Politicians Cannot be Trusted

Wow, it is amazing how when the chips are down politicians can come together to do what is best for this country. After working tirelessly over the weekend to come up with a revised plan to bail out the credit markets, the plan was rejected without any alternatives being offered up in its place. Granted, neither side was very keen on the idea, but I was under the impression that both sides were in agreement as to how important passage of the bill was. If anything, passing the bill would’ve sent a message to the markets that something was being done to quell the fears of investors.

The result of the failure was felt pretty quickly, the DOW dropped 600 points. I have the sneaking suspicion that the results might not have been as bad if an agreement had not been reached over the weekend and negotiations continued into Monday. Instead, Wall Street reacted to Congress wasting time and money hammering out a deal that they felt could pass muster in Congress and easily get approved only to have it defeated with little explanation beyond the misgivings that had been made public during negotiations. I will say again, this was done with no viable alternative being offered. Although both sides of the aisle had members balk, I would place blame for this debacle on House Republicans since the leadership had agreed to it after negotiations.

It kind of pains me to blame Republicans since I consider myself one in principle, but the failure clearly shows a breakdown in the GOP’s leadership. However, Democrats cannot be blameless because they should have done their best to make it foolproof on their side of the aisle in anticipation of the House GOP being untrustworthy. On that note, it is apparent that they were not that serious about it either. What is the point of having a majority if you can’t instill the discipline to flex the voting power that comes with it. At the worst, passage of the bill would have created a perception that Congress was in agreement that the government needed to get involved to help bring the markets around and that they had come up with a plan to help bring it about. That perception might have prevented the DOW from shedding about 600 points and thus install a little more confidence back into the market. What has been created is the perception that Congress only pays lip service to the needs of Americans. Just goes to show you, you can’t trust politicians.