Forget Obama and McCain, This is Huge

In recent weeks, the left-of-center blogs' primary focus was to progress their political agenda by helping elect candidates who support their values. It's easy to forget that they're still able to write dozens of posts a day during non-election season. The last few days have been a partial taste of that phenomena, grouped around the looming bailout of US financial firms on their last legs.

Regardless of where one stands on the Bush administration's proposed measures, most can agree that they're unprecedented. Headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, now a household name, the Bush administration is proposing a bailout in the amount of $700 billion. This sum may or may not faze you, but it certainly has some left-of-center bloggers up in arms.

The Democracy Now! blog, a popular liberal blog based on the prominent liberal radio program of the same name, quoted Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders yesterday:

For years now, they’ve told us that we can’t afford — that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can’t be done. We don’t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don’t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can’t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street.

After coming across that quote on the Democracy Now! blog, I was surprised when it wasn't reposted on one of our canon left-of-center blogs. Who better to advocate the ideology and goals of the left-of-center blogs than the first self-described socialist to be elected to the U.S. Senate?

Even considering spiking oil prices, the McCain campaign's lies and Mr. Obama's access to the media, the Bush Administration's proposal is the most urgent news story of the week. If you're not yet convinced, the devil is in the details.

At least one left-of-center blogger flushed out these details today. Ezra Klein writes a detailed post on the "five worst problems with the bailout bill". Although his criticisms are too detailed to properly quote here, Mr. Klein's focus is the bill's implementation. The attacks range from the economic principles the bill evokes to mend the crisis, to its giving Mr. Paulson "almost unlimited power with virtually no oversight" on his journey.

After taking a few minutes to read Mr. Klein's post, you may still wonder why I claim this issue supersedes anything else involved in the Presidential election this week. Simply put, the economic effects of this proposed legislation will be felt for decades, and like many other legacies of the Bush Administration, it is precedent-setting. It fundamentally changes the power of the Treasury Secretary, a position appointed by the President. Even if we could assume 100% trust in Mr. Paulson, no one can predict the potential ethics violations and financial exploits of future Presidential appointees.

It's safe to assume that the bailout will dominate press coverage for several days. It remains to be seen to what extent Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain will get in on the hoopla for political gain.

Returning to my sense of urgency, I hope that either or both candidates use their political clout to derail the fast-track this proposed legislation is on right now. If this legislation passes "as is", we may be left wondering what happened to the principle of checks and balances that our founding fathers held so dear.