The House of Representatives?

I’m disappointed with the $700 billion financial bailout passed by Congress and signed by the President. It seems to me that the fat cats on Wall Street and the big banks used scare tactics to get what they wanted. The House finally blinked this morning and passed the revised proposal, which still wreaks of greed, no matter how many sweet-smelling modifications they attach.

I remain perplexed about the provision to increase Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) protection from $100,000 to $250,000. Most Americans will never see six figures in their savings accounts, a fact that seems lost on most members of Congress.

The FDIC’s insurance fund is at a historically low level, according to the Wall Street Journal, with only about $1 backing every $100 of insured deposits. Isn’t this the kind of fast and easy voodoo economics that blew the bottom out of the mortgage market?

The three largest banks in the country are now even bigger (Bank of America, J.P. Morgan/Chase, and CitiBank) following the Wachovia and Washington Mutual bailouts. Many independent community banks are likely to be gobbled up by the big three. Does that really make anyone on “Main Street” back home feel better?

Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that House members largely ignored what their constituents were telling them to do – listening instead to the financial whiz-kids and geezers on Wall Street. Too many members of Congress, particularly the old timers, are beholding to financial institutions that stand to gain by the bailout. Take a bow Barney Frank.

And to claim they passed this bailout for the folks back home on Main Street is unbelievable.