Posted by
Locutisprime on Thursday, October 02, 2008 7:39:55 AM
The US Senate passed the Wall Street Bail out bill last night. Even though it has now become the Wall Street rescue bill. That's the way they do things in modern Washington politics. They take the obvious and wrap it in an entirely different term and it suddenly becomes something else. Something akin to makeup or a make over, but I'll get back to that later.
The bill that began life in the US treasury as written by Secretary Paulson last week, as a draft of three pages? Has now become over 400 pages of additions by the professional politicians in Washington that we have elected as congressmen and senators. And in a time when most Americans are becoming increasingly more angry by the day over pork barrel spending and waste in Washington? The house and senate still don't seem to get it. Either that or they simply don't care.
This bill was soundly defeated in the house on Tuesday. And regardless of what speaker Nancy Pelosi and others would like Americans to believe, the reason it was defeated in because millions of Americans let their representatives know, that they didn't like it and they didn't want it. And many of these representatives are up for reelection. So the US Senate decided after the house failure to pass it, that they would take a crack at it. And after the stock market plummeted precariously on the news of the house failure Monday, there was new fear and anxiety being pumped into the emotional reality of America to fuel a second look by the senate.
so yesterday, after a day of wrangling and wrestling to produce a bill that supposedly everyone could live with? The bill that the senate finally produced and passed last night, was over 100 billion dollars larger than what had been initially called for by either the treasury or the president or the house. And now the bill includes things that literally border on the bizarre. Millions of NASCAR and million for the wool industry, money for the production of safer "toy arrows" for bow and arrow sets. Provisions for federal money to be spent on artificial sweeteners and provisions to "require insurance companies to provide mental health care to all." All total? Over 100 billion dollars in additions. All so we can supposedly rescue Wall Street.
Here we go again folks. What part of no and it's the pork stupid! do these people not understand? It was supposedly "affordable housing for all" that got us where we are with the housing and subprime mortgage collapse that has brought about this crisis in the first place. And Americans are now told? That the only way to solve and rescue America from the proven idiocy of our elected officials and financial institutions, is by giving them more of the people's money to rescue them and allow them to lend out more money. And while we are at it? Why not thrown in another 100 billion dollars of money we don;t have, for things that we don;t need and that they weren't able to get tucked into the other bills so far this session.
Meanwhile our two presidential candidates yesterday told us what? Barack Obama said that this was a bill that had to be passed to avoid a catastrophe. While John McCain added that he thought it was a better bill than what the house had defeated on Monday. At least Obama made an appearance on the floor of the senate to make his rhetorical presentation for the cameras. McCain was apparently too occupied with his own decision making yesterday to actually make a decision on his own concerning his previous political rhetoric about making pork barrel hacks in Washington famous. However, he did finally make it to the senate last night to cast a vote, even if the only person he succeeded in making famous over this latest barrel of pork is himself.
Talk about lipstick on a pig? Isn't this bill a doozy. And now the bill will be passed off like the proverbial pig skin that it is and the house will once again be forced to take up something that they really would rather see go away. And the band plays on and the flames of Washington politics and deceit lick higher along the walls of the facade that have been represented to Americans as their government.