Let 'em fail?
The man-on-the-street (as opposed to Washington elite) conventional wisdom is pretty clear: Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay $700 billion for a no-strings-attached plan to bail out people who got themselves into a disastrous mess through their own damn fault — people who should have known that everything was bound to head south, but stuck their heads in the sand and carried on with their own inept, misguided, poorly judged plans.
Speaking of which, the Iraq war has already cost taxpayers about $700 billion and is likely to end up costing us anywhere from $1 to $4 trillion.
Assuming there is a foreign policy debate on Saturday, Obama should take the opportunity to draw connections between the mismanagement of the war and the economy. Forget apple pies, if we hadn't gone to war, we could have gotten the bailout free and had some left over for a party. With apple pies!
Jokes aside, Americans have been thinking a lot this week about what $700 billion could buy, including college educations for 5.4 million people and a year's worth of social security benefits for all Americans with $120 billion to spare. McCain wants to continue the war indefinitely. Now more than ever, Obama should make financing it part of the calculus.
Comments
As McCain campaign manager Rick Davis made clear just three weeks ago, for the McCain campaign "It's not about the issues." Everything that the increasingly desperate, factually challenged, ethically stunted and politically stunt-playing campaign does should be viewed through that simple admission.
Posted by: Richard H | September 25, 2008 10:39 AM
They already seem poised to anticipate calls to tar-and-feather them all. Despite the venerable Posse Comitatus Act, it looks like they may be gearing up to quell mass unrest, or maybe just the upstarts, initially, with domestic military deployments.
Posted by: RC | September 25, 2008 11:37 AM
I find so much of the discussion inane... the $700 billion bailout isn' money that's just thrown away... we're going to see easily 50% of that money back as the securities get sold off over time... What we've bought in Iraq on the other hand won't command 50 cents on the dollar any time soon.
The best article I've seen on misconceptions around the bailout is this New York Times editorial.
So that's only 1,000 apple pies.
Posted by: Rose's Lime | September 25, 2008 1:48 PM
Despite the venerable Posse Comitatus Act, it looks like they may be gearing up to quell mass unrest
Actions under the Insurrection Act are exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act. Also, see the 2006 Ammendments to the Insurrection Act.
Posted by: Joe Terranova | September 25, 2008 2:11 PM
Ah yes, insurrection, but this goes to a question of scale. All that new-fangled non-lethal compliance technology ought to help redefine this country real good. I guess the Total Information Awareness grid proved its need after all, Constitution be damned.
Here's another take on that "easily 50% of that money back" guarantee.
Posted by: RC | September 25, 2008 3:25 PM
The Wall Street collapse, like that of the World Trade Center towers, looks like controlled demolition to me.
Posted by: J.D. | September 25, 2008 3:35 PM
Now that cat Michael Hudson, sure can write, so it is my opinion he is well worth the read.
Posted by: RC | September 25, 2008 3:42 PM