Torn across the middle

48% of the Republican and 30% of the Democrat members of the US House of Representatives voted NO on the first Y’08 credit “rescue/bailout” package yesterday.

The high-wire act of getting the US economy back on track leans either toward uber-privatization concerns about “too much” governance on the conservative end of the stick, or protecting the people that are hurting the most (including prosperous friends) on the liberal one.

Today’s polarized picture of workers compensation, e.g., executive benefit packages vs. compensation packages of the vast majority of US citizens, plus the constant flow of US jobs overseas the past six years, makes the pendulum swing even more wildly above the stagnant pool of joblessness, gross domestic product decline, credit crisis, and the decline in micro businesses that benefit local communities.

Market corrections take years to make. So get comfortable. If you are approaching retirement age and have a 401(k) heavily vested in mutual funds, ask you doctor about Zoloft (then buy stock in Pfizer while the market is down).

I believe the job of both houses of Congress and the President is to make certain budgets are sound, to create laws to oversee and promote sound economic growth, and to support the free market needs of their constituents. Free market does not mean unfair business practices, i.e., allowing the Hedge Fund type short selling and unrestricted use of the media that drove company failures to benefit a few investors. That’s why “Wall Street” stepped up and suspended short selling a few weeks ago. Why didn’t Congress via the SEC chairman stop it long before the credit crunch train wreck?

Today, banks say take this piece of plastic, borrow up to $ XXX,XXX.XX dollars with it. Don’t worry, you get a free one-way retirement package ticket to … Timbuktu, to … work on a Sino-Euro farm without health care, fair compensation or family benefits to pay off your debt, especially if our asset based security is at risk. Oh yeah, and there is an Internet fee.

Shoring up the existing credit infrastructure is not enough to right this ship. A bi-partisan agreement to invest in all American citizens, create jobs and extend free health care benefits to everyone will turn the fuel of the economy on: the livelihood of its citizens, and create a sustainable alternative to the one way ticket to Timbuktu that a short-sighted “rescue/bailout” package seems likely to promulgate.