Should Congress approve the bailout plan?

I'll feel a lot more comfortable about the stability of my 401k when this gets passed.

....feed the poor.

Remember the Iraq war? Remember Katrina? Bush's bail out plan is a gift for the super wealthy and his cronies - don't trust it.

The bailout should be a buyout, like the Resolution Trust Corp from the early 1990's. The President's plan is ill conceived, placing the burden upon taxpayers rather than on the cmpanies that will hold the mortgages. The President and his experts created this mess, they must take responsibility for their actions.

It's outrageous that mismanagement, greed, and malfeasance should be rewarded. Let the government do what it needs to do to prop up the economy, but throw out the rascals and incompetents who brought this mess upon all of us.

you should have thought trice about buying the house and using an ARM to pay it down in 5 years; that was your doing not the gov't. What about Clinton's cronies at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? They walked away with handsome parachute payments. This whole mess has been soming on for a lot longer that just one president's time in office. So you might as well stand up and take your medicine because we are all in this mess together thanks to those in the beltway that sat on their thumbs all along saying we'll get to this problem another day. Oops; that day is here! So don't delay now. Remember, he who hesitates is lost. And 'not to decide is a decision'. Why don't you all get some gumption and have the parachute CEOs give back 75% of their happy millions to get the wheels greased while you dottle back in D.C.

Let's send all these people who caused this problem out to clean out the national parks. Take their money away and give them some apples to sell on the street corner.Of course as good as they are in business they will all probably starve!

Anyone with a brain could see the %u201Ccreative%u201D loans were a mistake from their conception. Now it%u2019s too late to cry about them. We must bolster the economy by assisting the banks. Yes, they should bear some of the burden down the line, butnot now. As far as helping the American tax payers..., If the banks falter, the economy falters, Wall street loses confidence and the market falters then we are all up a creek!

Warren Buffet is investing $5 billion in Goldman Sachs. An indication he thinks we've hit bottom?

Do the bailout then REGULATE--like in the '60s. Forget about free market, globalization, world trade and start looking at ways to make products that we can sell to the rest of the globe. In the 50's and '60's we were the top of the heap--even Benz copied us by putting "fins" on their Mercedes, just like our cars. The financial sector can still do their thing. It'll just have to be done wisely and prudently.

The FBI is investigating Fannie, Freddie, AIG and Lehman Bros. A lot of their millions will end up in the hands of their defense lawyers. As usual, the lawyers end up getting it all.

Don't whine at me about your ARM - my home has a 15 year fixed loan at 5% and over 70% in equity. Clinton did NOT help create this credit mess. Clinton left office with a huge budget surplus. Bush has spent us into trillions of dollars in debt, given tax breaks to the wealthy who need them least. The republican controlled congress removed the regulations and oversights to banking. Under Bush - the value of the dollar has fallen more than 40% in the last 5 years. Deficit spending, wars without taxes to pay for them, creating money out of thin air further devaluing our dollar - THIS IS BUSH!! If you trust anything this delusional crudball says - have I got a bridge I'd like to talk to you about!

Clinton did sign the first major deregulation bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Phil Graham, now a banking lobbyist. They repealed the Glass-Steagall Act at the request of the banking industry. Those lobbyists spread their money around on both sides of the aisle.

Remember that the sub-prime stuff started last year. How come these high officials/experts did not recognize the seriousness of the problem then? And how can we trust these guys now?

the CEO's of these corporations liquidating their personal wealth that they "earned" by way of bonuses to firm up their corporations? Let's not rush to give Bush's friends more money.

I was a school teacher for thirty-six years. Twenty-five of those years I spent with 8th graders. Over that time I administered hundreds of tests. Never, never did I say the following: "Class, this test is worth most of your grade. Since I trust completely in your high ethics and your competitive spirit, I'll pass out the test and take a break in the teachers' room. I'll come back in forty-five minutes and pick up your tests." Anyone with a lick of sense knows that this approach would be an invitation to disaster. Overall, investment bankers have lower morals and less inclination toward honesty than 8th graders. Why did we leave them unsupervised in a room with all of the money for almost thirty years? FDR created a system that kept financial doings supervised (to everyone's profit, by the by) for almost fifty years. If we bail Wall Street out now, we deserve to have a regulatory system that will restrain these fools and bounders for at least that long. Robert Walton 124 N. Mildred King City, CA 93930 831 385 4592

The Bush Administration would love for the Democratic Majority Congress to once again be blamed for 'overspending' when this is a Conservative created situation. Congress needs to be certain the 4 conditions laid out by Obama and others are met before any money okayed for this criminal debacle.

Well someone had to get all the money that is gone. The government should go after those people who caused the problem. Some people got very wealthy giving out loans to people who could not pay back after their teaser rate ended. It's corporate greed and why should we bail them out except that we have no choice. Send them to prison for a long time.

Just, please, do not allow the CEO's of these banks and companies who are at fault for this mess be rewarded with millions of dollars....they should be fined or jailed !! These CEO's have caused misery for millions of people in the U.S.A. and globally.

Certainly the CEOs who ran their companies into the ground should not be compensated for failed greed. But what of the government "regulators" (SEC, Fed, etc.) who allowed it to happen? What about the Presidents and their Cabinet members who agitated for deregulation (having forgotten or willfully ignored a wide swath of American history)? What of Congress who acceded to deregulation, who caved to the lobbyists? Shouldn't we also demand compensation from others who were also delinquent in their duties, from the keepers of the people's trust who defiled that trust? How about taking their pensions and their health care (and give the latter to insure the children who asked a mere $35 billion)? John K. Cross Oakhurst, CA

Let bad businesses fail

Basic lesson regarding con jobs : if you're told you have to "act now" or else "dire consequences" - you're being conned. Bush #1 : Gulf War... S&L bailout. now Bush #2 : Iraqi War ... shadow banking industry bailout! Just say NO! They've shown, once again, that the free market, left to its own devices, is not "efficient", it is simply greedy. Randy Rhodes : they "privatize the profits and socialize the losses".

Let them go the way that many other businesses have gone when they fail - no one every bailed others out - I agree with the health care worker - send them all to prison, I certainly hope they don't get away with the "mess" they have caused and continue their extravagant life style after ripping so many of us off.

I pay all my bills. I have virtually no debt. It was a long and difficult road to get where I am, financially. Tell me why I should have to pay for some one's need for instant gratification in a house with six bedrooms when there are only two little girls and a mom and a dad who 'pretended to be all that' with the gardener and the maid and the $800 electric bill, while mom goes for spa treatments and dad works so much he can't take time to be with anyone but the immediate household. I am sorry so many people in our society cannot wait and save for the things they want (but do not need). I am not sorry enough to bail them out. No one bailed me out, ever, when I was working my way through college and had to choose between money going for food or for gas to get to school and work. I chose to skip a meal. I made it. And, I am a better person because of it. I made too much money last year to qualify for the tax rebate. I guess our idiotic president expects me to pay for his friends and their debacles an their $500 million bonuses, too! Bull puckey! Make certain there are checks and balances and oversight and NO BONUSES for the slimeballs that got us here. I have an idea, give them a shovel, or a rake or a broom to use when they are not in their jail cells! And finally, don't blame the Democrats for taxing and spending to correct the fiasco the Republicans got us in to. Smeone is going to have to pay for this greed on Wall Stret and the war we were lied in to fighting by the Republican administration. Leave Paulson to take care of this with no oversight? Who n earth authoried that cocky jerk's $500 million bonus for the mess he left at Goldman-Sach's? Wake up and smell the cow dunge; we're kneehigh in it!

This need to be investigated yesterday. it has more impact to the Public than Enron or Watergate.

The FBI is investigating fraud in 26 firms...if the heads of these firms are responsible, the money they have lining their pocket right now will be put back into their companies in order to reduce the amount of money the US Gov will 'waste' on this bailout

mega business and mega government don't work without serious setbacks. just two weeks ago the president said out economy is fine and can fix itself..........don't worry,be happy

Let the stupid people who voted for him in 2004 pay for it.

Big banks stole so much money from us, Congress must take it back. Goldman's bonus was $38 billion, take it back.

Well folks, we got Bush-wacked again. He insisted in the early 2001 abt. that everyone should qualify for a loan, whatever it takes. I SAY DON'T BAIL THEM OUT, THEY ARE USING SCARE TACTICS THAT THERE'S NO OTHER WAY OUT. NOT TRUE. THERE'S ALWAYS A WAY OUT, THROUGH LOGICL AND THE CONSTITUTION. RON PAUL PREDICTED THIS WOULD HAPPEN, BUT NOBODY'D LISTEN.

Goldman's $38 billion bonus is nothing more than stealing money from us. Take that $38 billion back and pay our housing.

I was listening to a talk host station today, and this banker from Bear Stearns called in and wanted to warn the public. He said everyone should call their elected officials and tell them to vote NO on this $700 billion bailout. He said this bill is not 3 pages, that is just the outline, the fine print says that the $700 billion is the just the first installment; it will cost billions and billions of dollars because of these derivatives on derivatives. He also said that Ben Bernanke should be impeached. He broke the law; he does not have powers to bailout an insurance company or investment banks. I believe this is a scam, and I can%u2019t believe this Paulson guy, is asking Congress to give him dictator powers over our money. Congress does not have powers to make kings and dictators. This reminds me of 1938 when Germany gave dictator power to Hitler. Folks we are not just losing our economy but also our U.S. Constitution.

If It Only Takes 700 billion ? Lets Hope That We All Learn From This

The same crooks like Paulsen and Bush deregulated the financial system during which time they ripped off these companies with huge kickbacks and now they want to use taxpayer $$ to support these companies, so that they could rip off again. I say let these companies and i will personally help to cremate these companies.

For the past 5 years, or maybe more, the Wall Sreet made a lot of money from the housing market. If they need help, or the goverment really wants to save the sinking market, the Wall Street people should give back all their income for the past five yearsthat more than average Americans earns.

Why is it when we play by the rules and someone else makes a big mess we get get stuck paying the bill? Corporate greed keeps out sourcing american jobs. It's getting harder to find a job with enough income to afford a home. No wonder there are so many foreclosures. The bailout will help Wall Street workers, but when will Americans get their jobs and incomes back??? You would think it would be nice to have some income in order to make the credit market work the way it is suppose to. People can't keep living on debt! Or maybe they should just outsource the bailout too!

Paulson is crying wolf a little late. Scare tactics begin to sound like the weapons of mass destruction lies. Paulsonm should be fired for allowing the mess in the first place. Greenspan, the father of the Credit Bubble should be appointed as Minister ofFinance in Iran.

Why are we looking to the government to pay for the greed and mistakes of the corporations who got us into this and their executives who made off with the profits on all those mortgage loans, when what that really means is that each of us reach into our pockets to pay for it? Why are we not suing those who made off with all the money on those loans to fix the pile of crap they have now levt us with? Should thieves get off scott free while we all pay the bill? I am not quite sure why nobody is talking about going after those who created this mess and profited from it to come up with $700 billion. Anyone else see the elephant in the room?

economic-stability-thru-massive-panic-induced-government-print-a-bunch-of-money-bailout... you've got to be kidding!?#$?!! so much for McCain's smaller government platform, eh? and the dems are no better - what a crock.

Let 'em fail. Serves 'em right. Why should one class of screwup get preferential treatment. <br> This is like forest fires. For years people thought that we needed to intervene and "save" the forest. <br> It turns out that letting the fires burn was part of the natural process and made for healthier forests over time.

$700 billion is 56% of the individual income taxes ($1.25 trillion) that are to be collected in fiscal year 2008. $700 billion is also $2,300.00 for every man, woman and child in this country. If $600 tax rebates had such a great effect on the economy, how about 4 times that amount? Also, I read about Bernanke warning about inflation. Hasn't fighting inflation been one of the prime responsibilities of the Federal Reserve that he heads? I don't see the Fed lowering interest rates to fight this threat that he is describing. Where is reality in all of this?

I do not understand why the fed just doesn't lower interest rates. lower rates mean people can refinance which means the banks with the bad loans can get paid. still doesn't fix the problem of how we go there, but it seems that lower rates are the most direct way to help PEOPLE. isn't what this is suppsoed to be all about? oh wait- we have to save all those CEO's and their hi wages.... :-(

I do not understand why the fed doesn't just lower interest rates. it doesn't fix the cause but it helpw people refinance which helps these loans go away, doesn't it???

After decades of struggling and billions spent on lobbyists, Wall St finally gets the deregulation it wanted. This is what deregulation looks like, boys! Perhaps if they were selling *actual* products instead of these cooked-up mortgage security product shares, they wouldn't be in this mess. NO BAILOUT We easily survived black Monday last time, besides-they have no wish to go under.

How does it prevent further foreclosers? A plan that renegotiates existing loans, fixes the interest rate and allows owners to live in their homes will work better than giving the money to bank executives. Those who bought properties for investment should be allowed to suffer the loss, for they also profitted from escalating home prices in earlier years.

What happened to the $160 billion to jump start the economy? Get stuck at Mickey Dees? If $160 billion can get stuck on burgers and fries, $700 billion will just buy furniture for a few billionaires - it's only the BEGINNING! The wealthy and super wealthy are lining up for Bush's last dose of undeserved CASH, and when they have it, the Cayman Islands will be a lot richer. This $700 billion is just beer and cigar money for the bankers, it will be pissed away in no time and then they will return to the FUR-LINED FEDERAL FEED BAG next year with more threats about destroying the economy for more bail-out money. 9 years of lies and crap will never be solved with $700 billion alone - China shoots bastards like this and that's why they have the money to loan America so it can lead it's Christian Life Style in Debt. NO MONEY %u2013 All bankers should post a $20,000 cash ticket with the federal treasury to keep their jobs AND WE WANT IT BY COB FRIDAY. More will be due next week.

I'm guessing a Friday statement of cooperation to finalize a plan, and approval by Tuesday.

Dear Sec. Paulson & Chrm. Bernecke (sp?), My friends (and I) need some money too. We didn't speculate wildly, we haven't been greedy, we have been responsible, we pay our bills on time, shouldn't we be part of a big reward package. Oh, oops, I forgot, we already got ours - a $600 "rebate". So, now that we've gotten ours, we should feel grateful/guilty and give those who profited the most over the past few years a few million or so? This isn't even a good plan. It only addresses one very small aspect of the entire problem. Can we please act intelligently this time (remember Iraq) and create a plan with lots of incentives (yes, lower the interest rate), change the loaw that only allows business loans to be re-negotiated and allow homeowners to also re-negotitate their loans, etc. etc.

Your 401K won't be any more stable "after this passes". Don't be naive, read ALL the details, this plan just assists one tiny corner of an immense problem. It will not stabilize the financial markets any more than the recent tax rebate to consumers revitalized the economy. That effect lasted about 2 weeks! This one may last a couple of months, just long enough for the public to gratefully elect another Republican, John McCain and allow the status quo to remain in power. REALIZE WHEN YOU'RE BEING PLAYED! Last election it was security alerts that made many people nervous and they voted based on that feeling of panic, not on issues. LET THE TWO CANDIDATES RUN ON THE ISSUES, NOT MANUFACTURED SUDDEN EMERGENCIES & PANICS!

This is from a diffferent site, I wanted to share. Letter to my senators and representative I am writing you to voice my strong opposition to the $700 billion bailout proposed by the Bush administration. The beneficiaries of this plan are multiple, yet I am not among them. Nevertheless, it is my pocket that is being picked to pay for this. Americans who bought more house than they could afford are now at risk of losing their houses. That is not my problem. While I was living in a house that was well within my means without the need to take out a subprime or liar loan, they were not sharing their home appreciation with me. Other Americans used their houses as an ATM and undertook refinancing after refinancing to take out their equity. That is not my problem. While I was spending the last 5 years building equity in my house, they were not inviting me on vacation with them. Investment bankers who in past years have made bonuses in the $2-$3 million range are in danger of losing their jobs. That is not my problem. While I was bringing home much more modest (or no) bonuses, they were not sharing their bounty with me. Investors in FNM, FRE, AIG, LEH, ML, MS and GS who reaped huge profits in recent years are now at risk of losing their investments. That is not my problem. When I was investing my money in less profitable but less risky investments, they were not sharing their capital gains with me. I keep hearing that without this bill, there could be a deep recession or even another Great Depression. Quite frankly, that sounds like scare tactics to me. But even if it were true, then too bad. That's how capitalism is supposed to work. Perhaps the next batch of homebuyers, investment bankers and stock investors will be more careful. All of these folks enjoyed their private gains for a long time. Now this bill is attempting to socialize their losses. I cannot find words strong enough to match my revulsion to this bill. As Rep. Bunning recently said, this bill is socialist and un-American. If you make this my problem by spending $700 billion of my and my fellow taxpayers' money to bail out those who made bad (almost criminally so) decisions, I will further make it my problem to do everything in my power to get you out of office. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I trust you will do the right thing.

How like Bush to say you HAVE TO PASS IT or the world as we know it will end. Sounds much like his justification for Iraq invasion. Maybe it would help if he took some responsibility...

The statement was made that the "taxpayer hasn't done anything wrong." Well, didn't the taxpayers vote for deregulation candidates? We get what we vote for - congratulations.

Why should the people bail out these financial institutions, since they got where they are today because of greed. If these were small unimportant companies, they would just go out of business with no one caring....This whole deal, the financial bailout,coupled with the forclosure bail out is nothing about greed, That the hard working taxpayers will have to pay for. Here's a question for you...If my home goes into foreclosure 10 years from now, will the goernment help me out ????? I don't think so.

A corporation's only legal or ethical responsibility is to create profit for its share- holders. Period. That's fine and points out the obvious responsibility of government - to protect us from them. The republican party and the deregulators believe Corporations should be protected from us. How will you vote this time?

why should I a hardworking person NOT willing to take too much risk end up paying for those who blindly take risk to satisfy their own greed (those are wall street firms executive to local home owners)

What the hell is wrong with our political leaders and our citizens? I think we have some really smart people out there don't get me wrong, but a real depression is a total and complete possibility people. We all know mistakes were made across the board, so let's stop pointing fingers like kindergartners and fix the problem now. I know most of you don't want your precious tax dollars spent, but where were you and your outraged phone calls when we've been ponying up billions of dollars to other reckless spending bills. Um the Iraq war to name one, or have we forgotten about that already. Don't worry you'll forget about this to when we save the financial system as we know it. I just watched today as some of our great political leaders voted for billions of dollars to the auto industry using tax payer money, so where's the outrage in that? Oh wait it wasn't called a bailout. This 700 billion dollar rescue package was sold all wrong from the beginning. You could sell a ketchup popsicle in a 100 degree weather to a nation that wears all white gloves if you just communicated it right. As soon as you mention bailouts, fat cats, wall street getting richer, and all the quick talking points of a villain in a hollywood movie, then of course the average joe won't be for it. They don't understand the guts of the problem and neither does Congress. This isn't the government trying to scare you this is the real truth so wake up. Before you start bitchin educate yourself a little bit and look at the whole picture not just the talking points. You might have to read a little bit, and you might run into words like credit default swaps, but before you know it you might grasp the severity of the situation. I realize the plan isn't perfect, but it's a plan that could really work and benefit a lot of people. If you think it doesn't affect you it will, and I'd bet my whole life on it. The government will be buying real assets with real homes behind them people, this is not a blank check. If you had a chance to buy a beach house in Hawaii for pennies on the dollar, but you wouldn't have a chance to use it in five years, would you still do it? I know I would, you just have to look past tomorrow and have a realistic outlook on life that we will pull out of this. You might just make a lot of money on it as well. I have a feeling this bill is not going to pass for the second time, and when it doesn't I believe you're all going to have a rude awakening of which you can't possibly imagine. I realize I'm not the smartest person in the world, and my grammar is probably atrocious, but I just couldn't take it anymore. A battered down citizen

Post your comments.