Does'nt much matter now does it?

Every American should read the headline on msnbc.com about how China is reveling in our demise. This didn't happen overnight and it won't be fixed overnight. America has got to slow down and think. Moving at the speed of light is costing us dearly because we have no time to really get involved in the issues and fully utilize our collective wisdom. We have got to quit being so reactionary as a nation.

YES!

No. If these big companies can't manage their resources let them fail.

NO!!

I would indict Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for getting us into this mess.

NO NO NO!!!!!!! LET EM FAIL!!! Everyone saying by not passing the bill doesn't know their history about the great depression should have seen this coming a long time ago. Greed and corruption were rampant in the 20's and God bless the greatest American president FDR for getting the USA going again. Bush, Clinton, McCain, and Obama are part of the problem. None really have a grand solution for our 21 century Depression. Lord help our country!!!

YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!

You can expect more of this type of legislation with an Obama presidency. God Bless John McCain!

I agree with jeremy. If we bail them out now, we will continue doing so until the economy really does crash.

Bailout? Not No, but HELL NO!

Wall Street Fat Cats can lose their jobs, I don't care at all!

Will Bush quit having early-morning one minute speeches that says the sky is falling. We already know that!

Where is my bailout? Oh, I forgot, I lived within my means. No money for me! Well, at least the irresponsible will against get government money. We want to keep subsidizing irresponsibility

Also, I emailed Tom Cole last week and told him to not rush that we needed more info. He supported it and I called his office today to voice my disappointment in his vote. Slow down.... the public needs more information.

More time should be taken instead of rushing in to a decision. If it's so bad why did congress take off today and tomorrow? Also, if the solution does not solve the problem that caused the issue in the first place I don't want anything to do with it. Bascially bad loans so "everyone" can own a house. Please don't tell me as a person that pays my bills and taxes, raises my family the right way to help bail out deadbeats, banks and CEO's. Not to mention the corrupt politiians that are saying trust me with 700 Billion dollars.

NO, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be allowed to go bankrupt and the government policies that got us into this mess in the first place should be revoked. By letting Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae go belly up the burden is placed on those who made the bad decisions and not the taxpayer.

YES, I would be responsible enough to do the right think and vote yes. Like it or not Wall Street affects the economy of the whole country. What was already a bad economy is now going to be much worse, mostly because politicians were not strong enough to do what is right for their constituents, but were busy worrying about getting voted back in next time. They should concentrate on doing the job they were elected to do.

For many years I have wanted a Constitutional amendment to limit U.S. Representatives to two per state since two Senators is plenty. Oklahoma should lead the way by cutting the number of State representatives.Like greg would put it, we have too many that are dumb asses.

i would do something. i dont know that 700 billion(if thtas enough)should be strapped to the backs of my kids and grandkids. you know bushhas been really reckless with spending. Bush didnt get us here. Our dumbass congress, and our dumbass bankers did. but bush has been a real dumb ass in the way he spends money. so i dont think i would give him 700 billion

All I see is my 401K going into the crapper...when and if they pass a bailout, I too hope that they don't plan on giving the CEO"s, CFO's etc paychecks they DO NOT DESERVE. Let them stuggle just like the rest of us, they may have to put up one of their houses, condo's summer homes up for sale or rent them out.

First, the only part of this I agree with and I hope gets passed in some form or another is that CEOs of these companies don't get big fat paychecks! I do not agree with this bailout and I feel like there is a better way out there. The Federal Gov. isn't the best at managing money or having proper checks and balances. So I wouldn't trust them to issue loans in the billions. The government always thinks the only way to solve problems is by throwing more money at it. We need to dig and investigate, find a solution, begin fixing the problems, THEN begin to pump money into a fixed system. Hold people accountable, we can't bail out everyone but this will be the start. We are just going to pump this "funny" money into a broken system because they will just print more money that is virtually worthless. I'm tired of living off 1930s way of life. Income tax, social security, welfare... have gotten us no where! Time to change people!

The cure for bad and corrupt capitalism is not a bloated socialistic loan from the government. Does something need to happen absolutely if anything the government is the reason we are in this mess. Republicans that pushed for deregulation and Democrats that pushed for loans to disadvantaged households that could not afford a mortgage. The bailout bill with the way it is now rewards the banks for bad practices. What is going to keep them from coming back for more tax payer funds there has to be penalties and oversight. I love how congress feels there going to make all the money back and possibly even a profit if anything it will be a fire sale to get rid of the bad assets. Taxpayers aren't going to see jack from the 700 billion once the government doles it out it is gone. If this bill or any bill like it passes it will be just the beginning of many more bailouts to come.

By the way folks, there are a lot of irresponsible, greedy savants like those pimping here on this forum for it out there demanding a welfare bailout check for their own bad decisions. It is IMPERATIVE that you write and call your congressman and both our state Senators to keep the pressure on. I have already done so once, and intend to make a follow-up call to all three tomorrow. Simply Google the name of your congressman, and in most case you will get a link to a website that will have their office numbers. A follow-up email is also quite helpful: call first, leave your name, where you live, and state your opinion about stopping this Corporate Welfare Giveaway, then write a follow-up email and send to them along the lines of "I spoke to you today about opposing this 700 Billion dollar welfare check to irresponsible deadbeats," something like that. They are regrouping to grab our money again, so it's important to call!

NO.

The only way I would vote for this bill if the CEO's that caused rheir business to go under didn't get a dime!

NO.

Thank you Representative Fallin and the other Oklahoma Representatives for voting against the bailout. Now it is time to clean house...Palosi, Paulson, Reid, Frank and SEC Commisioner needs to go! We need a full investigation on this mess! The Mavericks will soon arrive! McCain/Palin 08

Absolutely YES! Without immediate passage of the plan we will enter a recession and those people complaining about this being a raw deal for normal Americans will soon be out of work with no savings to speak of. Call your Representatives and urge them to support the plan immediately and please educate yourselves on why this plan is so necessary.

Freeing the markets from risk is a risky idea to begin with. As long as corporations and banks know that they will have the government there to bail them out, they will continue to create new ways to make money with no downside at all! Sounds funny, Banks are on one hand wanting taxpayers to pay for their bad judgment, and on the other fighting like hell to keep the government from stopping banks most egregious fees on credit cards! The banks can bail themselves out, and eventually, life goes on, the markets will heal themselves.

Nationalizing the housing market and government control over bank liquidity isn't the answer! The free market will fix itself. Always has always will. This bailout = "Bought votes remain bought". This is not as big a crisis as we are being told. They are trying to frighten everybody into a hurried up deal. If it was such a crisis, why don't the Democrats just go ahead and pass the legislation? They've got the numbers to pass it, with a willing president to sign it. Why do they need the Republicans on board? The reason? They are playing politics and nothing more.

When you get paid to sit at home cause it pays to be unemployed.. When you get food stamps to buy all your grocerys with just a quick glance from year to year as to why you have the NEED. When the governments current tax encourages better living conditions IN EVERY WAY for the single parent.. (therfore incouraging divorce in this country) corruption is everywhere you look... this is the TIP of the iceburg that is forming around us and we need only to see it for what it is... A MESSAGE that we are no longer in the promise land we are in the beginning stages of being just like the other countries...and uglyness will mutiply and your FAITH will be enough, if your walk is daily with GOD.

I agree .. we do have to clean up the milk.. as Debbie tried to convey.. reguardless of the blame which is in EVERY sector.. and it will HURT some more than others.. but when did FAIR.. EVER apply to life. Its not FAIR.. look around at what all is not fair..REALITY BITS.. but with HOPE and faith that SOMEONE BIGGER oversees ALL.. you shouldnt fear the outcome of this but you should using this oportunity to gather more people to GODS promise.. that the greed of our leaders have left us unprotected just as he said would happen.. forget WALSTREET AND BANKERS and lift up your eyes to God and pray that the PRESIDENT TO BE is one of his own and not ONE IN DISGUISE.

Each and every American is responsible for this economic failure. We are the ones who racked up thousands in debt, and therefore, couldn't pay our mortgages. We are equally responsible for not paying attention to our elected officials as we should have. I believe that we do indeed need to pass this economic bail out package. However, we must unite and take our country back by changing our behavior and being more personally accountable. I truly hope this opens the eyes of every American and we take full responsibility for our country. We must change our behavior. We are the ones who elected those in power whether by intentional vote or apathy. Time to dig in and get responsible my fellow citizens.

I am for it under the circumstances. I agree with Debbie who posted her insightful comments earlier. It must be done or we could very well have another Great Depression,which was also caused by unsound financial practies. Anyone who thinks we can allow our finacial markets and banking sytem to collapse without the direst of conseqences for EVERYONE has not read their history! The previous generation to mine lived throuh the Depression and it is probably hard to fathom for anyone in this generation after mine just how really ugly it was. Anger at the situation we find ourselves must not lead to denial of the need to take prompt action,no matter how unpleasant, to fix it.

I'm against it! I hope our representatives shoot this bailout, handout, welfare package down. Anything with Acorn(they promote voter fraud) mentioned within the context is not good for the country! Government is to blame for this mess, not capitalism. For that reason alone, it's obvious we don't need the government doing things it wasn't intended to do.

I vote no, And Cooter can you not leave right now?

According to the "Decider" our economy is prosperous and vigorous! What recession are we talking about?

Also, just because a bank owns mortgage securities doesn't mean they originated those securities. They purchase them packaged as pools for investment purposes. When was the last time you bought a house and always made your payments to the entity you originally borrowed from? When you close, you're told your loan will be sold. So, one can hardly hold only the banks who are suffering from holding these securities responsible for the mess.

No, I would certainly, vote no for this bail out! If they continue to bail out all of these irresponsible companies that have given subprime loans to people they knew could not repay them then our money will go down in value, more than it already has in the past. Who are we bailing out really? Most of the money that was funded was from China and other foreign factions so are we bailing out those countries for their investments in our failed mortgage companies? This is a result of many years of people turning their heads when they knew it would come to this...

(Wow, sorry for the novel in advance.) Maybe not in its initial form, but from what I read now, I certainly would. No matter how one feels about how we got here, the milk has been spilled, and everyone is standing over it arguing about how to clean it up - or whether to just leave it on the floor. The vast majority of the public doesn't really understand the nature of the securities in question, and the media, treasury, and politicians have done a poor job of explaining it. The Treasury will end up making much if not all the money back when the mortgage market and the associated unease returns to a more normal state. The value of these securities (many with just a fraction of sub-prime mortgages in them)will go back up in value with time. These mortgage securities are a great example of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". Without this "bailout", banks will have to hoard the money they have to make capital requirements. A huge amount of your 401(k) will disappear - you'll have to work longer. If you have the average American credit score (about 680), you won't be able to buy a car and no student loans for you either. Home prices will go farther down, and the bank will call in your 2nd mortgage. Small business won't be able to make their widgets because they use a bank line of credit for parts, or inventory. Banks will lay people off, auto companies and their suppliers will lay people off, small business will lay people off, and on and on. Admittedly this is an oversimplified explanation of the problem, but it should help people who want to understand to do so. At this point, it doesn't matter who is at fault, there is plenty to go around. The CEOs who overleveraged their businesses, the mortgage makers, the real estate agents, and the people who signed a mortgage KNOWING they couldn't make a $1,000 per month payment on a $2,000 per month salary. There's blame all around, but the politicians need to stop the political bickering, and posturing for the cameras, and we all need to stop pointing fingers, act like grown-ups and fix the problem. And before anyone starts accusing me in this forum of being on one side or the other, I'm idealogically smack in the middle of Libertarian. But I'm also pragmatic. This must be fixed, and now. Then we can set to work to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Not no but HECK no.

No. I would not approve it. I's like to see the government redo all the defaulted home loans to date.... cut out all the compounding interest [profits for the criminal companies that made the loans in the first place], and change the loan interest to say 4%, make them 30 year loans- and let the current owners sell the home at that assumable interest rate, if the new owner can qualify... The current owners either pay off their note at this "give-me" rate, they sell the home, or they default and go live in a rental property they can afford. Then let the government buy-out what is left.

Tom, I enjoyed Neal Boortz cartoon of Obama at the voting booth with the names of McCain and Obama and he chooses PRESENT.

Yes, but not as proposed. I kind of like the Neal Boortz suggestion which makes more sense in favor of the taxpayers.

Jeremy, Where is the government going to get the money it is going to loan? If you say the Federal Reserve then it is you that needs to study economics as the Federal Reserve has no money and never did. If the government has the money, why does it keep claiming it is so broke it can't take care of obligations such as Social Security and Medicare or a host of others wanting a handout or even a hand up? I admit, I do not know and for certain Pres.Bush doesn't.

There are many people who haven't taken an economic course, and do not realize how "critical" this is to our economy. It is unfortunate that this has happened, but there comes a time where you cannot let our economy fail. The problem is that creditors are putting a tight leash on lending money, and this "bailout package(actually a loan that will be repaid" will give the banks the power to lend and therefore help our economy grow. Alot of people have trouble understanding how our economy works, but financial institutions are the backbone for "ALL BUSINESS" in not only the United States, but the world. Understand this people, We are not giving away 700 Billion, we are loaning this to private businesses, who will repay the government. WE MUST SUCCEED AND PASS THIS LEGISLATION!

We (the taxpayers) did not put these institutions in the shape they are in, so why should we shoulder the burder to get the out of the position they gotten them selves in. If you or I didn't make our house payments do you think the government would bail us out of our hardship???? Not likely, no not at all.

When I drive to another city or town that I've never been to before, I look at a road map and see several different ways [roads / highways] that I can use to get to the same place. Some highways will get me there very quickly at high speeds-- but your going so fast you don't see anything along the way,.... while the other smaller roads will get me there too... only a little slower and give me a chance to look around. In this "bailout", the Prez and the Fed / Treasury bozos want us to take the quicker highway route-- hoping we [the taxpayers] won't see any of the looming problems involved in their plan.... I'd prefer to take the more slower side road...giving us [taxpayers] a chance to look around and see what we're missing along the way.

When companies have better government-backed financial support & more freedom than individuals, we should call it communism, not socialism. IMO it's a bad sign when people can no longer relieve their personal debt (bankruptcy reform), but companies can, over & over. Fiscally responsible? pee-shaw.... One thing you have to say for Democrat spending, it's a whole lot easier to turn off a tap going to people than turn off a tap going to companies.

Yes, it is much better than the alternative, which could be a 10-year or more global economic depression. Remember, this is not by definition a "bailout" of financial institutions. Rather, it is a "bailout" of our financial systems, which effects everyone in the United States. We (taxpayers) will be buying impaired debt from troubled banks and other financial institutions, which will allow us to liquidate these instruments in a timely and orderly fashion, which could well result in the taxpayers breaking even or possibly making a profit on what should be termed a taxpayer investment rather than bailout. Congress must act and act now to save our systems of finance and keep capital circulating in the U.S. and throughout the world. To block this would be too risky. Politics, partisanship, and most importantly the security of elected officials' jobs must be set aside and sacrificed for the survival of our country and the institutions we've painstakingly built over the past two centuries.

No. There must be a better way.

I would guess the majority of people over 50 could see this coming for years or knew it if we talked to people who had lived through a depression. How come our leaders (?) are so stupid?

It looks like people are finally realizing that Bush is full of crap. I would vote NO on making the rich, richer.

Jeff,, are you quoting below? current bail out or the terms in those giving outragous loans.etc..This whole idea stinks to high heaven of corruption.

NO. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this ACT are non-reviewable and committed to the agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." This whole idea stinks to high heaven of corruption.

NO, NO, NO, NO, Let those who made the loans fall and those who took out the loans knowing they could not pay the payments lose their homes. There has to be some amount of responsibility taken by those that caused this.

Absolutely no, but I think limiting incomes of bailed out execs is a start.

The vote must be no. These institutions and the rats involved with the deals made therein must be allowed to fail. Yeah, it will hurt because it has become a great cancer in the market but failure will clear out the bile. Let them fail. We Americans will survive to invest another day.

Sorry, Must have all been out of town

No! This should have been taken care of 1 1/2 years ago. When all of this started. We are suspose to have such smart people in congrerss and business. They must have a been out of town.

Here's an FYI for you: the $700bn price tag of this bailout is nearly $150bn more than the total we have spent to date on the war in Iraq.

NO!

No. I would only vote yes if there was someone else in charge of oversight besides the idiots that let it happen in the beginning.

I say no. Let the economy collapse, let the idiots who are responsible for this suffer, and let the smart Americans who didn't buy a home they couldn't afford and didn't invest in the stock market with these stupid companies to continue working. I can tell you this, if you want to stay here for the next 20 years and bail out these losers then you're a complete moron. 3 years until I am officially out of this country and I will dance on the beaches of New Zealand. Good riddance.

Yes I would approve it.

forgot to put VOTE in there before NO.

I most certainly would NO!!!!! There isn't anyone to bail me out when I screw up why should we bail out anyone ? Let it tank as far as I am concerned.

I also posted mine in another forum. I'm almost 70 and as with all my relatives, tried to live within my income which meant going without. This generation that caused the problem now expect us that lived frugal lives to pay off their mansions with a couple of limo's. The only thing I've seen in the proposals that make any sense are to not give the C.E.O.s of the mismanaged companies raises. Instead they should be held accountable as well as our lawmakers who wasted this country's wealth. But if they didn't have enough sense to see what they were doing at the time, don't expect them to be able to fix what they broke.

I posted this earlier in another forum... I too am against the bailout. First, I do not see any CEOs being held accountable for their institutions' lending practices. I realise the government was pushing for these loans to encourage home ownership by the economically disadvantaged, but the lenders should have drawn a line: home ownership is not a constitutional right, and some people should have never been approved. Secondly, this bailout gets the government involved in the banking industry, which sends America a little farther down the path toward socialism. More often than not, when the government gets its hands into something, the end product is mediocre and it leads to abridgments of our personal freedom.

I agree COMRADE David. I thought we were a capitalist economy and not communists....guess I was wrong

We are putting $700 BILLION + no telling how much interest on the loan...into the very hands of the Fed & Treasury officials who should have been preventing this blunder in the first place... with virtually no oversight. Sure Congress says they are going to establish oversight... but do you really believe Congress, given its history of waste and corruption? We [the taxpayers] put more time and effort in buying a used car, than Congress has in spending [our] $700 billion.