Saturday, September 27, 2008

Who's Grandstanding Now?

"Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made their case for the bailout plan Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with House Republicans. Those who were there said lawmakers voiced new doubts, and said their constituents are overwhelmingly opposed.

House GOP leader John Boehner said Americans are "furious" that they're being asked to put up $700 billion. But he added that Congress "has a responsibility to act," and that he hopes a bipartisan deal can be reached.

A Republican said only four of his GOP colleagues raised their hands during the meeting when asked how many of them supported the plan. Tom Davis of Virginia said it's a "terrible plan," but that he hasn't "heard anything better.""

Above quote comes from this article on the 24 of September - three days ago.

Now, there has been talk from Democrats like Barney Frank (from my state) who have been saying that McCain's short reprise from his campaign was grandstanding. Yet Barney, and Chris Dodd and others have been saying that the Republicans who disagreed with the bailout plan should have stated something before everyone sat down at the table.

Okay, if their disagreement was public knowledge before they sat down together, who's grandstanding now?

I had mentioned on my other blog that this political season was having me wanting to move to Wales, and and join a peaceful Free Wales movement (simply to have something to really care about). Things haven't changed - except this, I will post my political thoughts on this blog from now on, and I think I'm leaning right on the bailout plan.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep ... there's plenty of grandstanding going around these days. It's enough to make your head spin. I'm kinda glad though that some in Congress are forcing this to slow down and go slow. We need to stop and think before we give a blank check to the guys who've already blown it so badly that they need a bail out. I dunno why GWB and a Democratic Congress think we should just hand over so much money without carefully looking everything over. It's ludicrous. The sky is NOT falling. Here's a better plan that's not getting very much media attention, but I thought you might like to know about it from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to your north.

Pastor Phil said...

I'm not sure I like any plan. Not the Bush plan, not the Democrat additions, not the House Republican plan, not Sanders plan.

Time for a year jubilee methinks! Now there's a plan!

Anonymous said...

Well ... I think a Jubilee Year is much preferable to anything the yahoos in Congress or Wall Street could come up with. It would go a long way towards setting things to rights as well.

My husband sent me a tongue-in-cheek piece ... I'll have to find it again. But it went something like this. If Congress gave the $85B it used to bailout AIG to the people of the US, that would be enough for every one of us to pay off our mortgages. It would essentially add up to a Jubilee ... because we'd be able to pay off most of our consumer and real debt with it.