obama is not "running from the issue", he's spoken about the plan and has supported the effort to find a response.
from what I read, he called mccain monday morning and suggested they issue a joint statement in support of the bi-partisan effort.
as for your questions, yes, the government would in theory act as a buyer of the securities, hold them or sell them when the market stabilizes. the government could make a profit, or perhaps break even at the end of the day. so "bailout" is a bit of a misnomer.
the potential profit should reduce the costs of administering the plan, but we all know the profit (if there is one) will not go back to you and me in the form of a check.
as for who is "politicizing" the issue, it is not the democratic leadership in congress, nor the republican leadership...it is the presidential candidate who made the public statement that he must return to washington and postpone the debate who is doing that.
as I read this am in the paper, and it was a republican who said "we had an agreement in principle, and then mccain came into the room and gave a speech. we didn't really understand exactly what he was trying to say as it was a bunch of generalities, but when we left the meeting there was no longer any deal..."
mccain and obama are not needed in washington to reach a compromise on this legislation, and their presence is in fact harming the effort.
the debate should go on, and perhaps the subject should not be foreign policy as originally intended but a discussion of our financial situation instead.
|