We (the TAX payers) should......

What common good? That sum is so large, it makes this election irrelevant if we do it. The new president gets to watch over a massive infusion of new debt in exchange for nothing. No campaign promises happen. We might as well flip a coin over who'll be failing to live up to their promises while slavishly paying on massive debt as we cut our military back to nothing, end upkeep on all infrastructure, give up on education, and pay whatever anyone names for oil because we'll have no initiatives of our own. Who will care if the banking problem was serious? Choosing to drink strychnine instead of arsenic is hardly a cure.

Paul Kammueller said:

Complete a bailout for the common good, but

golden parachutes for none,

iron handcuffs for some.

THIS guy calls the shots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWf3NLCAEs8

Ron Paul speaks honestly... so they pick McCain, who, to my ears has not said ONE useful thing since this debacle of an election started. McCain only says what the lobbyists funding him tell him to say.

Joe Bergeron said:

Here's an equally biased item, only coming from the opposite direction:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-bailout-plan-welcome_b_128450.html

"Equally Biased". You compare ANYTHING on Huffington's "Puff post" site to Bloomberg News??? That is really reaching to make your point, IMO

Me, I don't trust any website that has details on Lindsay Lohan's "dating" situation! ROFLMAO Are liberals THAT desperate to avoid the real inconvenient truth that their icons (Chris Dodd, Obama, Clinton and more) are MORE in bed with the lobbyists from Fannie/Freddie than the Republicans are/were? This was a debacle created because THEY prevented its being addressed in a timely fashion! Even the NY Times has published the details on the many years of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac "bribery" of top democratic Senators who could PREVENT inconvenient oversight, their prevention of the McCain sponsored oversight and re-capitalization rules, etc...

The reality is that 95% of our elected officials in Washington are out and out crooks. I'm no huge fan of McCain's; I don't trust him on issues that are of critical importance to me. But he did (demonstrably in this specific instance) at least try to stop Fannie/Freddie LONG before it was too late.

Anytime you give this much power to government office holders, regulators and over-seers, the ones who do the law making, over-seeing and the regulating become easy pickings targets for corruption and influence peddling... It would be shocking and scandalous if this didn't continually happen over and over again!

Today's mess is the result.

The real cause? Social Utopians thinking that "everyone has a right to own their own home"! What a load of steaming matter! Like, really? Everyone? Even if they can't afford it? Who pays for it? Ah yes, well, it turns out (if this bailout goes through) EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN THAT WORKS FOR A LIVING AND PAYS TAXES AND THEIR BILLS AND MORTGAGES PAY FOR IT!

I guess all the honest, hard-working REAL Americans should have just borrowed 300% more than we could repay, so that we could get bailed out AND protected from our own "stupidity".

And now the Dodd's and Frank's and Obama's want to "protect all those innocent people who are about to lose their homes!" Q'uell Horror!

I remember well when Barney Frank (one of our "not so distinguished" congressmen from here in MA) went on a rant that attempts to overseen Fannie and Freddie and tighten the rules would mean "that many poor people would be prevented from owning their own home and having a chance at the American dream"

EXACTLY! If you can't afford something, loaning you more than you can ever afford to repay is NOT a good thing. It inevitably leads to "bubbles"... and when bubbles pop, people get splattered.

I say let EVERYONE involved take their lumps:

Execs that collateralized this junk - JAIL and take back ALL their profits and bonuses

Congress/Senators/Oversight agencies - heads roll, and prosecution when possible ("follow the money!")

People that default because they bought $400K houses on underqualified incomes (or non-qualified), pr gambling that prices would continue to go up, should default and be repossessed.

There is NO free lunch in life, and each/every time we try and let government somehow "change" that reality, it leads to a debacle.

Me? I'm bunkering down for a serious dose of hyper-inflation, ala 1970s.

Because the sad reality is that this is so big, they unfortunately really don't have any choice but to monetize all that debt. Because, as scary as Inflation and debt are, deflation is MUCH uglier...

We need some serious Perp Walking!

Deja-vu anyone?

The truth hurts. And it hurts us ALL. I've said for many years that Washington needs Washed! The "parties" just set each up for failure, and then point fingers as if *they* had nothing to do with it! Yeah, they are our "representatives" alright.. It's always "We The People" that suffer the most. The "average Joe" that works hard to EARN their living gets screwed by the "bleeding hearts" and "woe is me" types that want to TAKE from Peter and "give" to Paul. Where Paul is not "earning" his own way, and the "bleeding hearts" say "that poor Paul deserves more" so let's TAKE it from Peter (but we'll skim some for ourselves first).
Sound familiar? It should! Just this year alone (so far) the Dems have TAKEN by extortion over $17.2 Billion in "Pork", up by 30% from 2007! I'm sure the GOP has done similar as well! (someone here should look that up so it's not just me). Just think what $17 Billion would pay for! And that's not including what the GOP has "skimmed" as well!
It's time for a REAL change. Let's flush the toilet and fill it with fresh water.
The next time you vote, vote for someone that is NOT "of the party". Remember, over 90% of Washington is of the same "party". They just call themselves either Democrats, or Republicans. Two "factions" of the *same* party... The "Party of Government".
Vote for Bob Barr. He's not "of the party". Then when it's time for you to vote for your "representatives", again, vote for someone NOT "of the party". Do the same with your Senators. And before you know it, the toilet will have been flushed.
So what Bob Barr is "different"? So what? Give "the party" a wake-up call and you'll see "change"! LOL! Let's see what a Libertarian can do! After all, our Founding Fathers were Libertarians at heart. They were NOT "of the party". In fact, they didn't want political parties because they knew "parties" would divide the people. Look around you, that is exactly what has happened. Reunite the people, and you'll reunite the country.

Every 4 years there is a JOB opening. The job of President. There are other JOB openings as well on the "odd" years. The JOB of Senator, and JOB of Representative. They are not supposed to be "career" opportunities. We The People have Career Opportunities. But those "jobs" are for specific purposes. They are not for the advancement of "the party", but rather for the advancement of THE PEOPLE. When you "vote" to fill these jobs, vote with the understanding they have an obligation to fulfill their duties to THE COUNTRY, and *not* to THE PARTY. They are not there to insure any "company" or entity never fails. They are there to give us *all* a level playing field to be able to insure *our* rights granted to us buy the Constitution. And when some "cheat" at their "job", they have failed to uphold the Constitution to which they were sworn in to protect and should be punished instead of rewarded. Let's just remind them of their duties to *all* Americans and not those they "favor" in order to line their pockets, and to "legalize robbery" so they can benefit politically. I think the preamble says it best.. "All men are created equal"..
I think that's enough to contemplate for now.. ;-)

We need to go after the people who caused this problem which includes the mortgage bankers, attorneys who approved the sub-prime loans and the politicians who insisted that everyone be able to buy a home. The concept of living in massive levels of debt has caught up with us as a Nation.

Pat Peak said:

We need to go after the people who caused this problem which includes the mortgage bankers, attorneys who approved the sub-prime loans and the politicians who insisted that everyone be able to buy a home. The concept of living in massive levels of debt has caught up with us as a Nation.

I agree; how about some swift prosecutions to equal the speed that they are trying to ram this bill through. I didn't hear Bush say a word about prosecuting those responsible to the full extent of the law. Perhaps it just slipped his little mind?

What is interesting is I haven't found a person of any political persuasion who is behind this bailout. See, Americans really do agree on things. Here, if folks want to let market forces govern when times are good, well then they should get to enjoy that same freedom when things go down.

I think, as virtually all poll questions, it draws us into a false dichotomy. Not many people support giving Paulson a checkbook with a balance of $700 billion to spend however he sees fit. On the other hand, few people know what they are suggesting when they defer entirely to the free market. The free market can be even more cruel to the innocent than the guilty, since the innocent suffer the consequences of an economic depression without having had the opportunity to pocket wealth during the good times.