[We] need a disaster to rationalize these very unpopular policies so the real disaster has yet to come.The real disaster is the debt that is going to explode on the American taxpayers.

- Naomi Klein

A lot of folks are speculating that this $700-billion bailout is absolutely necessary for our economy. Perhaps it is, but once again we see President Bush using the “Shock Doctrine” to pass legislation immediately without any meaningful debate or thought regarding the affect of the bailout. The republicans want a $700-billion bailout and “unfettered powers to the Treasury secretary,” but the democrats want to limit executive compensation and limit foreclosures. Furthermore, the democrats are seeking more regulation and transparency.

As a democrat, Barack Obama is seeking some type of remedy to save homeowners. However, the other side of the argument says there is no time. The Bush Administration has consistently used scare tactics to push through big legislation.

Personally, I believe we shouldn’t be bailing out, because it rewards the wrongdoers. The auto industry is a good example. Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., and Chrysler LLC are requesting a bailout or loan if you prefer a softer term. However, these companies have been slow to provide fuel efficient and cleaner burning cars. As a result, we penalize new startup companies and the earlier adopters that are attempting to offer smaller cars and electric vehicles. Instead, the Bush Administration rewards the auto industry and their lobby, which have been instrumental at preventing attempts to pass regulation that improves fuel economy and tailpipe emissions. As a result, why should be trust Detroit’s Big Three? Furthermore, why should we reward their incompetent and out of touch behavior.

Folks criticize Barack Obama for a lack of experience and whether he can handle a crisis. However, when I hear John McCain and Sarah Palin answer questions from the media they sound clueless and incoherent. Can we trust a narrow thinking McCain-Palin ticket to handle the surmounting world catastrophes and issues that require progressive and worldly wise decision-making skills to solve? John McCain has a history of being a deregulator and his poor judgment resulted in the Keating Five scandal. From the New York Times, United States:

That’s strange since the indisputable historical antecedent for our current crisis is the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal of the go-go 1980s. When Charles Keating’s bank went belly up because of risky, unregulated investments, it wiped out its depositors’ savings and cost taxpayers more than $3 billion. More than 1,000 other S.&L. institutions capsized nationwide.

It was ugly for the McCains. He had received more than $100,000 in Keating campaign contributions, and both McCains had repeatedly hopped on Keating’s corporate jet. Cindy McCain and her beer-magnate father had invested nearly $360,000 in a Keating shopping center a year before her husband joined four senators in inappropriate meetings with regulators charged with S.&L. oversight.

After Congressional hearings, McCain was reprimanded for “poor judgment.” He had committed no crime and had not intervened to protect Keating from ruin. Yet he, like many deregulators in his party, was guilty of bankrupt policy-making before disaster struck. He was among the sponsors of a House resolution calling for the delay of regulations intended to deter risky investments just like those that brought down Lincoln and its ilk.

The republicans and President Bush are pressuring the democrats to immediately provide a $700-billion bailout for corporations, but the republicans and President Bush can’t provide Americans with a national healthcare system. From Glenn Greenwald:

Can anyone point to any discussion of what the implications are for having the Federal Government seize control of the largest and most powerful insurance company in the country, as well as virtually the entire mortgage industry and other key swaths of financial services? Haven’t we heard all these years that national health care was an extremely risky and dangerous undertaking because of what happens when the Federal Government gets too involved in an industry? What happened in the last month dwarfs all of that by many magnitudes.

More at The Huffington Post’s Wall St Crisis : Big News Page.