And then today the Federal Reserve says it will spend $800 billion or so buying bad mortgages and bad car, credit card, student and business loans. Maybe I should submit a request to get back my money.
The only thing we haven't seen in this bailout for every big company that made a bad decision is an infomercial offering a free Vegematic for corporations that apply for the bailout right now. Operators are standing by.
There must be a money tree growing somewhere in Washington that we don't know about, because we're already a gazillion dollars in debt, with a deficit this year of $430 billion, and yet we still keep making money to bailout the big boys who made infantile decisions.
I know, I know -- we need to make sure all these folks don't go out of business because it will be too costly for society as a whole. And I get it. But we've already mortgaged our children's financial future; now we're in the process of mortgaging their children's future as well.
We are all now shareholders - financially and morally - in this giant crap shoot. Fingers crossed.
And just a question, as long as we're on this subject: Why isn't Barack Obama going ahead with his big campaign pledge to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year? Doesn't the government need the money, or is there really a money tree blossoming on the White House grounds? And, in a similar vein, I get why the President-elect wants to have Hillary Clinton in his camp, politically, but with her vote to go to war in Iraq such a centerpiece of his campaign, why have her be your chief diplomat? Didn't he criticize her, with some justification, for voting for the war, when he was so opposed to it back in March, 2003?
I'm just askin'.
We'll have the latest on the economic crisis, and the transition of power in Washington, tonight at 11. Oh and by the way, "bailout" has been picked by the folks at Merriam-Webster as the word of the year -- this after so many people were forced to look up its meaning in the last couple of months. So, congratulations to "bailout."
And we're also taking an investigative look at what turns out to be a risky ride -- elevators at public housing developments in New York City. Several recent accidents sparked our Sarah Wallace to look the state of public housing elevators. (Click here to see a preview)
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Scott Clark with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11, right after the Dancing With The Stars finale.
BILL RITTER
