Tonight the New York Times released the first public draft of the US government’s proposal for pulling our economy out of its tailspin. They’re calling it the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008″. In the short section at the very beginning of the bill it describes very broadly the purpose of the bill: “To provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, and for other purposes.”
I’m interested to hear more about those “other purposes”. Undoubtedly there’s a good deal of pork ladled in. Just about every bill proposed in Congress contains a healthy dose of legislation catering to various special interestes. But this bill is sure to receive intense scrutiny…perhaps the most scrutiny of any bill ever. Any senator or congress member trying to slip in a little something extra for his/her constituents should tread lightly lest they disturb an already fragile political situation in a crucial period in the voting cycle. Of course, after Biden destroys Palin in the debate on Thursday, Democrats will have a free hand and Republicans will have to duck into their collective shell for a while.