Congress must be careful and fair on $1.5T bailout

Will the bailout boys accept a fair deal?

WASHINGTON -- As Bush's bunch bullies Congress to act swiftly on their proposed $700B+ bailout of big financial firms that made bad decisions, Congress should be careful and ensure any package also includes real relief for average Americans being hurt by this bad economy. Prior to the plan announced late last week, the Bush/Cheney administration had already spent over $800B of our money on bailouts of big corporations, bringing the total price tag to over $1.5 trillion. That is a huge amount of money that could provide healthcare, foreclosure relief and other needs for working people.

This could be a tough vote for many members of Congress just before the election. I predict the package will pass, but will it include enough real economic help for taxpayers, and measures to help prevent a financial meltdown from happening again, not just big bailout bucks for Wall Street fat cats?

No matter what, Bush's action shatters the myths that less regulation is wise or Republicans are champions of the free market. This may need to be done to avoid an economic depression, but there's nothing free about spending $1.5T on a bailout of reckless financial companies.