[PBzeer]

Even if the bailout writes off all the toxic debt, where is the capital going to come from to get the credit tap turned back on? That's why the House GOP pushed for a suspension of cap gains. That could have very likely freed up the money to recapitalize the market.

Think about the genesis of this whole deal. Paulson comes out with a bailout using tax money. The Dems, rather than look at other alternatives instead started tweaking the Paulson proposal, without any apparent effort to find a non-taxpayer alternative. The House GOP comes out with a market based alternative which Paulson and the Dems declared DOA. After all, it's all the market's fault according to the politicians.

So now, we have a "solution" that while it addresses solvency, doesn't really do anything to loosen up the credit market, which at this point, is dragging down the economy. The only real way to get money flowing again, from what I'm reading, is to get private capital back in the market. And I don't see that happening anytime soon, if all we do is prop up the weak sisters out there, rather than let them sink low enough to be attractive to takeover.

It seems, that all the bailout will do, is put off the now inevitable "hard landing" a little longer. It's like trying to stop drug use by going after the users (Wall St), instead of the dealers (government). While it sounds good politically to go after Wall St for taking the drugs, they completely avoid the political danger of admitting their role as the dealers of the drugs.

What's really pernicious though is this will further entrench the bailout mentality that helped cause the problem. Not just on a business level, but individual as well. For not only are they buying up the ill-advised loans. With the mortgage relief provisions, they'll basically be paying the ill-advised loans as well.

Yet, the only provision, fortunately not included, to address the lending practices that created the problem, was to set aside money to continue it!

They've crafted a nice little package to get them through the election. I seriously doubt if they've done as much to help the taxpayers they claim to be protecting.