Financial Bailout - Who Does it Benefit?

Well the last I looked today the Dow Jones Industrial average fell by over 350 points on uncertainties in Congress' $700 billion plan to bailout Wall Street. To the lay person on the street it sounds like another win for big business, and another loss for Average Joe American. This has Congress (particularly the Democrats) pushing for extras in the bailout package that will help (as Senator Obama said) "Main Street as well as Wall Street." As a devout Democrat I rarely disagree with much of the legislation the Democrats come up with, and I usually am all for helping the little guy, but in my opinion this bailout package will help both Main St and Wall St.

This CREDIT crunch, crisis, whatever, stems from exactly what its name entails - problems with CREDIT. Too many people AND businesses have been living beyond their means off borrowed money. As lending institutions finally faced reality they started tightening up their purse strings and were less willing to extend credit to people and businesses needing to borrow money. So what happens when people can't borrow money -- they can't buy that dream home they always wanted, businesses can't purchases equipment, families can't get that new minivan. In other words consumer spending - the stuff that really drives the economy has come to a screeching halt because there is no more credit to purchase goods and services.

So what the government is trying to do is take all those bad debts off the hands of the major financial institutions so those very same institutions can begin to lend money again. Giving the financial institutions out there the ability to loosen up the credit purse strings, should have a positive affect not just on Wall Street, but on Main Street. As our economy gets jump started again jobs will be created because businesses can now afford to expand with the help of loans, people will start building houses again because they can finally be approved for a mortgage, which will in turn create more jobs in the construction industry and so forth and so forth.

I usually don't like going against my party too often, but in this instance I firmly believe that a swift passing of this bailout is necessary. In the headlines it may look like a break for big business but the ramifications will "trickle" down to Main Street. Besides -- can the US government afford additional stimulus on top of the basic bailout package?