Bush: 'Immediate action' needed
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/24/art.bushecon0924.ap.jpg caption="Pres. Bush made the case for his administration's financial bailout plan directly to the nation on live television Wednesday night."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush addressed the economic crisis, saying, "We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis, and the federal government is responding with decisive actions."
Watch: Bush explains the "rescue effort"
Bush pointed out that the collapse of several major lenders was rooted in subprime mortgage that thrived over the past decade.
He urged Congress to approve his administration's $700 billion bailout proposal to restore confidence in the market.
"I'm a strong believer in free enterprise so my natural instinct is to oppose gov intervention," he said. But, "these are not normal circumstances. The market is not functioning properly, there has been a widespread loss of confidence.
"Without immediate action by Congress, America can slip into a major panic."
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The debate needs to go on because this is our interview for the job. I want let McCain know that he cannot skip the interview as schedule and expect to get hired. We need to here about the economy. McCain if you are clueless about the economy say so please do not bully us by asking to postpone the debate. We ahve been waiting for that debate for over a year now. Change the subject from foreign policies to finance but, the debate needs to go on. We are ready to hear you both.
Sometimes I wonder if he is as stupid as he pretends to be. He certainly knows that if you get people scared enough of something, even if you make it up, they will let you get away with anything to 'protect' them from it. We all remember what happened last time he said action was imperative.
Another "Mushroom Cloud" speech by Bush, only THIS TIME his speech writers substituted "terrorists blowing up your houses if you don't do what I want" with "the economy crashing so you'll lose your house if you don't do what I want."
So once again, the world as we know it will come to an end if we don't DEMAND that our Congress give Bush and his Party friends as much of our money as they want, with no strings attached, so they can grow the government even more than they have already (since, as they've proven time and again, the Republican Party loves to grow the government as big and as fast as they can, despite their phony rhetoric about "smaller government").
First tax cuts for the wealthy. Then wholesale deregulation, then the biggest expansion of American Government in history, then the phony (and very expensive) wars based on "faulty intelligence", and now the big taxpayer bailout of the folks who sent so many American jobs overseas over the past few years.
Hold on to your wallets! The Republicans are at it again.
(I guess their minions will try to claim that the financial mess they've made MUST be the fault of the "liberal media"...as if anybody but the 20-percenters who comprise their "core" and listen faithfully to their talk radio entertainers would believe such nonsense).
Instead of funding the top of the financial pyramid and hoping the credit extensions will trickle down, why not set up a mechanism to fund those local and regional banks that have been responsible lenders and put the loaned dollars where they will do the most good - at the local level, with small business owners and consumers. That will get the economy jump-started, allow employers to hire new workers, permit people to purchase cars, etc. The economic engine will flourish from the bottom up. Let the irresponsible investment banks and their gambler-like investors fail, while solving the so-called credit crunch by providing financing for the extension of credit the old-fashioned way: to creditworthy borrowers.