Why Congress Is Failing America

Exactly jcitizen1234! Individuals and government both are all too thoughtless to run up their debt to support things they can't in reality actually afford, then run around panicking when that aforementioned reality catches up with them. To citizens and governments alike who overextend themselves, answer me this: why should the money of those who know how to budget go to those who do not? So they can support their wasteful ways for a few more years before crying for help again or raising my taxes? If the government wants to give anyone a 700 billion dollar handout then they should look towards cutting their own waste first rather than to my wallet.

nsky56 - redo the math on this. $400,000 each? No dude, it's more like $8,000 each if you consider there are about 200 million adults in the US, and only about half actually pay taxes. I don't know about you, but that's not enough to pay off my mortgage.

PREPARE FOR THE DEPRESSION!! Thank you Bush n Friends, 700 billion dollar parachute for all his friends, and of course we get stuck with it while they walk of with millions in compensation and BONUSES!

PREPARE FOR THE DEPRESSION!! Thank you Bush n Friends, 700 billion dollar parachute for all his friends, and of course we get stuck with it while they walk of with millions in compensation and BONUSES!

So, um ... how many senators, congresspersons, judges, cabinet members, regulatory officials, etc. do you think can be bought with $700 billion -- or even a relatively small percentage thereof?

Just looking for a ballpark figure here ...

Right. So now we know what they're squabbling about -- each player's share of the take.Enter Your Comment

Tempted to ask why the $700 billion can't be used to pay off the individual mortgages that have gone south instead of saving the bankers who initiated those mortgages. But then that would be 'rewarding' an entirely separate bunch of stupid folks. Yeah, why didn't Congress see this mess coming, but why couldn't the genius bankers see it - they are supposedly the experts. Glad to hear that some banks (Wells Fargo, etc.) didn't allow themselves to get sucked into the circle of greed. Wondering about our local banks now. Don't know how you can say it was one single party that got us into this mess. Republican administration, Democratic Congress... both were in a position to 'do something'. "The love of money is the root of all evil..."

Actually the mortgage problem was started with congress not the president. Congress applied huge amounts of pressure starting in the late 90's till 2006 to get lenders to make it much easier for people to buy homes especially minorities. The lenders were eager to comply of course since they would be making more money. in 2003 Republicans sounded a alarm bell that the lenders easy mortgage programs needed to be reigned in. they were met with massive opposition from Democrats who did not want their pet projects stopped on making minority home ownership easier. Now Congress wants to make like it's all the administrations fault. It is Congress that holds the purse strings and makes laws in this country not the president. It is their fault we are in this mess Democrats and Republicans. There is a reason that congress has by far the worse approval ratings then even the president. .....I SAY CLEAN HOUSE ON THE WHOLE LOT AND START AND START OVER. Also mandate public money for elections. to many of our congressmen and senators are beholden to special interests. They have more allegiance to them then the people that elected them.

take the $ 700 B and the $85B split it up to all American taxpaying adults Let us spend the money to pay off loans, mortgages (good or bad) finace college, etc Everyone who loses a job from the bank collapses would also get the money - waaaay more than unemployment. We could even pay taxes on it. What would we net- about $400,000 each pumped back into the economy... call your senator the people who earned the money get it not the a....hole CEO's who bankrupted their companies.

They don't need to pass this bail out of these people who don'y know what they are doing. Every time, there's a republican in office, all sorts of problems arise and then the republicans expect the democrats to bail them out. We say, tough. If it wasn't for Bush, this country wouldn't have all the problems they are having. This country is going down the toilet and we don't really care. People let these idiots in office and they don't belong there, So live with it. Life goes on.

This is a power grab by the money masters, with no oversight!!! Congress is protecting us!

congress is protecting us you fool!

Congress is protecting us you fool!

The problem has been the Republicans about almost everything since Gingrich and his contract with America scam started the ball rolling for them. They disconnected from reality and became all about posing. It won lots of elections for them, and almost entirely destroyed our country and our standing in the world. You want to fix it? Get rid of them all.

The perception is that Republicans were trying to make John McCain look like some sort of bailout savior, and now that cheap political stunt backfired, McCain has had to reverse his "No debate until a deal is done" position and scamper to Mississippi for the debate. He and his GOP buddies in Congress are looking like chumps, while President Bush is actually looking "Presidential" for once. The real beneficiary is Sen. Obama, who has played it cool and calm--in contrast to McCain, who appears to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

The Republicans are seeing their own economic craftsmanship fall to pieces. Their's is an economic philosophy that does NOT work. It was this same approach that got us into the Great Depression. Apparently, Americans have very short memories. The Government didn't act in 1929 and the Great Depression was our reward. Here we are again, on the brink of economic failure, and the Republicans are playing party games for pet ideas. When will this stupid country ever learn?

Again, we are the laughing stock of the world. We need leadership and McCain - Obama is not it! Lets not vote either in & make them share the Presidency for one year. McCain can cover foreign policy and Obama can cover domestic policy. This way we'll make the two parties work together and at the same pick the one that performs the a years end.

Sounds more like the Republicans in Congress -- who want a bizarre alternative bailout that Paulson says wont work and will actually deregulate the markets more -- are the ones failing.

The problem is that all our politicians, both democratic and republican, helped create the problem over the last 20 years by accepting campaign money and easing regulations in return for looking the other way until last week. The only way to solve it is re-regulate, eliminate K street and all corporate lobbying, fix campaign finance, enact term limits and bring back graduated income taxes. Money, greed and power are powerful corrupters and the only way to stop it is to prevent in the first place.