I’m just about through with the people in Washington, D.C. and all those who share their mentality.
Frankly, my dear, I no longer give a damn. My short term goals are to keep putting food on the table and gas in the tank so I can get to and from work. My long term goals are to watch the system collapse under its own sheer hubris and criminal arrogance.
The more Congress examines the Bush administration’s bailout plan, the hazier its outcome gets. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle complained of being rushed to pass legislation or else risk financial meltdown.
“The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable,” says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee’s top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he’s concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Wow. If it wants to see a bailout bill passed soon, the administration’s going to have to come up with some hard answers to hard questions. Public support for it already seems to be waning. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, 44% of those surveyed oppose the administration’s plan, up from 37% Monday.
If only this was a joke. Sadly, it isn’t. The money is just made up at the whim of Congress. It’s just binary data that holds value based on the faith of Americans. Americans are losing faith in the system, and the system is responding by losing value. The end result of this process should be obvious – a breakdown. Possibly a minor breakdown. Possibly a catastrophic train wreck. That remains to be seen.
All I am certain of is that more legislation is not the answer. More rules won’t help. More oversight is not a long term solution to the problem of the creation of 700 billion faith based electrons.