WHERE’S MAIN STREET?….Matt asks a question:
Here’s what I don’t understand about either the politics or the policy of the bailout failure. If the situation is as dire as Kevin Drum says then where’s corporate America? That swathe of American business that isn’t in the finance and housing sectors. ExxonMobil, Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Google, Chevron, etc.
Actually, I’ve been wondering the same thing. Here are two guesses.
First, these guys all thought the bill was going to pass. Sure, there’d be lots of grandstanding and high drama, but in the end they figured everyone would act like adults and understand that allocating money to buy a fire hose is a good idea when the economy is on fire. So there wasn’t a big sense of urgency.
Second, they might have been sensitive to the possibility that their support would just make things worse. Saving “Main Street,” to most Americans, means the dry cleaners down the street, not ExxonMobil. They’re mad enough already about bailing out Wall Street, and if they thought they were bailing out ExxonMobil too — well, that might just be the last straw.
Anyway, those are just guesses. But I’ll bet there’s way more business lobbying going on behind the scenes today than there was last week. That might make the difference if the House takes up the bill again on Wednesday.
