It's closer to 850 Billion, after the 'sweeteners' to buy off the House of (giggle) Representatives.

What on earth makes you think the taxpayers are going to get any benefit from any proceed on this pile of steaming excrement? It's a waste dump for weapons grade toxic IOUs.

Yeah, this bailout will pay for itself as soon as the Iraq War pays for itself with the oil profits!

Yep, because the Iraq war went so well, we should let the economy burn.

No one knows how much those securities are truly worth but unless every single homeowner with a mortgage defaults, they'll be worth something so $700 billion isn't the true cost.

Except when you pay the ransom you get something back that has somewhat dubious value but with enough time and patience you could potentially sell for a profit somewhere down the road.

Yeah, this bailout will pay for itself as soon as the Iraq War pays for itself with the oil profits!

It's more like a ransom demand from someone who's kidnapped your kid.

Except when you pay the ransom you get something back that has somewhat dubious value but with enough time and patience you could potentially sell for a profit somewhere down the road.

Hey but a simple stickup metaphor gets people all righteous and angry right?

It's more like a ransom demand from someone who's kidnapped your kid. Sure, you hate to pay, but what exactly can you do about it? The problem was really in letting your child get kidnapped in the first place.

Mukojan nailed it but that's the infuriating thing about political discussion in the U.S. The bailout, like everything else, is being thought of as a ransom demand, and blame placed squarely on the victims. Greed, corporate criminals and their apologists, i.e. "free market" ideologues, are treated as a force of nature, as blameless as a shark or a tornado. Everything is the fault of the Democrats who failed to rein them in. How 'bout everyone talk about this kleptocracy in language that blames the thieves, not the cops?

This one had me laughing out loud. The punchline is priceless.

Yet, the Obama campaign doesn't even try to bring up McCain's high profile role in the S&L crisis in the 80s.

Then again, Biden is prone to publicly bungle even the simplest facts while Obama is just too fascinated with himself to be aware of items not directly related to his own life history; let's note that Barry wrote his first autobiography at the age of 34, at a time he was barely beginning to not be a nobody...

Yes, this one is more difficult to parse than usual... ;)

The key must be "We certainly don't go back twenty years". This indicates that Ruben is alluding to McCain's history of support for deregulation (excepting that one attempt to get oversight for the GSEs that was spiked by the Republicans a couple of times).

We'd then add to that McCain's dramatic campaign suspension, when he was supposed to part the Red Sea, but ended up with him working against House Republicans and with the Democrats. This would be the sudden about-face of McCain's turn as town sheriff. (However, adding that in makes the absence of any reference to the Democrats more puzzling.)

For me, the main problem is that you can't frame the issue as a simple stickup. It's more like a ransom demand from someone who's kidnapped your kid. Sure, you hate to pay, but what exactly can you do about it? The problem was really in letting your child get kidnapped in the first place.

...assuming that Steam Hammers meant to say, "it must be the fucking Sermon on the Mount."

Obama and the mainstream Democrats did have a hand in the bailout plan. The biggest difference here between the parties is, the Republican "rebels" were holding out for...drum roll...more tax breaks! Thanks a lot, guys.

It would have made more sense if Sheriff McCain had an oh-so-apologetic Democratic deputy.

I'm still an Obama supporter, but he and many other Dems did have a role in this, you know.

They even post on the cartoons!?! Nice work if you can get it.

I must be the fucking sermon on the mount.

...if Obama hadn't been right there next to him, promoting a bailout as well.