Phil Anthropy

A $700 Billion Investment - Not Bailout

Democrats voted for the plan because they expect it to work. Republicans voted against the plan (until their arms were twisted to the point of breaking) because they do not expect it to work. The independent senator from Vermont put it well in his (failed) attempt to amend the bill. Just have everyone making over $500,000 per year pay 10% surtax, and in three years we will collect $300 billion, which is nearly half of the bailout. That went over like a lead balloon. Then the House changed its mind (love them pork projects and political favors). So now we have a plan that nobody really thinks will work, but everybody got some pork, and that's how Washington operates.

Meanwhile we have spent additional billions to bail out the auto makers, other billions here and there for this and that, and suddenly it's a few trillion that we've spent, and more to come. I hope the Fed has enough printing presses. At least they don't have to worry about overtime costs for their printers. They can just tell the workers to take a few Ben Franklins as they come off the presses.