The Issues, No. 43 - Defeat of the Financial Bailout Plan

I think the timing is perfect, particularly for the members of the House of Representatives who yesterday, in their infinite wisdom, voted against the plan to bail out our troubled financial institutions. Those individuals have, in my opinion, shown their ignorance and their contempt for the people they represent and thus have very clearly demonstrated their inability to serve effectively in the Congress just in time for their bids for reelection in the upcoming November elections.

The very sad part of it all is that those individuals who voted against the bailout are absolutely right in that the proposed legislation is, in a lot of different ways, a bad piece of legislation. Just for a start, it's socialistic and therefore legislation that, in a perfect world, should not ever be necessary or considered in our democracy. However, there is right, and then again, there is right. By being right in this particular instance, these Congresspeople have defeated a measure that would ultimately help the financial well being of their constituents, many of whom are currently having severe financial problems because of the financial crisis.

The true "right" in all of this should have been to pass the legislation and allow the financial institutions to recover with constraints on their future activities that would prevent future failures. Although it is highly distasteful in our society to bailout companies that have failed due to their own malfeasance, when it affects the financial well being of so many Americans, it is simply necessary that our government step in and make things right again. Isn't it implicit that our government protect us from all things harmful? Didn't FDR and the Congress enact what otherwise would be distasteful and socialistic legislation to bail us out from great depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929?

I believe those individuals who voted against the bailout plan yesterday are individuals who, by their own shortsightedness, don't deserve to be reelected to Congress and I would urge all of you to vote for their opponent, or simply not vote for them at all, in the November elections. I personally believe the bailout legislation to be very distasteful but nevertheless, I believe it to be necessary to get America, and a good part of the rest of the world, back on its feet. A Congressman who stands on his or her principles and insists on being what he thinks is right, regardless of the consequences, I don't believe deserves to be a Congressman.