What I Want to See in the Bailout Law

I still don't think Congress should bail out Wall Street. The current crisis is the result of decades of deregulation by the Republican party. As a matter of fact during John McCain's nearly 30 years in Congress (US House, 1982-86, US Senate, 1986-present) he has NEVER advocated for regulation of the finance and banking industry or of Wall Street. McCain wouldn't because he was one of the key players of the last great banking scandal, The Keating Five Scandal of the 1980's, which almost cost McCain his political career. The US government conducted a $500B savings & loan bailout after 747 companies went under. Amazingly enough, McCain still hasn't learned his lessons from that time period, (e.g., corporations rarely police themselves when left alone and do need government oversight to make sure they don't abuse each other and the consumer) and decided to insert himself into the bi-partisan bailout negotiations last week. Supposedly McCain wanted to help save the country by brokering the bailout agreement with the House, which failed to pass said agreement on Monday. This week the NY Times created a detailed graphic showing by state and party which Representatives voted "Yea" or "Nay" on Monday's bailout bill.

That said, I don't support the 2008 bailout, but I would support it IF there are provisions included which bailout the millions of US families whose homes have been foreclosed, forbid golden parachutes for executives of these failing companies, if there is a scheduled repayment plan to the US government by these companies, and finally a dividend coming BACK to the taxpayers who are footing this proposed bill once the bailout out companies become profitable again. At least Sen. Obama proposed this week that the FDIC increase deposit insurance from $100K to $250K. So there are some moves in the right direction, but we shall see what happens as the Senate votes on its version of the bailout tonight.