Encouraging

I am sort of proud of Congress today. Well, some of them at least... And yes, I know it is one day after I told you how useless most of them are. Which they are.

But let's look at what happened yesterday. The President proposed a plan to Congress and asked them to make it a law, which is his prerogative, and is part of his job. Congress debated it, negotiated it, and put something to a vote in front of the entire House. And it failed in a close vote.

If we look at the numbers, though, we see an interesting split. Democrats voted in favor of the bill by a 140-95 margin, and Republicans voted against it by a 133-65 margin. As Congressional votes go, that is pretty well divided. It is almost like...gasp...the leadership just let everyone vote based on what they really thought of the bill. What a concept!!! The left doesn't like that it didn't have homeowner provisions and CEO compensation limits, while the right didn't like that it sets a horrible precedent for market interference and corrupts the necessary capitalist institution of failure.

And really, what is bad about that? The Democrats, who are fundamentally more pre-disposed to government intervention, were in favor...while the Republicans, who are fundamentally more pre-disposed to allow market forces to reward and punish as they see fit, were against. Isn't that sort of how this is supposed to work?

Now, contrary to some of the Chicken Little news reports...the world is not going to collapse any time soon. Congress may well still decide that it needs to act, and if they can get something done that they can all live with, then good for them. But a good bill in a week's time is better than a bad bill today...there is no urgency for them to get something done this minute.

Of course, right as I am about to give Congress credit for sticking to their individual principles and voting how they think, and not how they are told by their party leaders...they go and TAKE THE DAY OFF!!!

If this is really the verge of the apocalypse, like they all told us yesterday, can't they work through the holiday? Like, at a minimum, can the non-Jewish ones work today? "Pelosi" doesn't sound real Jewish to me...

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Sort of related news: The Boy sold his condo yesterday:-). He accepted an offer that was pretty close to the asking price, and more than he paid for the place three years ago. He is very happy, and somewhat relieved, but will breath a lot easier when the deal actually goes through:-) So...yay for The Boy!