Revenge of the Masses
The Washington Post's twist on the maxim Real Estate is Local.
The marketing failure of the Paulson Plan, aka "Bailout", was simply Bush & Company's inability to persuade the masses that this time is indeed a flashpoint that requires action over inaction, and that it is in their best interest to stop the bloodletting of the credit markets (whether these premises are true or not... we don't know yet).The failure of the financial bailout bill in the House is a classic example of an old adage: all politics is local.
Despite the fact that President George W. Bush and the leadership of both parties lined up behind the bill, the rank and file of both parties -- particularly on the Republican side -- rebelled in light of polling that showed the American public is deeply skeptical about a planned $700 billion bailout for the financial industry.
With just over one month left before the November election, politicians of both partisan stripes are concerned primarily about one thing: their own political futures.
The Plan was shoved down America's throat; the 500+ politicians could be coddled and educated one-by-one by Bush, Paulson, Bernanke & Company, but the 300 million Americans couldn't be blanket educated on a complex, critical bill in the span of one week. The politicians eventually "got it", but there was no time to educate their constituency and they voted to avoid their ire on November 3.
Who predicted that one?
Excellent post Pat.
One point though is that 65 Democrats voted against the bill. With a 20 percent premium on profits aimed at Democratic advocacy groups and the House leadership aligned to get the bill passed, these defections were the surprise to me.
Nancy Pelosi's speech before the vote may turned the tide for the Republicans, but the fear of bad legislation turned those 65 Democrats against their leadership.
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My apologies, it was 95 Democrats voting against the measure, 40 percent of the members.
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@pkitano: "The Plan was shoved down America's throat ..."
Out of all the things that went wrong with this legislation, the total lack of educating the public on it was probably the worst (IMO, of course).
Is this a "plug your nose and vote for it" kind of bill? Sure. But even though we don't know if Bush & Co's assumptions are correct, the legislation is needed.
Hopefully we'll get some better items in the bill with this "pause," at least.
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