I could have swallowed the original bill, but how can anyone vote for a bill like this one has become?

Yes loans may be little harder to get today. Especially for people with damaged credit. But why is this a bad thing?

We've been hearing for months about how irresponsible credit is what got us into this mess. People buying more house than they can afford, bigger cars than they can afford, charging everything to their credit cards.

Now banks are getting stingy. They are not going to lend someboby making $35k a year $85k to buy a new car. People do not need to buy a new car every 4-5 years (pay one off, get a new one). I've had the same car for eight years, it works fine, I plan on keeping it for at least another 3-5 years. It's not that I can't afford a new car (I can with room to spare) its that I don't NEED a new car.

The 'credit crunch' is a sign that banks are not willing to finance people living beyond their means.

This is a GOOD thing.

Pumping more money into the credit market just delays the day of reckoning. This bill does NOTHING to address the underlying problems that caused this mess and in fact makes the situation WORSE.

is cutting back loans to prospective purchasers of GM cars and trucks? Why? This is the same question I've been asking about other lending institutions. Why are they refusing to lend to good credit risks? Has the default rate on GMAC's previous vehicle loans been sufficient to warrant the cutback? Why are banks refusing to lend to businesses and individuals who have good credit histories? That's what we're being told is happening, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. That's how banks and other lenders make money; they make loans at interest. Now they're not. Why?

... another $26.00 for costume jewelry and see if they can buy all of Manhattan for the finance industry?

Tourniquets are applied to stop the bleeding at the cost of the limb with the spurting artery. Which limb of the economy are we preparing to amputate? I, for one, would like to see the portion of the manufacturing sector that is killing us cut off.

Yes, that means automobile makers. We are running out of time to prevent runaway climate change; three of the "tipping points" have either been reached or are in imminent danger of being reached. Those would be decreased rates of CO2 absorption by the oceans, the melting of the Arctic sea ice, and the release of methane hydrates from the Arctic floor. What good is a healthy 401K and low inheritance tax if I condemn my offspring to a dead planet? There really are more important things than the "health" of the corporate sector.

I'm pretty sure that the founding fathers envisioned the two halves of our bicameral legislature to be two sides of a coin - the Senate, esteemed and measured, would give heavy deliberation to the facts and issues, while the House would be stacked with every podunk's yahoos and engage in a constant near-hysterical faux populism, not unlike the respective roles of the Houses of Lords and Commons. Throughout most of our history that seems to have held relatively true, more or less. Odd that now it's the Senate caving to Wall Street millionaire panic and working overtime to ram this turd down our throats, while the "lunatic fringe" left and right in the House seem to be the only heads cool enough to vote on principle and keep this thing at bay.

I'm copying a comment made elsewhere on another blog so I can't give proper credit since I don't remember where...

"If the touniquet alone costs 700 billion, how much are we going to spend on the hospital visit?"

It's a tempting proposition. But I don't think people fully understand the implications.

People with iffy credit can't get loans for cars, homes, etc. This is a good thing. However, people with GOOD credit are now having trouble getting the same loans. When they do get loans, it's at much higher interest rates. Worse, hits in auto and housing damage all the suppliers that feed those industries (tires, glass, wood, construction, etc, etc), and everyone that depends on their business.

Credit is so tight right now that even AT&T (AT&T!) is unable to sell commercial paper for periods longer than OVERNIGHT. AT&T has solid revenue streams, so the risk of them defaulting is virtually non-existent. And yet, they have to issue paper every 24 hours just to maintain operations!

What happens if they can't borrow short term anymore? A lot of corporations are in the same boat. Retailers, in particular, will be hard hit because they have to finance their inventory for sales that won't be realized until the Christmas season. If they can't borrow for the short term, they could easily go under.

If this situation persists, what choice will businesses have but to start enacting massive cost cutting measures like layoffs to get them through the next few months? This is the part that a lot of people don't seem to be getting.

The bill is 450 pages now?

And someone in the House, where it was rejected for who-knows-what reason, is supposed make a decision on it being a BETTER plan now that 340 pages have been inserted?

Bah.

Junk this bill. It never addressed the true problem.

Mrs O'Leary's cow might have started the fire, but the Chicago was made of wood. This bill only adds gasoline to the burning parts.

New Leaders please. New Leadership please. An honest discussion of facts and figures, not spin and fear mongering.

New car purchases are just a low-level example meant for mass consumption.

Here's the REAL meat of the problem: businesses are being charged much higher rates, or being outright denied short-term credit for such frivolous items such as payroll, inventory, accounts payable, etc. Yes, businesses do borrow money short-term to meet these obligations...happens everywhere.

This is going on NOW. Can you imagine a better credit risk than AT&T? Well, even their terms are detoriating. How about a smaller business without the cash reserves of a AT&T? No access to short term money means layoffs, shutdowns. Now multiply that throughout the economy and hopefully the picture starts to become clearer.

Municipalities and other governmental districts borrow short-term, too. Their access to money is also drying up. So if you work for, say, a public hospital district somewhere, don't think you are off the hook.

At some point we are going to have to suck it up and face this problem. Telling the fatcats to suck it ain't a solution.