DEAL or NO DEAL?

Deal or No Deal?     What happened in Wash DC?   9.27.08      Jazzman3

Deal or no deal?   So did the Democratic (party) controlled Congress actually have a deal by Thursday 9.26.08 in Washington?   Well it depends on what “agreement in principle” means, or what your definition of “close to a deal” is.   With news coming out of Washington, the RNC, the DNC, the MSM, the Obama campaign, the McCain campaign and on the blogsphere plus alternative media, it is pretty confusing as to what actually happened.  [See Stephen F. Hayes article Depends on the Meaning of Close: Blaming McCain for the bailout fallout at  www.weeklystandard.com 9.25.2008] The $700 Billion bailout, as proposed by the Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and being advocated by the Democratic leadership in Congress, is very unpopular with the US voters.   According to recent Rasmussen Reports www.rasmussenreports.com  only 30% of the American public thinks that the US government should fund the Wall Street leaning bailout.   So if the majority Democrats can pass a massive bailout bill (without Republican support), why are they waiting for the minority Republicans?     Why was the MSM press reluctant to report the massive amount of phone calls from the American people that are coming into Congressional offices with real concerns?   Each and every member of the House faces re-election in early November, so this bailout vote will be very visible and will have political, as well as financial implications.

Now we inject Presidential politics into the mix, and, as is always the case, political considerations supercede all other considerations.    While New York City may be the (weakened) financial capital of the United States, Washington DC is still the political capital of the Nation.   And in Washington, it is all about politics all of the time.   So in order for the Dems to gather political cover for a massive and unpopular $700 bailout, they are desperate for enough Republican votes to pass the massive bailout to have political cover before they face the voters back in their home districts.   But the Dems have some serious political problems, including never really including the Republican members of the House in the preliminary work on the bill, and the need for Democrats to deny any credit (and to lay blame for any fallout) to GOP nominee John McCain.     It is very hard to claim the bipartisan credit that Democrat leadership of Congress yearns for, if the Republicans don’t support the massive bailout in its present form.  

So was there a deal?    You decide, but until there is an actual vote in Congress and the President signs the bill, there is no signed deal.    In the meantime, the bailout deal and the election cards on the table are being managed by political magicians for their own purposes.   

© 2008  Four Corners Media, Durango, CO     www.jasperwelch.org