Analysis: A vote with unforeseen consequences?

[gristy]

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent Wed Oct 1, 7:02 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Like the momentous 2002 decision authorizing the invasion of Iraq, Congress' vote on a $700 billion financial industry bailout figures to reverberate unpredictably, both for the economy and for the politicians vowing to protect it.

Which gives added emphasis to Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's heartfelt summation: "We're in this moment, and if we fail to do the right thing, heaven help us."

Whatever the right thing is — or may someday be.

The White House and congressional leaders already have made up their minds. Confronted with the defeat of an earlier measure in the House this week and increasingly urgent warnings of economic hardship, they've begun rounding up votes the old-fashioned way.

They're buying them.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/meltdown_stakes_analysis

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Bookmarking to be able to look back at this when the s**t hits the fan.

[Eric J in MN]

2. I still check the roll calls on who voted for...

The Iraq War Resolution
The 2005 Bankruptcy Bill
The Military Commissions Act (torture bill)
The FISA bill

...and I expect to check the roll call on the Wall Street Bailout bill, too, multiple times in the future.

[somethingswrong]

3. it's truly too bad

that we'll never see much of micheal moores policies introduced into something like this.
giving the treasury .25% commission on stock trades couldn't hurt..
perhaps TAXING THE RICH, couldn't hurt much either.


i don't understand why the wealthiest in america think they actually need any more money then they have now. moore said it best.. they won't be able to live in their 7 houses, only 5. god for-fucking-bid they should have to adjust to a more poverty ridden lifestyle..


...

[Hydra]

4. Welcome to DU

FYI if you're really interested- the Uber-rich want more than to have money- they want everyone else not to have it. As George Carlin said:

"It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The big club."

It's more important for them to have you under their thumb and poor than for them to have more luxuries. Scary, isn't it?

[somethingswrong]

6. i do understand that

they're playing some large game of who can screw everyone over best..but does that mean they have to prove time and time again that they really just don't care what happens to anything, everything, anyone as long as the money they have is safe (getting to the money in a second)?

i just don't understand the mentality of a person like that who has more money then tens of millions of people combined, and still does things that screw over everyone..

i have a question then.. where the hell do they put all this money they save? moore said 400 people have the combined wealth of 150 million.. so..where IS all this money? is it in banks? big vaults somewhere? or is it just numbers in an account..

[Hydra]

7. Mostly just numbers

Although the smart ones have property- lots of it. And people with guns guarding it. And people farming on it.

It's really not a matter of "screw best" so much as "Status quo." You and I have no chance to live like they do. They like that fact- only they and their decedents get to live like that. They won the game. They're better than us. They keep telling themselves that- it's rather pathetic, when you think about it. They can have anything they want, but they still have that gnawing fear that they suck.

[AdHocSolver]

5. It is not about money. It is about absolute power. They crave kingship.

This also explains their being in bed with right-wing religious whackos.

For example, the current rulers in Saudi Arabia were formed by a merger between a Taliban-like religious sect and a clan of essentially nonreligous gangsters. The gangsters gained a certain religious legitimacy to the masses, and the religious fanatics gained considerable wealth and secular power.