Opaque Lucidity

Firing Up The Bilge Pump

As I type this, President Bush is set to address the nation about our current economic crisis. He has asked both Senator Obama and Senator McCain to meet with him and the Congressional leadership tomorrow at the White House. For once, I think both sides might be pretty close to common ground. There are no good answers ahead of us---just varying levels of pain.

I'm not an economic expert, so maybe what I'm about to say is based more on emotion than rational thought. In the final analysis, I have a problem handing $700 billion over to the same people who helped create the mess we're in now. But as The Lovely Kelli said, what choice do we have? Let huge banks fail? I guess the answer is no. But we don't have $700 billion floating around in some secret reserve. Thus, you and I will be assuming the bad paper that was bought up by these huge corporations in better times.

UPDATE: President Bush, in my opinion, did a great job of presenting the American people with a clear, simple explanation of what we are facing economically. I'm still not wild about laying out nearly a trillion dollars to buy potentially bad debt, but we are definitely backed into a corner. My big question now is which candidate or Congressional leader will hold a press conference tonight or tomorrow and turn this into a partisan issue. My money's on Pelosi; she just can't help herself. We shall see.

I'm listening to the President right now. I may have more to say later.