Stocks plummeted by as much as 700 points on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.
Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats – who control the house - opposed the bill.
A White House spokesman said that President Bush was "very disappointed." Did the Democratic leadership fail to rally their own party or did the Republicans fail to follow President Bush’s leadership? The finger pointing will continue forever.
The Right Decision
Personally, I think this was the right thing to do even if it leads to a stock market crash because in the end, whatever happens is inevitably going to happen and the bailout would have only delayed the inevitable.
It’s better if the stock market crashes 30% now, then 30% over the next decade with a destroyed value of the dollar because the sooner we accept the losses the sooner we can start rebuilding the economy.
The major financial firms that bet everything on the mortgage bubble need to be allowed to fail, so that existing capital can be used to fund new businesses – rather than being used to hold these firms together a little bit longer.
The most important thing we need to protect is not our houses, jobs or even our Wall Street firms - they can all be replaced. Its the value of our currency that needs to be protected because if the world looses faith in the dollar, it will be almost impossible get back.