Congress Finally Grew a Pair

It would seem that our Congress has finally experienced some testicular dropage when Congress voted on the bailout, aka the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008". When it came before a vote in Congress, it was voted down, 228 to 209. It seems as the politicians are now forced to listen to the people, because they are afraid of losing their jobs and quite possibly their heads if they vote for the bailout.

As many you know, the bailout was to buy up toxic debt from floundering financial institutions on Wall Street. This would get it off of their books, and allow them to potentially become profitable in a short amount of time. Of course, it would just cause the Government, and consequentially, the taxpayer to be even further in debt. There was a clause in the bill that stated that the financial institutions would be held responsible for the debt of the toxic loans and unstable securities that we buy up if they never reach a mature enough state for the Government to either profit, break even, or close to even. Have no doubt in your mind that these financial giants will do anything in their power from ever having to pay for a loan or security that they've sold to us. If they go bankrupt, you bet your bippy we won't see much more than a few pennies from that debt we bought.

If this bill ever gets through, it would essentially turn Uncle Sam into one of the largest landlords in the country. Here's another thing to think about; if these Wall Street firms cannot manage debt this volatile and toxic, do you really think that the Federal Government is going to do any better at it? If our current debt, corruption, and run away spending is any indication on how well we govern our financies, I guarantee you the plan is destined to fail. When the people overseeing this mess are one of the ones that got us into this mess (thanks a lot Congressmen Chris Dodd, Frank Barney, and Richard Shelby), you can guarantee that we'll see nothing but the best show of incompetence in government history.

Some of you may be saying, "Why are you being so cyncial? This could work!". Look, I am not cynical without reason. This has about as much of a chance of working as I do of getting a hole in one on a Par 5. I don't play golf either, so you do the statistical probablilty calculations.

Many in Congress are seeing the result of the vote on this bill as a massive failure, because their fat cats on Wall Street are running around screaming "The sky is falling!" The sky is falling because your tried to prop it up too high. You put too much weight on it. The sky isn't really falling, though. It's normalizing. The only way the Government is ever going to regain it's money spent on you is if there is another housing bubble and they can sell off those homes at the outrageous prices you valued them at. If another bubble happens, we are right back to square one, becuase there is one fundamental guarantee about bubbles. They will pop, and the bigger they are when they pop, the louder and more painful it's going to be.

While Congress sees this as a massive failure, I see it as an epic win, particularly for the American People. Like I said before, this is gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt bad, and some people are going to be severely burned. Most of them will be the greedy aristocrats on Wall Street who will have to sell off 5 of their 10 vacation homes. Some normal people like you and me may not get any moratorium on your foreclosures and have to move back into rental properties. Some rental properties may go under, too, forcing people to find other homes. Remember, where someone fails, another person will end up profiting. It's usually the person that planned smarter and acted more responsibly who will stand to gain. The brats on Wall Street had plenty of time to play with our money like it was a toy, and they are pissed that their toys are all gone. For the rest of us who spent our money like it was important to us, we will be alright after the storm calms. We'll take some bumps, lose some of our retirement money, but we won't prolong the inevitable or allow ourselves to be drawn into a decade long Depression.

To you Congressmen and women who voted no on this bill, hurrah for you! Nay, nay, you said! Thank you for listening to us this time. Thanks for showing that you can stand up to the big whigs in your party, and that your not the typical rank and file pansy like most of your other colleagues. Thank you for showing some respect for the principles of our country and the taxpayers. Your show of defiance to the sell outs in Congress will not go unnoticed or without reward.