If it's an incumbent, vote for his/her opponent in November. We can clean up this mess by ridding Congress of all incumbents running for re-election.

Put one bill through with out all the pork and ear marks for a change. That's why we don't like you all in Congress.

The house should reject this next bill as they did the first. McCain is quickly losing his voter base by voting in favor of these bailouts. Let the failing banks go under, let those with poor credit suffer and let the glut of service industries that we have serving our greedy nation go broke. Perhaps after all is said and done we will move from a service economy to an economy that makes products. I only know I don't want my tax dollars going to those who were willing to put aside basic business practices so that they could profit. If I lose a few thousand and the market drops to 8000, so be it. As a nation we will survive this crisis as we have survived others. Where was congress during the technology crash in 2000? I didn't see them bailing out the millions of investors who lost billions then so why are they in such a hurry now? CYA that's why. They were complacent in all this and now they want to save face.

I expect McCain to vote against the senate version of the bailout bill because of all pork that has been attached to this bill. Tax cut, mental health increases, other earmarks are not part of the original bailout package.

If you check, you will find that those fat cats who were bailed out in the 80's included one of the Bush brothers and that McCain was deeply involved with Keating (who did go to prison) and was admonished by the Congress for his part in it. His take on it?
Just like he 'defended' cheating on then leaving his wife for a rich trophy--
He didn't, but he did it with a smile

Can we survive more of this?
I am pessimistic if we keep the same crooks in those same crooked secret clubs

Liberty? total liberty is anarchy with a wild west mentality

Liberty for the money grubbing scoundrels is what got us here. Anti-trust laws made for some fairness and logic but gradually these (yes I said it) regulations are what saved this country from the robber barons. John D Rockefellers' standard oil has again been allowed to merge and become the same overbearing and ultimately bullying company again. Is there NO corporate memory?
During the depression's problems the government put a moratorium on foreclosures, wrote down the loan amounts, and people made smaller payments (with interest) and a PROFIT was made! voila
Wonder if the current robber barons would have had the chance to do what they did had not our economy been turned around then............

by the way-- the $10 billion per month we are paying for a war isn't even part of our taxes --only being further and further in hock to China and Japan and etc

Buisness and Investment have risks, It is not the goverment's responsibility to cover all bets.
This is against every principal taught about economics.
Reward those who make poor decisions, reward those who hide thier poor decisions. The goverment gets to pick and choose which buisnesses can succeed and which ones can fall. This is facism !
Why are we spending more than we have ? Why are we helping those who live out of thier income? Why won't our leaders listen to the people ?
Why do they choose Socialism over Liberty ?

I guess we need to go to Europe if we want to do buisness in a free market. We beat Communism on the battle field but they beat us in the end. With this rescue/bailout plan we will have converted to a Socialist Economy. Don't re-elect Politicians in favor of this. They only care about thier own personal finances and not the voice of the people.
Truly the saddest moment in Amercian History.

Has any one looked at the EURO since this all has happened; our dollar has strengthened substantially against the EURO for the first time in months. A barrel of oil is estimated drop to the low 80’s; Stock market is on the rebound. I'm really starting to wonder if we are not bailing out the upper 10% again

The reasons for that is European governments planning or executing bailout plans for their own banks. The news here focuses heavily on the US economy but this is a global thing.

The US stock market jumped on indications Congress was going to push a new bailout bill. The stock market isn't a good economic health indicator because it's people trying to anticipate what will happen in the future rather than what is happening now. If you gamble on when an upswing will start and get it right, you can make a lot of money.

Has any one looked at the EURO since this all has happened; our dollar has strengthened substantially against the EURO for the first time in months. A barrel of oil is estimated drop to the low 80’s; Stock market is on the rebound. I'm really starting to wonder if we are not bailing out the upper 10% again.
Today’s prime interest rate forecast show the rate dropping from 5.0 to 4.75... So I ask are we really going down the tubes. Maybe those Wall Street fat cats need to eat beans and rice or liquidate their leer jet/20,000 sq foot homes if they are worried about making payrolls.
This reeks of the 80’s Saving and loan bail out take has cost us to date 1.4 Trillion. Which was started by a Dem ( Carter) and now the Fanny Mae article that shows another (DEM) Clinton who force Fanny Mae to lower their loan guidelines.

Get hold of your Senator and tell them that their re-election chances are in risk if they approve this bail out.

I picked yes here because I didn't like the pace. It may very well be a good idea to artificially loosen up credit but it needs to be carefully analyzed. The lawyers in Congress are not qualified to make that decision and need to give a wide range of economist time to present arguments.

Business has the same rules of the jungle. Survival of the fittest. If these fools on Wall Street made bad investments, they don't need my money or yours to make it up. For the innocent citizens who may have been wiped out, yes.. help them. But, NOT people like my cousin, who with no job, no bank account and no assets, and a revoked drivers license, was given a mortgage loan for nearly $750,000. A loan associated with Fannie Mae. He did not have to present one single document to qualify. Didn't have to make a payment for one year, then promptly declared bankruptcy when that year was up.

I'll second that. :-)

Well said. Without identifying the root causes and taking appropriate action there's no assurance that the bailout will accomplish anything. Unfortunately in pre-election partisan style the people that we pay to identify the root causes and take appropriate action will simply point fingers at each other and throw money at the problem.

Bailout or not, we haven't seen the last of this. Not even close.

I totally agree with you, and was only trying to add some information that I don't think many people undersand. This issue is very complex, requires a great deal of discussion, research and thought before it advances in either direction. What I would like to see is stopping the blame game and try and see what the "real" problem is and what is realistic in solving it, but so many, and on here also, aren't taking a look at the issue, just throwing out comments that don't make a lot of sense and show little knowledge of what's going on.

Look it up - Jimmy Carter - 1977

But what EXACTLY are we getting for the $700B? And why $700B? Why not $600B or $800B??
Before I buy something - and that's apparently what was proposed here - I like to know I'm getting good value for my dollar.
And what guarantee do we have that this $700B will "fix the problem"? Heck, what EXACTLY is the problem (ie. what is the root cause)?? Might this just delay and worsen an inevitable decline/correction?
I would think these questions are ones that all of us - conservative or liberal - should want answered. After they are answered then we can make judgement calls on what's the right thing to do based on our opinion on the role of government.
Without answers, though, it seems to me we would simply be throwing an arbitrarily large sum of money towards a vague plan to rectify a poorly understood negative situation -- when maybe money isn't the answer, and maybe even there isn't a "problem" per se but rather simply a series of bad choices that have led to their inevitable negative result.
But, again, how can we know without more information and more time to process that information?

We are seeing a massive transfer of wealth from working people to corporate owners. Not one corporation has really lost money. The money went from one company to another. Wealth is redistributed upward.
Whenever a huge amount of money lies in the market a crisis is triggered and the money moves upward. Retirement funds, investment instruments pass their assets to huge conglomerates that suck up the money as indebtedness.
Real wealth flows offshore, into treasuries, Asian markets, or re-capitalization bonds (so to speak). Ordinary workers funds that took 30 years to grow are gone in a puff of smoke.
Investment analysts urge us to keep our money in the market. Of course, there are CEO severance salaries to pay. In the end billionaires remain billionaires, the poor remain poor, and working people get stuck with the tab.

The bill in its current form needs to have some changes made. There are several loopholes in it that will benefit Wall Street, and not the government. The new Assistant Treasury Secretary would have a lot of power, too much, in my opinion. AND, the bill applies to a a troubled asset purchased prior to March 14, 2008. So, what, if you bought in 1999, well before the bubble, you could be protected? Come on.

No. I say there should be a plan, because everyone will be affected, but this bill should not have been passed in its current form.

Over $1 Trillion dollars in stock market value which could include some of your retirement funds. Think about it!