The Great Train Robbery

I haven't written about the bailout because I am essentially speechles, for a variety of reasons. On one hand I'm stunned at the sheer size of what Paulson and Bush want. We're talking about a sum that is greater than the yearly budgets for Defense, Education and Agriculture combined. And they want us to just hand it over, with no accountability and no oversight? 

It strikes me as an absolutely shameless grab and another example of "disaster capitalism", while the country is stunned by crisis maneuver to gain the maximum advantage not for the nation but for private industry. The sheer brazeness of it is shocking but it shouldn't be at all surprising, this is what Republican's do best - exploit national tragedy to shape public policy in a manner that affects the most possible good for their friends be they defense contractors or kings of high-finance. 

The other angle of this story that I find so hard to believe (and yet I shouldn't) is how the Democratic Party and Democratic leadership (if you can call it that) seem so totally and completely unprepared to respond and protect taxpayers from this robbery. Have no doubt, they are in the process of getting steamrolled, again, by a hyper-aggressive GOP. Oh sure they'll make some noises about not writing a blank check and they may even get a relatively meaningless concession or two (lower pay for CEO's anyone?) but when push comes to shove and Bush stomps his feet they will cave. I've spent a fair amount of time defending Nancy Pelosi for running a tight caucus but in times like these one can have no faith in her ability to put a stop to this freight train, out-maneuver the GOP and take a stand for the people who put her into power in the first place. 

It's like watching a train-wreck in slow motion, for about the 5th time in the last 8 years. We all know how it's going to end, we've all seen this movie a few times before and there's nothing any of us can do about it. It's damned depressing that even though we have majorities in the House and Senate and a deeply unpopular president that Congressional Democrats cannot find their spines, cannot locate their value systems, cannot muster an iota of moral indignation and outrage and finally take a stand for the American people. Damned depressing.