I think most of us were dismayed that Obama voted for the bailout as offered by the Senate. If anything, it's an even worse bill than the one the House torpedoed Monday. Sanders stuck by his guns, calling it for what it was. I think VERY highly of the people of Vermont for putting him in office. We need 99 more of him.
But the question remains, why would Obama say and vote the way he has on the cash for trash bill? He's no dummy and I believe he genuinely has the people's interests at heart.
Here's Kunstler this morning;
Much of the $700 billion contained in the bail-out would be used to relieve foreign holders of US-originated toxic investment paper, under the threat that the Federal Reserve and the US government would stand exposed as utterly bankrupt once a shit-storm of foreign redemptions of US treasuries commenced. In any case, a massive restructuring (and down-sizing) of global finance is underway, and looking more and more like the preface to a deflationary depression.
This is part of the discussion that hasn't been raised and I haven't really thought about. Looking at just the domestic side of the issue, (as I've been doing, guilty there) it looks like an open and shut case of our lawmakers selling us down the river 2.0.
Let's face it, we've had urgent problems with unaffordable wars, trade imbalances with China, Hummers, immigration, for profit healthcare, Cheney, Rove, Gonzo, poverty wages, and now the housing crises. This last subject undeniably caused the end of the party.
But there wasn't a full court press in a two week time span to solve any of those problems aforementioned. Needless to say, it looks very suspicious and the playerz look very suspect.
Many bloggers, (including myself) have offered up homespun remedies and opinions of how we'd change the world and what we'd do if we were "king for a day". I'm starting to believe I at least need to be a little less home spun and a little more discerning.
I don't think Obama would sell us out. He knows more about this issue than I ever will. He has a classicly trained mind and a dispassionate nature. Not to say he isn't empathetic, quite the opposite, given his background.
I'm starting to understand what he says about reassuring the world market, get a bill in to stave off a collapse for now. As president, I'm sure a more populist bill will supplant the hasty thing voted in last night in the Senate.
As Kunstler implied so enlighteningly, it's the whole world involvement. We're not the only innocents in the trenches. And the world need a little help from the Fed