Well, as cynical as I am about politics, the Republicans in the House of Representatives just dropped my own cynicism to a historic low. The House just now FAILED to pass the bailout package that was negotiated over the weekend. The result? As this is being written, the Dow Industrial Average is down more than 500 points.
Republicans, who overwhelmingly rejected the bailout package, just had a press conference wherein they blamed not the package itself, but a ‘partisan’ speech given by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that apparently angered some Republicans enough that they voted no, despite previously indicating that they would vote yes. The bailout package didn’t change, but apparently hurt feelings are enough to change somebody’s mind. Seriously, a no vote because you essentially got your feeling hurt? What are we, in third grade again? Are you so clueless that you truly cannot put aside partisan politics to help this country avoid economic calamity and get back on the road to recovery?
While our economic system is wounded, clearly our political system is completely broken, when a group of ELECTED officials find it impossible to do what’s right for the American public because they got their feelings hurt.
Life on some tropical Polynesian island run by a king is starting to look pretty appealing right about now.
Money Management For Modern Life 
Now for some truth:
Democrats – 140 (yes), 95 (no)
Republicans – 65 (yes), 133 (no), 1 (abstain)
Bill fails 205 to 228 with 1 abstaining
Perhaps you shouldn’t “blame” the Republicans when 68% of the Democrats voted against the Bill and only 48% of Republicans did so.
Thanks for the reply jonolan. Only one problem, your math is way off. By your own tally:
Democrats: 140 (yes), 95 (no) – 140/235 is 66.8% of Democrats voting yes.
Republicans: 65 (yes), 133 (no), 1 (abstain) – 65/199 is 40.4% voting yes.
I’m all for disagreement but at least get your math straight before commenting.
Sorry about that. I admit freely that my math was slightly off.
Happens to the best of us sometimes!!
Umm – just reran those numbers – 65 / 199 = 32.6%, not 40.4%
Wow, bad day for math all around. Dow was off 777 points. That’s why the rejection of this thing was so important. It was as much psychological as anything.
Yeah, but let’s calm down and remember that the closed 777 pts down at 10,365.45! Think about that figure compared to say 2001 or 2004.
Agreed. The problem is for the general public that regardless of the percentage drop, which wasn’t all that bad in historic context, an almost 800 point one-day drop is psychologically damaging.