The Plan and The Solution
Josh Marshall gets it. So does Digby:
The Republican/McCain plan is to get the Democrats to bail out the GOP’s Wall Street friends and then run against them for doing it.
The solution is, unfortunately, to play chicken: cut Bush and the GOP out of the process and send Bush a bill will protections for homeowners, punitive measures for CEOs, caps on pay, and all the other stuff. Bush will either have to sign it, or admit there’s no crisis. As Greenwald points out,
A new CNN poll finds “that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis.” Democrats have been nothing resembling an “opposition party” in any meaningful sense, but it is still the case that the GOP has run the country for the last eight years. The GOP has had its way on virtually everything. Even the lowest-information voter realizes that — that is, after all, why Democrats are (justifiably) perceived as being so “weak” — and it will therefore be very difficult to convince voters that any of the grave crises facing the country are not the “fault” of Republicans.”
There is no need to dive head-first into a $700,000,000,000.00 giveaway. Congress and the Senate must proceed cautiously and carefully so as to avoid throwing good money after bad. Ignore Paulson’s Daddy-knows-best act and do the responsible thing.
