The Bailout: What Are Our Options, And Why Haven't We Explored Them? (TNR)

[chill_wind]

"Why hasn't Congress put a call for more alternatives and held hearings on options?"

27.09.2008
The Bailout: What Are Our Options, And Why Haven't We Explored Them?

David Cay Johnston, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his innovative coverage of our tax system, retired this year as a investigative reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expenses (and Stick You with the Bill).

Maybe there is a cheaper way out of the credit mess than the plan put forth by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. Any solution that costs less or has a better chance of success deserves serious review before Congress takes an action that will affect taxpayers for years to come.

The most stunning aspect of the Bush Administration's plan to borrow $700 billion to buy illiquid assets like bundles of subprime mortgages was the initial demand that neither Congress nor the courts could review how the money was used. That arrogance caught the attention of everyone who looked at the actual proposal, angering not just Congress, but Middle America.

The second most stunning was the lack of alternatives, the my-way-or-the-highway approach that has characterized the two terms of a president who won office promising he was a uniter and not a divider. The lack of options was also surprising since a basic tenet of management theory is exploring al options and this is, after all, the first time we have a president with an MBA, though not the first time we have a Treasury secretary who was head of an investment bank.

Taxpayers should be troubled that on Capitol Hill and at the White House the talk was about modifying the Paulson plan, not a different approach. They should be just as troubled that most news reporters and TV anchors initially assumed that there must be a crisis and only asked questions around the edges of the plan instead of taking it apart.

Now several options to the Paulson plan have begun to circulate.



(see article)

Why hasn't Congress put a call for more alternatives and held hearings on options?

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/09/27/the-bailout-what-are-our-options-and-why-haven-t-we-explored-them.aspx

[Demeter]

1. Because that would be WORK

This is the most do-nothing Congress we have had in a long time. They are too busy eating popcorn and watching the nation burn and enjoying the fire.

[Wilber_Stool]

2. I'm sure this is an

economic axiom: The number of solutions is equal to the number of economists working on the problem.

[Sam Ervin jret]

3. Because it's a CRISIS!! Like everything with this administration. NOW! MYWAY! HURRY! BE AFRAID!!

This is the Bush Doctrine section II

Govern by fear and from one crisis to another. The "war" on terror war so much worse than anything else the world and this country ever faced!! WWI, WWII, communism everywhere around the world, the Cuban missile crisis, even the war between the states - all child's play compared to what King George has had to deal with. That's why he needs such extraordinary POWER. And more POWER all the time.

Keep the people in fear and on crisis alert. Make them think that the government (which according to St. Reagan is the problem) is the only thing between them and disaster.

When people think they're in a crisis they don't want to think things over and have alternatives. They want someone who knows better to come in and fix the damn thing. It's like the difference between negotiating with a plumber when you want to put in a new sink vs when the pipes have burst and the basement is flooding. This administration likes to keep people thinking the basement is always flooding and what are you going to do about it.

It doesn't make for good government, good policy or anything resembling our constitutional democracy. It has left us financially bankrupt, without our moral compass and in danger at home and abroad.

The question is how do we get our citizens to see what is happening. How do we get people of good will to change the direction the country has been going in? People are so polarized over things that have nothing to do with how the president governs the country. How do we break through the double speak and Orwellian language barrier that has built up over the past 28 years?

[boomerbust]

4. Option no.1

Wait till that awol coward is out of office.

[chill_wind]

5. Well..

What we seem to have the most of in Congress are a large glut of CYA lawyers.


Whereas here we have no shortage in the way of an economic braintrust of 150+, said to represent a wide political spectrum:

http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.cochrane/research/Papers/mortgage_protest.htm

Why doesn't Congress want to get the top half dozen or more in front of them and the American taxpaying public and hear them out?