The House Flirts With Disaster

The House of Representatives did something on Monday that no foreign army or terrorist organization has managed to do: They came close to damaging the American economy. The Titanic had fewer people deciding its fate before the ship sank.

The House rejected, by a 228-205 margin, a flawed bill that would have bailed out Wall Street's financial behemoths from its own greed and ineptitude to the tune of $700 billion. In response, the Dow Jones industrial average on Monday fell 778 points, the largest drop in recent memory. Another megabank also bit the dust--Citigroup just bought out Wachovia's banking business.

It's all because a few representatives chose to do the right thing for their party and for their re-election, instead of for their country. The vote was along party lines. Democrats had 140 votes for the "rescue" plan, while the Republicans had 133 against.

Those who voted against the bill thought they were sticking it to Wall Street, impressing the constituents back home by not giving the people responsible for this crisis the golden parachutes they really didn't deserve. Well, guess what? Those Masters of the Universe will be getting their money anyway, whether it came from the government or not.

Instead, the "rescue" package was voted down the way other important legislation went by the wayside in the past few years: partisan bickering. Whether it was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivering a speech that offended Republicans, an outgoing President who no longer commands support in either party, or grandstanding by presidential candidate John McCain, maybe none of this should have been a surprise.

So what happens now? In lieu of withdrawing your money from banks and hiding them under your mattress along with your porn stash, we wait for lawmakers to come up with a better bill than the one they just defeated. Maybe this time there will be more room for debate. Maybe this time there will be more protections for average citizens than for CEOs. Maybe the economy can be saved after all. (At least Wall Street hopes so. The Dow gained 485 ponts Tuesday.)

Or maybe not.