After reading Lee’s recent post voicing skepticism about the Fed’s roughly $700 billion bailout plan, I saw this Politico article about similar skepticism popping up elsewhere.
I’m not sure what I think, but I’m concerned that if the government doesn’t step in, the consequences for middle class Americans could be devastating for many years. The “fundamentals” of America may be strong — if, like John McCain, you use the word “fundamentals” to mean “the American worker” — but the American worker may end up on the street if the American financial systen collapses and credit evaporates, causing severe strain for businesses already struggling with high gas prices, rising health care costs, etc.
It’s scary and distasteful to think that taxpayers would suddenly take on nearly $1 trillion in bad debt — but Americans have already spent roughly $1 trillion on an unnecessary war in Iraq. The question is, isn’t it scarier and more distasteful to imagine the unemployment rate reaching 10 or 15 percent, to think of 401K accounts failing, etc?
This is a mess. So much for “the era of big government is over,” as President Bill Clinton once said.
As George Stephanopoulos said today on “This Week, “the era of big government is back.”