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Hope reviving for a bailout

Bennett says, "Let's put out the fire right now. Let's not spend our time as the fire is burning running around trying to find out who the arsonist may have been, while the fire destroys the building. Let's free up credit markets right now."

It's long past time for Congress to learn how to think ahead and consider the consequences of all their actions instead of running around putting out fires all the time. I am afraid that this bailout (let's call it what it is rather than the euphemism McCain is trying to foist on us) will cause an even worse problem/conflagration in the near future. I fear for our country with leadership like this. Paulsen and Bernanke should not be allowed to touch this issue. Instead, our nation's best financial minds should be brought in to calmly and intelligently assess this situation and ascertain what the best course is for the American people. Then, and only then, should Congress take action.

We need to pay attention and hold our elected representatives accountable for their performances. What a sad state of affairs! I truly do not know how some of them can even hold their heads up.

Which party wants to take credit for a 700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street that might not even work at all? Know one on either side of the ailse really has a clue.

It looks like Senator Hatch does not understand and is ready to bail out his rich buddies on Wall Street. This is not about finding the arsonist, it is about not selling out our kids, their kids, and the Constitution. We are not a state run society where government controls business and citizens have no rights. As the lack of a bailout has drawn on, Wall Street is actually coming up with some ideas that does not include the government. The governments role should be minimal. Maybe fire Cox for falling asleep at the wheel. The bail out will not help Main Street. Not at all, if we think this money will trickle down we need to have our heads examined. The market is reactionary and thinks it is the only game in town. Well it really isn't. If it is not a safe place to invest and grow money, guess what, money will go somewhere else.

Please call your Representatives and tell them NO. It is time for the Robber Barrons of this century to stop running this country into the ground!

NO, NO, NO on the bailout of the financial markets with taxpayer money.

Do not sell out my children's future to prevent pain today. That is not the American way and the taxpayers will remember when the markets and economy struggle with or without the bailout. You and I both know that this will not benefit Main Street, the new buzz word for the taxpayer. The money will go to benefit the wealthy and will not trickle down nor help people looking for credit, jobs or security.

Please DO NOT loan taxpayer dollars and put the country further in debt chasing a quick fix to a correction that is long overdue. Sure the markets reacted and dropped, bounced back and will surely drop again, that is what markets do... react. What will you do if this bill passes and the markets continue to drop? Throw more taxpayer dollars at the problem? No thank you.

If anything is to be done I suggest looking at increasing the FDIC insurance levels to slow down the runs on the banks.

Please vote NO!

It is time for the lawmakers to go on vacation isn't it? I am tired of the political grandstanding in this election year. Go on vacation and let the market figure itself out. The bill is just getting filled with more and more "pork". You can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig. Let the pig roll around in the mud until after the elections and if it has not figured out a solution, let it roll around some more without taxpayer dollars. The dollar is worthless as it is but that doesn't mean, go ahead and decrease it's value even more by increasing the national debt another Trillion dollars.

There are what, 300 million people in this country approximately? Instead of giving 700 billion to the financial institutions give every single American citizen 1 million dollars with the stipulation that anyone with any financial debt (home,credit card,etc.) has to use the money to pay it off. That would total 300 billion dollars, saving 400 billion, getting American citizens out of debt and well off and lesson the hit that the financial institutions take (as for their larger business and corporate investments gone bad they'll just have to take their losses and deal with it).

Call your senator and congressman and throw this idea at them.

Have a nice day.

Bull! The Tax Payers (Voters) Wept at the thought of a Bail Out and the overt step towards Socialism. We are leaving our children in Debt that is beyond comprehension. This is taking from the Poor and giving to the rich. Next we will be told that it was really what we wanted to do, however we did not know it at the time because we are Main Street and we just do not understand. In other words we are just poor average people with out, our foot in the Stock Market and we need to be guided and directed by our more knowledgeable brothers and sisters on Wall Street, because they know so much, which is why we need to bail them out.

I weep at the thought of what I am leaving my children to deal with in Americas Future. The Government needs to stay out of Private Business and let private business take care of its self. "we are one the verge of "Businessfare" which is kind of like welfare only far more expensive."

I do not want to pay for this, and I do not want my kids paying for it either.

Never mind. Bad math.

The first vote was correct and still is the best means of economic stability. All this bailout and still no regulator laws and controls to end the nightmare that our financial industry has forced on the nation. In just a couple of days the markets and Wall Street are adjusting and bringing reality back into our economy. Saving the banks does not mean it will save the economy and consumers. We don't want credit, we want a decent income and job benefits and to keep government out of our lives. Hopefully our legislators will continue their actions not to support any more bailouts to save an economic sturcture of unregulated financial and market greed. Raising taxes or tax credtis will not help either, it will only deepen the effects of bad economic growth. A growth based on debts is a no growth economy. They need to save americans and save their jobs from all the illegal foreign nationals wandering out country causing mass destruction of our economy. No more bailouts, regardless of what companies go under. With free enterprise some one will replace them with perhaps better ideas. Stand by the NO vote and use common sense in your decisions.

What evidence that voters regretted it? Kill it. A much better treatment would be an elimination of capital gains tax, cutting the corporate tax in half, and elimination of the mark to market accounting method. The bailout is just another looting of the American taxpayer by the politicians, to go along with the prescription drug benefit, the farm bill, the s-chip thing, ethanol subsidies, stimulus package, and just about anything else they spend money on. Its a media and politically fabricated crisis.

In a nutshell:

Nyah, nyah, nyah. We didn't hear the tens of thousands of calls and emails.

We're going to bail out the Wall St. fools anyway!

ALL incumbents have lost my vote. If you aren't part of the problem, you are still part of NO solution.

Oh... and where's my bailout check? You know, the one I get for NOT living on credit and for paying my bills on time.

This ant would like to off the grasshopper.

I am outraged by this plan and I think all middle class americans should ban together in revolt by not paying our federal taxes.

Ill-conceived federal policies caused the current crisis. The federal government chartered Fannie Mae in 1938 and Freddie Mac in 1970; the nub of the problem. The government implicitly promised these institutions that it would make good on their debts, so Fannie and Freddie took on huge amounts of excessive risk.
Worse, beginning in 1977 and even more in the 1990s and the early part of this century, Democrats in Congress pushed mortgage lenders and Fannie/Freddie to expand subprime lending. The industry obliged, because it assumed federal backing, and subprime lending soared.
This sub-prime lending was a wholesale abandonment of reasonable lending practices in which borrowers with poor credit characteristics got mortgages they were ill-equipped to handle.
Once housing prices declined and economic conditions worsened, defaults and delinquencies soared, leaving the industry holding large amounts of severely depreciated mortgage assets.
The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

Oh please, who writes this stuff? Did the article come directly from Bush's office?

The letters from the people are overwhelmingly against this - even after the 700 pt. drop (something like 95%). How in the world did the writers get the idea that public sentiment has swung in support of this massive transfer of wealth.

Yep - I'm going to take a hit. My in-laws are getting creamed. However, it beats the alternative.

The same fools (either that, or they're dishonest) that were telling us just weeks ago that we'd pull through are the same ones telling us to cough up trillions (have no doubt - $700b is just the first installment). I didn't trust them then. I don't trust them now.

Our retirement is seriously impacted by this mess, but a bailout still does not seem correct in principle. Why should the government take responsibility for irresponsibility?

And the exact details of the bill are??????

A bad bill is worse than no bill.

NO MONEY FOR ACORN OR SIMILAR GROUPS CAN BE ACCEPTED!
NO PORK!
NO GIVE AWAYS, just loans!

If Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and Chuck Schumer like it, we are getting shafted AGAIN.

Let the free markets work and keep meddling politicians out of it.

why has is bob benit and others not considering geting rid of market at market and go back to market a time of sale? many have suggested that this accounting change forced on lenders by government is a the root of the problem of liquidity. getting rid of market at market and returning to market at sale may be all the fix we need.

I would like someone who supports the bailout to explain why this is not part of the solution package being talked about in washington. why a bail out and not a work out like has been done before. why not simply change the accounting rules and save my great grand childrens from this tax burden.

"Give us $700 billion or Main Street will start to hurt."

I agree with economist Jeffrey Miron ... let the failed firms file bankruptcy and punish those who took excessive risk."

All of you nasayers must not have one dime invested in the stock market.

Because the markets are expecting the government to take on these high-risk securities, market participants are taking a wait-and-see position. This may be exacerbating the lack of liquidity in the credit market. People will make a buck on the bailout, so they're holding onto their money until it comes.

THE U.S. TREASURY IS NOT A HEDGE FUND! I hear all this talk about the "investment" taxpayers are going to be forced into, and all the fear-mongering of what will otherwise happen. It is risk, high-risk. If the U.S. can buy these high-risk securities of voodoo valuation for 60 cents or even 20 cents on the dollar, then let the free market buy them.