Hello.

Unlike so many who have the power and don’t use it, I really did send an e-mail to my Senator yesterday. An angryish email about the proposed vote for a bailout package.

And this was the reply:

… I share your anger and frustration about this situation. Although I think we need to act to fix our American economy, I do not feel this bill is the right way to do it, and I voted against this package when it came before me in the Senate.

What is most outrageous to me is that this is not an accident. We are in this crisis because of a failed philosophy and a failed set of priorities that have rewarded greed. We have seen policies of massive deregulation and willful neglect of what is going on in these markets.

We know there is a crisis on Wall Street, but there’s a much bigger crisis in Michigan and across America. Hard-working families, who play by the rules, are the ones in crisis every single day, and this bill does little for them. People are losing their health care, their pensions, their jobs, and their homes.

This legislation is fundamentally the wrong approach to fixing our economy. We need to start from the root of the problem and help families stay in their homes and keep their jobs.

Just last week, the Senate was unable to get bipartisan support for a jobs bill that would have helped families in Michigan who are suffering the worst in this economy. Our bill would have created desperately needed jobs in Michigan. That bill represented the right priorities!

Although I’m glad the final bill included some alternative energy tax provisions that I have championed in the Senate, the underlying legislation did not do enough to address the real problems of jobs, health care, energy independence, and home foreclosures.

In the coming months, I will continue fighting to stop the policies that got us to this crisis and hold the people accountable who failed to protect our country. Most importantly, I will continue to focus on creating new jobs in Michigan…

Sincerely,

Debbie Stabenow

United States Senator

So there you have it. Contrary to media scaremongering and disinformation, not every Senator agreed with the bill or wanted it passed. The bill they just passed to ‘help stabilize the economy’ included an extension of tax breaks for Oil companies. Because Republicans wouldn’t vote for it otherwise. So in the rush to ‘fix everything’ they created a situation that will extend the current problems. One Senator in touting the Bailout Bill actually intimated that Americans should forget about punishing those who created this mess in the first place. Accountability, my great fuzzy tush.

The biggest question to me is “Why are Americans allowing those who created this dire situation to postulate the solution?”

Seems a lot like allowing the horse to open and close the barn door whenever he feels like it.

All we can do at this point is hope that the populist backlash sends the Senators who voted for this bill to an early retirement during their next election.

Dogwoman