Bail out is a joke

Well, the bail out passed. Drat! I wrote my congressman twice in protest ( I don't know whether or not he voted for it). After all that has happened, how could we be so foolish as to let our government rush through another piece of legislation of such monumental importance and cost as this so quickly? The scare tactics were disgusting: Harry Reid saying he "knew of another big insurance company" about to go under if the bill didn't get passed, but wouldn't tell us who it was. After everybody is sufficiently frightened, he then renounes his comment and says that what he really meant is that he's not aware of any companies about to go under (source). But of course, the damage is already done. Give me a break!

First, we don't even know if this will work. The hole could be bigger than we know, and there is no guarantee that this bail out will help anything. It might be like trying to stop up a toilet with a pebble-and that's exactly what our economy is, a big stinking toilet going down.

Not to mention the $150 billion of extra earmarks they threw into it! How about article 503, which stipulates a tax break on wooden arrows made in the state of Oregon, deisgned to save the Oregon based Rose City Archery, Inc. 39 cents per dollar on every arrow they make! (source) If that is not an earmark or a pork barrel addition, I don't know what is. Mr. Maverick McCain swore he would veto any earmarks that came across his desk, and yet here he is voting for a bill that has $150 billion worth of them! It is so revolting.

So, we are back to the stupid status-quo. Everybody is worred about housing prices "plummeting" as if it is some disaster. I guess it is a disaster to those who foolishly bought homes that were grossly inflated in price. But guess what: homes were way overpriced and (in my opinion) are still overpriced! I'm glad house prices are plummeting, because it will make it more affordable to people to become homeowners. Prices have been way overblown for over a decade. They are only now starting to get where they need to be. Everything is too expensive, and this bailout (if it works) is designed to bring us back to the same stupid place we were before.

Well, perhaps it won't work. Perhaps it will fail miserably and we'll all be begging in a few years. Whatever (sorry for the pessimism).