Middle-Class Says NO to Flawed "Welfare for Wall Street" Bill

No question about it... I would have voted NO on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, along with the 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans in the House who cast courageous, principled votes against this massive give-away legislation.

This bill deserved to die for many reasons, including:

• The bill is fiscally irresponsible and badly flawed in many aspects, and does not adequately protect American taxpayers. And yet the bill handsomely rewards those who created this landmark mess.

• Congress has done a terrible job of logically explaining to the American public why it should support this legislation. Outside of scaremongering similar to the phony run-up to the Iraq War, Congressional leadership and the White House both treated the public like stupidly disinterested bystanders... as mere after-thoughts.

  And still, members of Congress uniformly report being inundated by thousands of emails and phone calls from constituents protesting this rich bailout bill.

• The bill will grow federal government immeasurably. No one wants that. The federal bureaucracy is already far too large and too costly.

• Most important, you just can't ask millions of people who are already bleeding financial, and have little left to lose, to give almost $1 trillion to bailout wealthy Wall Streeters.

  Unemployment is high, foreclosures are soaring, middle-class incomes have shrunk in purchasing power, 48 million Americans have no health care, few middle-class Americans are saving anything, home values have fallen rapidly, parents can't afford to send their kids to decent colleges, workers can't afford to retire.

  It is entirely illogical to expect most Americans to support this "welfare for Wall Street" bailout, as is.

If the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 bill is significantly overhauled...

• to offer iron-clad protections for American taxpayers,
• to minimize the growth of federal government to clean-up Wall Street's gargantuan mess, and
• to guarantee that the legislation doesn't ultimately reward the greedy Wall Streeters whose recklessness caused the financial turmoil...

... then Congress should reconsider this legislation, if and when the need for it is concretely proven and the scope of damages are definitively known.

Until then, there's something satisfying and uniquely American about Main Streeters rising up and demanding that our country not use its meager, post-Iraq War resources to bailout Wall Street from its own avarice.

The good news? Our democratic system still works!

(Photo taken on Sept 29, 2008: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

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