Week #5, Blog #2

Around midnight on 10/3/08 Fox News is reporting that the House of Representatives passed the bailout measure overwhelmingly. Sixty house members changed their "nay" vote from Monday to an "aye" during today's session. The Senate had amended the bill to include extending expiring tax cuts, mental health parity legislation, earmarks, raising FDIC coverage limits, and small business tax breaks.

This media source is framing this event as a plus for the American people and our economy. Fox News is saying that if we pump the $700 billion into our economy then the markets will recover, jobs will cease to be lost, and small businesses will be able to meet their payroll and maintain a line of credit. They are proposing that since Congress and the President have acted the struggling that is currently present in our economy and financial institutions will diminish. It is not often that the President signs a piece of legislation just hours after it is sent to him. This shows that President Bush also agrees with how important and how needed this action was by Congress on behalf of Wall-Street and Main Street.

I applaud this action by our federal government. I have heard the remarks from some that this is a source of socialism. I don't approve of government intervention in the long hall but I think that at times it is something that is needed so that the free market system can reign supreme again. The market does fix itself in most cases but how many jobs would have been lost, how many banks would have closed their doors, and how many small businesses would be out of business if Congress and the President did not act quickly to this crisis. This was a bi-partisan effort in Congress to shepherd this legislation through to enactment. We get the best result when Democrats and Republicans work together. This was the case with this bill and I believe that the overwhelming vote on the House of Representatives floor today and the Senate floor on Wednesday was a rare occurrence of working together for the good of our country. I applaud both Presidential candidates for supporting this legislation because no matter who wins the White House in November, this is an important issue that they will have the address in the opening days, weeks, and months of their administration.