No Title Seems Applicable

The House passed the Bailout Bill today. Our Congressman here in the 9^th district had the chance to change his vote. He didn’t. On Monday I was disappointed with him. On Friday I am disgusted. I also feel lonely. Almost everyone in the local liberal blogosphere was opposed to this bill. We’ve all seen a million articles from some of the finest economists in the world explain why this Bailout will not work. We all know our Congressman ignored the overwhelming opinion of his constituency and voted for the bill twice. I don’t believe any of my fellow bloggers feel Cohen explained why he voted for the bill amply or his understanding of what the fundamental problem is. This is the most important vote Cohen has made in his legislative career so far. I say “so far” because the inadequacy of this bill lays the groundwork for more financial crises and those coming votes are probably going to be just as important. But don’t believe me, read what someone who really understands this financial situation has to say.

“Clearly what is going on here has nothing to do with kick starting the credit markets or stabilising the equity markets or restoring depositor confidence in banks. (Treasury official: “No provision in the legislation that mandates re-lending.”) What is going on here is a blatant attempt to provide government funds to a select cadre of firms (not all banks) which are chosen to be the survivors feasting off the carcasses of their less fortunate and less well-connected brethren as the downturn intensifies in the years to come.

The crash in equities will still happen. The debt deflation of the economy leading to mass commercial and consumer credit defaults will still happen. The collapse of many national, regional and local financial institutions will still happen. The bankruptcy of many municipalities and shortfalls in state budgets will still happen.

This bill is about engineering survivor bias to friends of the Bush administration so that they profit disproportionately from the collapse of these markets using the funds provided by the taxpayer via the unreviewable and unconditional authority of the Secretary of the Treasury. “

So when will the accountability moment happen for our Congressman? Will he fully explain why he voted for a bill he said was flawed? What will happen when this bill doesn’t fix the crisis and government has to do another several hundred billion dollar bailout? Is that when we call bullshit on his vote? Maybe or maybe not.