As I said yesterday, the $700 billion bailout is a failure and waste of public money. All democrats have done is complain, and as usual, offered no solutions of their own except to find a way to blame republicans. John McCain has stepped up with other conservatives to offer an alternate resolution that won’t waste as much tax dollars as the bailout plan.
“U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., may be throwing a monkey wrench into efforts to pass a $700 billion bank bailout, instead favoring alternative plans that looks to free up capital and credit markets via tax and regulatory relief while allowing financial institutions to temporarily skip dividend payments to shareholders.
Republican and Democratic officials in Washington said McCain was offering alternatives Thursday to the $700 billion plan backed by the Bush administration, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
That plan has the federal government acquiring bad mortgage assets from struggling banks with the goal of keeping them afloat and allowing more credit to flow.
McCain appears to be siding with conservatives and House Republicans who question the bailout and its costs to taxpayers as well as government rescuing private lenders and perhaps taking ownership stakes in rescued banks.
The alternative plan allocates less public money and relies more on tax breaks, lifting regulatory barriers and using less bailout-oriented mechanisms to free up capital and credit. It also seeks to create a privately funded mechanism to ensure mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.”
I’m not sure yet what will happen with the debate tonight, but we have seen who the real leader in tough times is, and the polls are already showing it. While McCain is trying to help solve the problem, Obama is worried about what will happen to his debate. I guess he doesn’t want to lose all those hours practicing in front of a teleprompter.