The Bailout Vote Was A Farce

I've had time to rethink the vote on the bailout plan and, as I have done so and read articles and posts on the Web, I've come to the conclusion the results were exactly as Nancy Pelosi wanted them to be. It was a put up job by the Democrats in order to gain political advantage, and the country be damned.

If the economy tanks because of the failed bailout bill, you better believe the Democrats will scream long and loud that “it's all the fault of the Republicans!” Never mind this economic fiasco was the bastard child of House and Senate Democrats, refusing to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pushing them to back mortgages to moderate and low income families incapable of paying them back.

A number of Representatives and Senators, most of them Republicans, warned about the disaster in the making if steps weren't taken to stop the insane lending policies and the bundling of those iffy mortgages into investment vehicles that, on the surface, seemed like a heck of a money maker. But it was a house of cards. When the real estate market cooled, which was inevitable, that house of cards started coming apart.

It's not just congressional Democrats at fault. There are plenty of Republicans that should take the rap as well. So should the now-failed Wall Street investment banks. And, in the end, consumers taking on mortgages too big for their income to buy oversized and overpriced homes must also share the blame for their predicament.