The BAILOUT -- we gotta DO something!!!

There was so much pressure for that thing to go through by the masses. I think it went through just because of that reason. Sometimes people want things, and they have no idea what it can do in the long run.

Surely the government has some kind of audit in place to control where the money is being spent? I can't believe they could just spend it on whatever they wanted and not what it was intended for.

I wouldn't put it past them to spend the money trying to buy into the banks that are teetering. Those guys have to be watched and I think that's where the baifail. AIG (The insruance company that gave the luxury weekend to it's execs after it collapsed, just came back and got another big chunk of change. At this point, I think that ifthey can't do what they're supposed to do, they should be told to give back the money and it and all future money can go to Detroit. Maybe the auto industry will do a better job with bailout money. Maybe they can create some good jobs for Americans and build some cars that aren't bad for the environment.

Um...I'm sorry, I mean no disrespect here...but I don't know why this is a surprise to anyone. What did everyone expect? The banks were awful enough to make themselves so fat, that when they fell they flattened the economy. Why would giving them free money when they cried, make them change? I don't get it. Alot of people said "Oh we need safegaurds" (whether they meant it or not, who can honestly say?)...but the final bill did not have safeguards -- it DID have alot of stuff that didn't even have anything to do with saving the economy, in it, though. It just let Paulson have unchecked power to give the banks money willy-nilly. Congress frequently questions Bernanke and Paulson about their decisions, especially misconduct done by the banks (like treating their whole staff to a spa retreat and crap like that)...but nothing really gets done about it and this stuff continues on anyway. POSSIBLY this might change in January. But I won't hold my breath. All the same, I still doubt that the bail out will do that much good. Especially the longer this goes on. And the fact remains that you have to get that money to bail out the banks from somewhere. If they relocated money from some other project to this one, then I wouldn't mind. But it's unlikely for them to do this, they'll probably borrow it from some other nation (more and more countries are wary of doing this now, considering how much debt we're in nationally)...or printing it. Which would either mean more debt, or more inflation..which would mean quick and bad effects. Stimulus packages are pretty much the same deal. You have to get that money from somewhere. They printed that money, instead of simply returning taxpayer money as would've been wise. I've encouraged protests, and I encourage people to not re-elect those who voted YES on the bail out (considering the shoddy piece of legislatin we ended up with). Unless we do more protests, angry letters, or some other sort of rebellion...I'm not sure how else we can truly express to them how upsetting this all is. At least, to fully convey how seriously they should be taking this instead of continuing on old habits for profit and not for the people, like they were hired to do. So...BLAGH.

I have to agree that the President, our Senators and our Representatives need to be doing whatever is necessary to insure that those receiving tax dollars to bail them out of their financial problems are using them as intended. Unfortunately, if the legislation that was passed didn't include any conditions as to what the recipients were to do with the money, there is nothing that can be done. I am afraid that our legislators just "assumed" that giving these banks money would free up credit and did not write anything into the legislation that required them to do so.

You've got a good point there. They shored themselves up but it looks like the average person isn't reaping any benefit if the ability to get credit is still frozen. It seems that some requirements should have been put in place...and weren't...but maybe it's not too late if folks speak out about this.

When you say that nobody can get credit for anything, what exactly do you mean? I don't have great credit and me and my husband just bought a used car with financing last month. Are you talking about people getting credit directly from banks to finance things like business and home improvements?

I personally think that someone should put Donald Trump in charge of something regarding the money and economy........he is smart and always seems to succeed at every endeavor, even rebuilding when he was supposedly broke.

I agree. We need to put limits and transparancy in these blank checks...which we are going to be writing many more of before it's all said and done. To see why bailouts are necessary, watch Zietgeist Addendum (October 2008) at www.zeitgeistmovie.com . We can't stop it, the President can't stop it, but it's good that we're trying. Keep fighting the good fight! :-D