An audience of two

Sunday October 05, 2008

The price of democracy
There are some things that you can't put a price on. Apparently, integrity and principle are not among them.

As any fule kno, last Monday Congress voted against a $700 billion measure intended to resolve the global credit crisis. The bill was backed by the President, the secretary of the treasury and leaders from both political parties. Several politicians who were initially opposed to the first draft of the bill had demanded and obtained concessions including formal oversight, assurances that the bankers who caused the problem wouldn't be able to profit, and assurances that the taxpayer would get the opportunity to recover our investment. But that wasn't sufficient to get the bill through.

On Friday the measure passed, thanks in no small part to John McCain who - as he made abundantly clear to ayone whou would listen - had suspended his election campaign in order to help negotiations. By Friday the bitter pill was "sweetened" to make it more palatable to the right with around $150 billion of tax cuts and credits that won't be repaid. These were proposed tax cuts that Congress had blocked because they weren't funded in accordance with their budget rules; it meant spending money that wasn't balanced by tax increases or spending cuts.

The revised bill got 58 more Yea votes on Friday than it did on Monday. So that's over $2.5 billion per vote. $150 billion also works out at around $2,000 per family. Thanks so much for your help, John. And thanks to everyone who voted against the bill on Monday.

American Democracy: the best that money can buy.

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