That’s Transparency? Bailout Agreement on the Net
Wired wonders, doesn’t transparency mean more than just posting legislation on the web, then rushing to approve it in congress?
The White House and congressional leaders agreed to the details of the $700 billion government bailout of financial institutions late Sunday afternoon and they promptly released the bill on the internet.
The Huffington Post and The Open House Project both posted the legislation online shortly after the House server appeared to be overwhelmed by traffic. The Sunlight Foundation then posted the bill up on its site PublicMarkUp.org.
The House apparently plans to approve the legislation Monday, and the Senate is expected to act on it Wednesday.
Several newspapers have summaries of the legislation and what it would do. But one wonders whether this is what we mean by transparent government.
4 Responses to “That’s Transparency? Bailout Agreement on the Net”
WAIT!!! THIS PLAN IS NOT THE ANSWER… we have been undergoing an econmic crisis since 2005, when the housing bubble busted… homeowners have been losing their homes, why a PLAN all the sudden??? Oh but when LEH goes bankrupt – we see the top federal governement officials come to the rescue with a Government Bailout – for the sake of who? THIS PLAN IS GOING TO RAPE US!!! RAPE OUR CHILDREN!! We should let the market take its course, homeowners are already hurting, where does this help the homeonwer.. Lets not forget there were homeowners who bought homes in 2005, right when the housing bubble cracked, those (3/1 and 5/1 ARMS) are just starting to reset… this means the shake-out for a whole lot of homeowners starts now … but is this plan for the homeowners or them? Rationally, the most practical approach would be to establish a system that allows homeowners to trade their homes, i.e. MyHouse4Trade.com or http://www.TrySwappingIt.com , freeze all ARMs, zero out the debt with those who lent money to the banks, return the remaining amount back into the treasury. Then ask where is this financial crisis, Wall Street? If so, let the market takes its course there!!! Those equities were overinflated since the brokers and fancy investors have been chasing earnings since the 90's – its time we get back to value investing!! All this Plan will do is screw the common man, and further put our country into debt!!! GOD SAVE AMERICA – PLEASE!!!
actually, spammy, you are only partially right, but especially right with everything typed after the website you posted. Good spammy! Good boy!
Anyway..
Here's the best printable link I found for that Bill. The link in this article is a bit squirrelly to navigate and so far printing those pages is a no-go there.
Here's the printable version: http://financialservices.house.gov/essa/ayo08c0…
Unfortunately, this is common legislative practice even in Congress itself. Hide a 220-page bill until 6 hours before the vote is scheduled. Ramrod it through based on strict party line voting. The Republican House loved doing this, and I've been really annoyed with Pelosi lately for continuing the practice.