Someone is Pulling My Arm to the Left

So I might get to live through Great Depression II. Kind of scary. I seriously wake up every morning and check to see if it has happened yet. I guess this is what people experienced early on in the Cold War with the threat of nuclear attack. Not that a severe financial catastrophe would kill that many people, though I am sure it would kill some people. We don’t have any major investments that I am worried about, but I do worry about being evicted because our landlord can’t make the mortgage, the cost of food and gas, and the other consequences that could effect daily life. Bottom line times are kind of scary, throw in that it is a presidential election year and it makes it all the more interesting.

I have always thought of myself to be fairly conservative and “republican” when it comes to fiscal policy and liberal and “democrat” when it comes to social policy. I think that the two have recently merged for me in a strange way and swung me abruptly to the left. The reason is the $700 billion bailout proposed by President Bush, which is supported by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

I know that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are brilliant men who know what they are doing and do their jobs well.  This being said, I do believe that this bailout fits well with their (and President Bush’s) interests and shows what they think is important.  They think that preserving the “American Dream” way of life is so important that they should throw $700 billion dollars at it. I think this is wrong. I can only begin to imagine what the consequences would be if this bailout didn’t happen, but maybe people should suffer these consequences. We got ourselves into this mess. What changed the my whole viewpoint was a quote from an interview with Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democrat from Vermont. He says,

“For years now, they’ve (Republicans) told us what we can’t afford—that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can’t be done. We don’t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don’t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can’t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street.”

This statement makes it clear to me. The current administration cares more about people’s financial well being rather than their physical well being or the financial well being to the extremely poor demographic. It is becoming clearer to me how I think I will be voting in November. This stuff has got to change.

Check out this interview on CNN with Sen. Chris Dodd about the repercussions of the bailout.