Posted by
Voice Guy on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 12:00:00 AM
Oh… The Senate.
Well there you have it folks. If you put enough candy into the toilet even senators will reach in and take a few pieces. That’s exactly what happened here.
In an attempt to get the House to soften its opposition to the 700 Billion Dollar Bailout Bill (BOB) the senate loaded their version with all sorts of goodies and treats designed to lure the unsuspecting little congressmen and women into the suspicious white van at the park of government meddling in the market. What they’ve done is wrap a very unpopular bill in two more popular bills – one a bill about tax breaks, and the other a mental health bill (I know! That’s how I like my irony served.). This ploy is designed to get House republicans and Democrats who voted against the bill originally to vote for it now.
The problem with this tactic is that while the wrapping may look better, the insides are still as rotten as ever. No real declaration of accountability in the markets. It states that the Treasury Secretary will have the ability to keep organizations accountable. But who will keep him accountable? Was he elected? Who will be the next Secretary? And this is just the tip of the iceburg. To borrow a phrase from another writer, “The solution to a problem created by bad government is not more government.” Especially since the bad government that created the problem in the first place isn’t being retracted.
So what we have here is a pickle dipped in chocolate. You can lick all of the chocolate off the outside but you still have a sour pickle on the inside.
Let’s hope that the house doesn’t want to be patronized by the senate. Let’s hope they will rise to the challenge. If the republicans do what they did last time, and vote against it, we will see just how the so called party of unity struggles to pass a bill that they have enough votes for even without the republicans in the house. We’ll se where Obama, the great unifier is. He may not even be able to unify his own party… STILL!!!