Here’s what the McCain campaign has to say about the current state of affairs:
To address our current financial crisis, John McCain suspended his campaign and returned to Washington, D.C., today to help build a bipartisan consensus for a proposal that would protect the American taxpayer.Despite today’s news reports, there never existed a “deal,” but merely a proposal offered by a small, select group of Members of Congress. As of right now, there exists only a series of principles, including greater oversight and measures to address CEO pay. However, these principles do not enjoy a consensus in Congress. At today’s cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan. John McCain simply urged that for any proposal to enjoy the confidence of the American people, stressing that all sides would have to cooperate and build a bipartisan consensus for a solution that protects taxpayers. However, the Democrats allowed Senator Obama to run their side of the meeting. That did not work as the meeting quickly devolved into a contentious shouting match that did not seek to craft a bipartisan solution. At this moment, the plan that has been put forth by the Administration does not enjoy the confidence of the American people as it will not protect that taxpayers and will sacrifice Main Street in favor of Wall Street. The bottom line is that as of tonight, there are not enough Republican or Democrat votes for the current plan. However, we are still optimistic that a bipartisan solution will be found. Republicans and Democrats want a deal that will protect the taxpayers. Tomorrow, John McCain will return to Capitol Hill where he will work with all sides to build a bipartisan solution that protects taxpayers and keeps Americans in their homes.
That’s certainly where the priorities ought to be: to protect responsible taxpayers and let the burden of the crisis fall on those who have been irresponsible (which means, among other things, shooting down Richard Durbin’s efforts to get the irresponsible off the hook at everyone else’s expense); unfortunately, the lobbying dollars are not with the taxpayer, they’re with the same folks whose irresponsibility and bad policies got us into this to begin with, so at the moment, I’m not real optimistic. Still, I think Megan McArdle’s right, we need to make the best deal we can make, even if we don’t think it’s a good one; if we don’t, here’s what we’re looking at (according to John Podhoretz, anyway):
If a deal isn’t reached by Sunday night, and a bill isn’t signed into law by Sunday night, it is likely we will wake up Monday morning to a market meltdown overseas of a sort the world has never seen—and then we will just wait, mute, until the American markets open. Monday will be an interesting test case: We will see just how much poorer the investing class can get in just one day. And then, a second day. And then, a week. As the whirlwind begins its reaping.
And by “the investing class” he doesn’t just mean the rich; he means all of us who need to save for the future, and have been doing so, and who could watch those savings blow away in the wind from Wall Street. Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, you have 72 hours; if you get this wrong, they could be, to all intents and purposes, the last 72 hours of your political careers. Use them wisely.