By: Hamilton Ryan
As tensions began to flair two weeks ago over the economy plunging President Bush was working on a bailout plan of major proportions. He asked for $700 billion to bailout Wall Street. Immediately this plan came under fierce scrutiny by congressmen from both parties. Senator Jim Bunning, R-KY stated, “This massive bailout is not a solution. It is financial socialism and it’s un-American.” These same words were nearly echoed by another senator from across party lines. Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, “After reading this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not just our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution as well.”
While both the Democrats and Republicans began to come together in Congress to fight against this bailout plan, another bailout plan was in the works. John McCain came out yesterday in a statement stating that he was going to suspend his campaign and that Senator Barack Obama should do the same and delay the debate. What most people do not realize is that the Obama campaign had discussed this, prior to McCain’s announcement, with the McCain campaign. After they had discussed this issue, McCain happened to be the first to make it on the news. Senator Obama came out and said that a President ought to be able to do more than one thing at a time, and that this economic crisis proves even more so that we need a debate.
I happen to agree strongly with Senator Barack Obama on this issue. I have come under some scrutiny for agreeing with this decision, but let me make my case. First of all, let us not forget that John McCain was the one who was pushing for more debates early on in the election. Also, remember that he publicly stated that he knew nothing about the economy. So if this debate turned into a debate on the economy Senator McCain and his campaign know that they would be crushed. So what do you do in that situation? You find a way to postpone it!
Let me continue by saying that in the 110th Congress Senator McCain did not once introduce a single banking bill, but Senator Obama, on the other hand, has introduced five of them. Now those of you who say that Senator McCain is making the right decision, I can understand where you are coming from and why you think that. It looks as though he is being this great guy who really cares about the financial crisis, and it also looks like he is going to do something about it, and be this hero of a senator. Let me make this clear, there are 98 other senators who can vote on this legislation, not to mention 435 representatives from the House of Representatives. We have less than 40 days left to find out who we need as President, and the only way we can do that is to have a debate about these issues that need debating.
For others of you, there is a feeling that at this moment we are in too big of a crisis to have a debate, or any type of campaigning at that. While, again, I can understand how you would feel that way let me point out that when the Great Depression happened in 1929 Herbert Hoover was President of the United States, but the Depression continued on through to the next election, and they went through with campaigning. By the United States going through with campaigning we, the people, elected Franklin D. Roosevelt who got us out of the Great Depression. So don’t tell me that because we are in a state of Economic Panic that we shouldn’t go through with a typical campaign. We have had many panics before and elections went on as planned. This is not any different. Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, put it this way, “‘It's preposterous that we can't have a presidential debate in the middle of this economic crisis. We had a presidential campaign in 1864, when Sherman was marching on Atlanta. We had a presidential election in 1944, when D-Day was going on in Normandy,’ he said. ‘We can have a debate on Friday.’”
My Sources/ Websites Used:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/24/suspend.timeline/index.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761584403/great_depression_in_the_united_states.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/25/political.risk/index.html
