Brief (hopefully) thoughts on the "bailout."

(And I swear to gods, if I hear one more person make the whole Wall Street v. Main Street comparison, I will puke up my kidneys right on my shoes.)

So, the bailout has been defeated in the House!! This is very good news, and actually gives me some hope that our government isn't totally corrupt.

Here's my question, though: if the potential ramifications of the whole meshuggah include slashing retirement funds and widespread foreclosures....how about design a bailout that ameliorates those things? I mean, since at this point they're all merely possibilities...wouldn't it be better to make a plan to deal with actual consequences if and when they happen, rather than throwing bazillions of dollars at a system that's already demonstrated its total lack of function?

If people's retirement funds tank just as they're about to retire, maybe make a program to make sure they're not suffering....like, say, Social Security - a funny program they came up with a few years back, that's intended to cover the basic needs of, well, pretty much everyone - but especially retirees. I imagine a little retooling, and an influx of cash, could really help that program take care of retirees who might get hammered by this crisis.

If people are losing their homes at such volume that houses are just sitting vacant ('cause I imagine there aren't buyers lined up to take over those crappy mortgages, if I was gonna guess), why not put together a subsidy package that allows those folks to stay in their homes at reasonable cost? Or maybe some kind of government sponsored re-negotiation of the mortgage that includes some kind of debt forgiveness and recalculates interest and payments to make it affordable? I mean, since the banks and mortgage companies are croaking anyway, isn't having *some* money coming in better than having none at all? And I wonder if something like this would cost $700bn. I'm not a homeowner (thank all the gods), but I have trouble buying that a program on this scale would run up that kind of tab.

So, yeah, yay for Congress being afraid of pissing off the people. And here's hoping they come up with something that will actually FIX THE PROBLEM, and not just pay it off.