McBush's Fundamentals Weren't Strong

Listening to the debate going on in the House right now on the $700+ bailout bill, the refrain (excuse) repeated over and over is.... it would be a better bill if only we had more time.

It's true, time has run out on dithering. Credit, the grease that keeps the economy moving, has dried up.

But, no one is acknowledging the elephant in the room.... there would have been more time to keep our economy off of the shoals if The Decider and John McCain hadn't kept assuring the country that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

Even though the country was drowning in debt, the middle-class was losing jobs, wages were declining, and housing bankruptcies reached historic proportions.

Just hours before Treasury Secretary Paulson crashed the corporate profiteering party with his emergency proposal, McSame was still mindlessly parroting the administration's talking point.... the "fundamentals of our economy are strong."

The reason this is a lousy bill is because the country has lousy, manipulating leadership who wouldn't acknowledge that their "trickle down" Reaganomics didn't work for anyone but bloated, and now bailed-out, corporations and what trickles down is pain to the middle class.

Never again.

November 4.

McCain Not Ready for Prime Time?

John McCain wants to duck Friday's debate with Barack Obama.

As the Huffington Post points out in McCain Wants a Time Out - But Why? .... even McCain's announcement of the "idea of uniting the campaigns to find a bipartisan solution to the Wall Street crisis wasn't even McCain's idea."

At 8:30am this morning Obama called McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, McCain returned Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement.

Then, McCain held a press conference trying to make it look like the joint statement was his idea and urging the cancellation of Friday's debate so he can rush to D. C. to focus on the rescue package.

Since McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any other Senate member except for Tim Johnson who had major brain surgery, casting a single vote in the five months since April 9... his motives seem suspect. McCain even admitted yesterday that he had not even read the administration's three-page $700 billion bailout proposal.

It seems it would be much more useful for the country to hold the debate which will be viewed by up to 100,000,000 people, giving both McCain and Obama the opportunity to explain to this large audience their positions on this financial crisis.

Is it that McCain just isn't ready for prime time on this and other issues?

Bush's $700 BILLION Bailout

Bush pledges to work with Congress to OK rescue. (WaPo)

Now, when The Decider's administration has made a gigantic mess of the economy, George Bush wants to sheath his veto pen and play nice with Congress, saying, "We're going to work with Congress to get a bill done quickly."

And Congress has little choice but to cooperate.... the economy is on the precipice.

The Bush administration's proposal asks Congress to allow the government to buy $700 BILLION in bad mortgages as part of the largest financial bailout since the Great Depression.... but, it doesn't specify what the government would get in return from financial companies.

Corporate-welfare in its purest from.

In explaining this move, The Decider mused that "People are beginning to doubt our system, people were losing confidence and I understand it's important to have confidence in our financial system."

Do you think?

But, it's not our "financial system" that undermined confidence and saddled the country with crippling debt, it's the financial philosophy Bush has stubbornly pursued for eight years.... cut taxes for the rich and corporations, hit the middle class with lower wages, less benefits and send their jobs overseas, spend wildly on a misbegotten war, deregulate everything in sight, let lobbyists and congressional far-right-wingers like McCain's Gramm write your legislation, and trust something good will "trickle down."

Not!

This bailout is just the latest of the mind-boggling failures of The Decider's agonizing tenure at the helm. And, John McCain promises more of the same.

November.