Bailout Bill Passes

So it passed with 263 votes. Republicans were still slightly opposed but they delivered 91 votes this time. It's not a great day for the country, but I've come around to the fact that this was a necessary vote. Hell, even Noriel Roubini is saying that today. Joe Stiglitz too.

We have great economic risks right now. The September job losses were immense and credit markets are very tight. California needs a $7 billion dollar loan to pay its bills (which is what happens when you run a state on the credit card - what an idiot Schwarzenegger and his Yacht Party buddies are).

Paulson and his pals really screwed the pooch on this, by ignoring the problem until it was too late and then letting Lehman Brothers fail at precisely the wrong time. I don't think the prospects for their ability to manage us out of the mess are very good. Confidence needed to be restored in the short term and hopefully that's what this does, but this is not a panacea. It's why I argued for a solution that delivered a short-term confidence boost and nothing more (Ari Melber quotes me in this story about the netroots backlash to the bailout; thanks Ari!). The Dow is apparently plummeting since the vote, so I'm not sure that even that will be successful.

So, now what? Andy Stern has some idea.

Neither you, nor I, nor many of those who voted for it believe that this bill is going to solve the pressing issues American families are facing: rising unemployment, stagnant wages, skyrocketing health care costs, a tax system that favors the wealthy over the workers. The enormous challenges facing American families are real and they aren't going away. But when your ship is taking on water and starting to sink, a bucket looks pretty good.

Another good idea? Start building a better boat.

If there's one lesson we can take away from the fight over the Wall Street bailout it is this: things aren't going to change unless we fundamentally change the way we do business in Washington.

At SEIU, we've laid out a blueprint to get there. Along with our brothers and sisters in Change to Win, we proposed that for half of the amount approved to bail out Wall Street, we can make a real investment in Main Street by funding programs that will improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans. Relief for struggling homeowners; quality, affordable health care for all; improved infrastructure; making sure that workers have real freedom to choose a voice at work --- these are basic steps we can take now that will have a far more powerful impact on our long-term economic health than any cash bailout for Wall Street.

You can load cash on banks and bail out everyone on Wall Street, but if you don't fundamentally change the economy it's all meaningless. Reindustrialize America, give millions of people jobs in infrastructure and green energy, buy up the homes through a new HOLC or bankruptcy restructuring, and restore the middle class. There's only one way out.