Failure of Bailout Bill Shows Lack of Bipartisanship in Congress to Benefit the American People

The failure of the House of Representatives to pass a 770 billion dollar "bailout bill", properly known as the Emergency Stabilization Bill of 2008, that would rescue the frozen credit industry of the United States is proof of the lack of bipartisanship in Congress and an unwillingness by both political parties to concede in order to save the nation's economy.

Several news pundits have characterized the bill as a lifeline for "fat cat" Wall Street speculators who brought this financial tragedy on themselves. However, other financial experts - Suze Orman among them - said that the bill outlines a plan for investment in the American economy. They say that the bill, which allows the U.S. government to buy up mortgages and other troubled assets at a deep discount using taxpayer dollars, would restore confidence in the credit industry.

Whether Orman is correct and the U.S. would be making a shrewd investment, or whether skeptics are correct that taxpayers would be saving companies who deserve to drown, the outcome is the same. If the markets are shored up, we can all breathe a sigh a relief. If not, we are all headed for dangerous waters.

It is time to drop the blaming, finger pointing, and punitive retaliatory strikes that serve to cut off our nation's nose to spite its face. All American citizens are in this mess together, and all of us will suffer if Congress is unable to come together and work a way out of the situation as a team.

The bill only missed passage by 12 votes, with 228 Congressman voting to pass, and 205 voting against passage. These figures represented a total of 140 Democrats for the vote and 95 against it, while on the Republican side there were 133 voters opposed to the bill and 65 in favor. Since President George W. Bush had urged passage of the bill, as well as presidential candidate John McCain, poor support by the Republican Party was disappointing.

Immediate reaction to the news that the bailout bill failed to pass through the House resulted in the most precipitous one day drop in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, by 777 points. That news was supplemented by word of several European banks failing. Suze Orman predicts that the stock market is not likely to make a full recovery until the year 2015.

Those opposed to the "bailout bill" feel that the U.S. government should not be involved in regulating industries and meddling in corporate affairs. However, it seems that a lack of oversight and regulation is largely what led to these businesses overextending themselves to the point of going under in the first place. While American citizens should not be expected to save irresponsible CEO's and their cohorts, we are going to suffer from their negligence if we don't.

One of the major criticisms of the bill by many is that it gives Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson too much authority to decide where and how to invest the 770 Billion dollars without sufficient oversight. Another is that restrictions on "golden parachute" severance packages for executive officers of the failed companies were not tight enough. A third was that the bill is nothing more than a bandaid - a stopgap to curb the immediate crisis - but not sufficient to solve the underlying problems of the U.S. economy in the long run.

While these criticisms hold merit, the danger of letting corporations continue business as usual is, I believe, a far greater danger. Let's hope lawmakers can come together this week to refine the bailout bill in order to overcome these criticisms and do the right thing by all Americans. In the end, we have got to help ourselves however we can. If we can't count on ourselves to solve the problem, then who else is there?