Manic Melon

The Senate thinks they know better

As if the public outcry against the bailout wasn’t important, the Senate passed the bailout with strong 75 - 24 vote. They voted for a bailout which is meant to fix a problem that they themselves helped to create. I don’t trust our government to fix the problem. Kansas Senators Brownback and Roberts, thanks for voting against it. I’ll now consider voting to keep you in office.

Senate attempts to buy votes with lipstick and pork

Check out the following pork added to the over 400 page bailout bill:

• Oregon (2) - 6,000,000 for making arrows for children’s toys
• California (2) - 10,000,000 for small and medium sized film and tv productions
• Alaska - 223,000,000 for Exxon Valdez settlement recipients
• Minnesota - 3,800,000,000 Billion for a Mental Health care provision
• 192,000,000 - Puerto Rico & Virgin Island Rum Producers
• 33,000,000 - American Samoa Corporations
• 128,000,000 - Auto Race Tracks

Oh ya, don’t forget the 700,000,000,000 we’re going to give to banks. When spending this 704.4 Billion dollars, keep in mind that I’ve yet to see anyone with credibility who really expects this to WORK. The bailout’s purpose is simple: they’re literally BUYING time in order to get to the election before the crash.

Only 36 hours of waste

I think the government should come out with this statement:
“Don’t worry folks, the $4,392,000,000 we’re spending on pork is equal to what the government spends on average in just 36 hours.”
And then this Disclaimer: not counting the war, not counting bailouts of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, not counting cash infusions in the markets, not counting stimulus packages, not counting medicare deficits, not counting medicaid deficits, not counting social security deficits, not counting FDIC deficits, and of course not counting the mother of all bailouts we’re talking about now… but yes of course you should continue to accept the numbers we publish without quesiton.

PS - John McCain, you just lost the election. This issue was your opportunity to be a “maverick” and offer a real solution, but you wanted this bailout so bad you thought the Treasury should act even without legislation to approve it. You could have rallied conservatives behind you with a plan, even those who dislike you for the neocon you are.