am I the only one who doesnt know whether to support or oppose the bailout??

[LSK]

I have no clue right now.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. No, you're not the only one.

I'm thoroughly confused.

[Stellabella]

2. I don't know either.

Some people I respect, like Suze Orman, are for it, but then Dennis Kucinich, who is a much better person, is against it.

[LSK]

6. yeah I know, its a total mixed bag on who supports what

I see arguments about spending $700B, its another rushed IWR type vote, its Shock Doctrine, but then I read stories like the State of Massachusetts not able to get a loan and I know that most of the $700B will be recovered.

So I don't know.

[redqueen]

3. Nope... same here.

Is there text of the bill online?

We obviously can't trust the lawmakers to ensure there aren't any seriously bad ideas in there. Like that 'can't prosecute for unconstitutional activities' thing.

[Greybnk48]

me too.

[meegbear]

4. I'm torn and lost about this ...

I got a feeling no matter what happens, I ain't gonna like it.

[Marrah_G]

5. I would suggest most people are confused

Even those who have picked a side.

It is a very complicated problem.

[Virginia Dare]

10. It's a damned if you do damned if you don't situation..

there's no good side to it.

[Marrah_G]

11. Bingo

[Coventina]

7. no, and I question the certainty of most people, including "experts" n/t

[Virginia Dare]

8. I don't like the idea of it one bit..

but I realize the necessity of it. It's not a fix-it, it's just a bandaid to hold things together, but probably the best course of action at this point. Here is the way I see it, and I am by no means an economist:

1) It's not a Wall Street "bailout", it's meant to be a rescue of the credit markets, which have shut down

2) We face essentially two terrible choices: A) Flood the market with cash and invite rampant inflation or B) Do nothing, let the market correct itself and face the risk of deflation, which is the situation in part which brought on the Great Depression.

Basically the way I see it, we have a choice between being hung or shot, either way, we're toast.

[hedgehog]

9. Which bailout? There seem to be several different versions floating around.

I'm willing to trust Obama on this to push for the best deal now and make any needed corrections January 23.

[emilyg]

12. Same here.

[asjr]

13. They keep changing the scenario. I do

not know what to believe other than we are getting screwed.

[Jakes Progress]

14. I felt that way.

But I think I have decided that I am unsure because it is presented as an either/or. It isn't that way at all. I think we need to do something, actually several things. But I don't see this bill as a good one. It sort of feels like we're in a car dealership or high pressure electronics shop. Or a time share sales pitch. Actually what if feels most like is the political and media blitz we go about WMD. We know how that worked out.

[zippy890]

15. I don't know what to think. 'Credit crunch" they keep sayin

I say wha? Bank of America just sent me an e-mail they raised my credit card limit to $24,000.

I'm not understanding this, plus the whole rush rush rush thing.

:crazy:

[LSK]

16. did you see this story?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7256498

[dflprincess]

18. Rep. Keith Ellison was on the local progressive station yesterday

explaining why he voted for it. The credit crunch includes companies and some local colleges who use short term loans to make payroll (I gather this is a fairly common practice). Already there are people who will be missing paychecks because their employers can't get these loans. And these aren't necessarily people in the investment field, I gather most are not.

I don't know what to think either about the bailout either. I know I can't afford to miss a paycheck (and I don't know that I will) but it just irks me that, as always, the worker bees are getting hurt and the drones are going to keep getting their big, fat checks
I guess I'm inclined to support it because of who is being hurt - though I'm not so much supporting it as giving in to the blackmail.

[xchrom]

17. here's what i figured out -- get corporate lobbyists out of dc. nt

[nosillies]

19. You're not alone

And I think those who feel it's a cut and dried, black and white issue are more confused than those of who admit we're confused.

[Vilis Veritas]

20. I support nothing that comes out of Paulson's or

B.S. BrokenBanky's mouth.

This is a rip off clear and simple. There is not enough funny money in the world to stop the wreck...Transfer of wealth before the fall, IMO.

saddlesore

[MadinMo]

33. BrokenBanky --- LOL!!!

:rofl:

I am with you guys, as Delmar says in Oh Brother Where Art Thou.

I don't have a clue either. I resent the big push to do a deal --- a lot like how you feel in the little room at the car lot when they try to come up with terms you can live with. I DO NOT want any of the dirty dealing execs to benefit one iota from any bailout/rescue. The way I see it, a company that fails due to poor management should just plain fail.

But I think I understand about the credit crisis.

So damned if you do and damned if you don't. Hung or Shot. Rock and a hard place.

There is a rumor at my office today that DHL went under today --- has anyone heard anything about that?

[Spike89]

21. Not alone!

Feels to me like a house on fire and we've been given the choice of hosing it down with a liquid that might be kerosene or just letting it burn in the hopes it won't burn down to the foundation.

[guitar man]

22. you're not alone

I'd feel a lot better if it were after 1-20-09 and we were dealing with President Obama and a soundly Democratic congress with this deal. With Bu$h pushing it, I just feel really uncomfortable about it.

[lib2DaBone]

23. How are they going to buy failing loans and make money?

OK.. here's another example. A Farmer has 4 apples. 2 of the apples go bad and he has to throw them away. How many apples does the Farmer have? If the Farmer paid $1 for the Apples.. how much money does he have left?

[damntexdem]

24. Not only are you not the only one wondering about the bailout ...

many are wondering about which bailout. I hope we will have agreement someday, if only the Dems can get it together to do their own plan that bails out those losing their homes and their jobs.

[LSK]

29. I read Friday that Repukes will not support helping homeowners

[Stinky The Clown]

25. There is a whole ARMY of us undecideds.

You are not alone.

[Batgirl]

26. I can't pretend I know what's right, can only try to form rough ideas

based largely on what I'm hearing. It goes without saying that I don't trust anything said by Bush or his minions.

I tend to take opinions more seriously when they are offered by people who seem able to weigh the pros and cons of differing scenarios without demonizing opposition. I've been reading Krugman's blog daily (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/) and like how his opinions are offered in a level-headed manner without any claims of having a special handle on The Truth™. At this point I tend to believe some sort of intervention is going to be needed, but don't have a good grasp of what that should look like, or when it should take place.

I do know I was initially adamant about "no bailout" and would still oppose any plan that would reward or enrich the so-called masters of the universe who ran this ship aground. I would be supportive of a plan that helped working people, homeowners, the poor, the unemployed. (Yeah, I'm aware in reading over that list that it sounds like something a little kid would ask of Santa.)

I'm not an investor, except for my husband's 401K, which is laughably small and which we've never really seriously counted on. So I can hardly be accused of only wanting to protect my precious mountains of wealth, when I say that I don't want the entire system to collapse and then try to rebuild everything up from scratch.

[EFerrari]

27. How can we support it when the bill isn't even finished yet?

They have to do something about the credit problem, that's about as far as I get. But giving this crook at Treasury all that power and money PLUS more tax cuts for Bush's base, that just stinks to me.

[KitchenWitch]

28. Nope I am pretty confused about it too.

[The Wielding Truth]

30. You're not the only one. We don't have enough knowledge to

know if we are being saved or snookered. It smells bad but even the boy who cried wolf was telling the truth in the end. We must keep studying everything we can get.

It seems that if credit leaders get scared because they see large businesses fail or banks fail because of the mortgage defaults they hold onto their cash on hand and don't lend it out. That causes other businesses who depend on the quick loan, to get through, to order supplies and pay wages until they collect from their customers are left hanging.The money has to be available or most of the economy would slow and maybe bind up so bad that we would not be able to buy or sell most anything unless it's cash and that will not be out there either because the loans wouldn't be there to change into cash.


Then we have a republican leadership's idea of free market that has taken, this idea of leading credit, and lent credit to anyone or any business, and wagered that credit to anything that seemed like it might make them a profit. They were not made to use good judgment and they lost.

There are many ways to get the money out there again and it should have been dealt with before now.
If we find the best way it should be dealt with now. However neither party wants to make a colossal mistake and handle this poorly, so we have to trust that the future of our nation will be held higher than the lawlessness of this "free" market. So can we trust these fearful leaders to be smart enough to make the right decisions?

McCain has caused more panic and fear and chaos than any leader should and Obama has been the steady hand, who is been meeting with those who should know the answers and knocking heads to find the best way to help both us and the economy.

If we stay with Obama and pressure all our representative to remember,that we are their future and we need the help,and we need to know that the money will reach more than the pockets of those who were criminally reckless,greedy and/or stupid.

I feel that(If I understand this correctly. Let me know if I'm not on the right planet.) we will see an intelligent consensus which we should support.

AN explanation is still what we - the American People - need to help us get behind this issue.

[natrat]

31. i am confused but i do know that 95% of those involved are dishonest thieves

[hamsterjill]

32. Me either!

The whole thing thoroughly confuses me, and I'm so mad over those CEO payouts, etc., that I find it hard to concentrate on details beyond that.

One thing that I do know for sure, however, is that whatever happens, we're all getting screwed.