is" their investments and retirement savings would be safe, those who managed them honestly would have no worry.

China will not call up any debt because without us, and that debt/credit, to call on they are back to rice and chicken necks.

Who will suffer from all this are the financial tyrants whose foot has been firmly on the neck of the middle class and choking the life out of them.

America will survive this with or without a bailout. I read something in a report this morning that said 250 billion dollars would go directly to the US Treasury as a result of this bailout, had me confused I thought it was the US Treasury making the bailout? I don't presume to know it all. What I do know is when my bills come in and I can't pay them the government has never offered to pay them for me and I don't think they should pay the bills of the mortgage and banking debt either.

No Bailout !

So,excuse me, but, your trying to tell me that Pelosi who admittedly wasn't really happy with the plan (I haven't seen a transcript or video/recording of her speach so I'm taking the word of news excerpts) gave a speech which convinced Republicans from voting against it. Far fetched to say the least. When if ever has a Democrat been able to talk Republicans into voting against a Republican authored Bill ? Sounds like there things going on inside the Republican party that need to be explained to its party members.

The explanation is fairly straight forward. The Republican Legislators have no confidence in the titular head of the Republican Party. George Bush has sold them one, too many bill of goods. They know he is a lame duck and will no longer cave into his fear based demands. Too bad they hadn't the courage to stand up to the little tyrant previously. The trillion dollars lost in Bush/Iraq Folly has come due and the country is bending under it's weight.

Have confidence and breath lightly the USA will survive and resume it's lead in the worlds hierarchy.

"Sounds like Pelosi blew it in my opinion. She had to open her mouth right before the vote and take a bi-partisan effort and make it political and dump blame on the GOP, and cause both Democrats and Republicans to bail."

So do the Republicans actually care about America or do they just care about politics? Did they think the bill was the right thing to do or didn't they? Their president told them they needed to get this done. Their nominee encouraged them to get this done. So the cowards are blaming Nancy Pelosi for their failures. Apparently the House Republicans are more scared of Nancy Pelosi than they are of John McCain.

I don't know how McCain's campaign is going to recover from his suspending his campaign to go to Washington to get his collegues on board and then failing to deliver. If you can't deliver votes from your own party, how are you going to deliver the bipartisan reforms he talks about.

Republicans broke it. If they aren't willing to fix it, why should Democrats?

Our government failed us a long time ago, when the Wall Street/corporate wolves were given control of the hen house. Today we took a small bi-partisan step toward making them understand that continuing to throw money at a greed-caused problem will not make it better in the long run. I happen to BE one of the elderly watching my retirement nest egg trickle away, and all I can really do is trust that saner minds will prevail before it's all gone. I think it's interesting that the economic crisis is coming to a head just a month before a presidential election, and both sides are using it as a weapon to win the White House. Kind of makes you think about how slavery was the issue just before Lincoln won in 1860...and we entered the Civil War. Osama must be getting a real kick out of watching us self-destruct. (If you have any doubts about what I'm saying, just re-read the far left and right postings in this forum. These zealots sound like they HATE each other!) Wake up America before it's too late! We need to work with, not against, each other...

President Bush delivered the BIll to Congress not Paulson.

Maybe it is you who are mistaken.

George W. Bush seems to have a lot of liberal leanings on this social issue of bailing out the money lenders.

convinced Republicans from voting against it should have read convinced Republica