Bailout vote scheduled for Monday a.m.

Here's the New York Times' report on the details of the bailout plan: Bailout Plan in Hand, House Braces for Tough Vote.

They have a link to the full text of the plan. It has grown to 110 pages from the 3 pages originally submitted as a proposal by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Common Dreams has reposted a McClatchy Newspapers report on the details of the bailout. From that article, here are the highlights of the bill:

-- $700 billion in a taxpayer rescue of Wall Street, with $250 billion available immediately, another $100 billion upon report to Congress and the final $350 billion available only upon action by Congress.

-- Money will be used to buy mortgage-backed securities and other troubled assets, taking them from investment banks, commercial banks, smaller community banks, pension plans and even local governments.

-- Government can use its power as the owner of the troubled mortgage bonds to facilitate modifications for the mortgages themselves.

-- Bipartisan oversight commission will monitor the program. If after five years there is a net loss to the taxpayers, president will have to submit legislative proposals to recoup funds from beneficiaries.

-- Democrats won new, unspecified restrictions on CEO pay and executive compensations for participating companies.

-- Republicans won language creating a parallel insurance program that companies can choose instead of giving up their bad assets.

-- Creation of warrants, which allows any windfall coming to participating companies to be shared with the government, thus the taxpayers.

-- Actions by Treasury will be posted online in real time.

--Judicial review of Treasury's actions.

According to the New York Times, Congress would actually have to vote to deny the final $350 in funding if the Treasury Secretary requested it, and this vote would be subject to a presidential veto.

I am less than inspired, and less than convinced that this bailout is necessary to save the US financial system. According to this article posted on Truthout, many actual economists are also skeptical about whether this rescue plan is needed and if it will work.

The New York Times says that it is still possible that the bailout plan will fail to pass Congress. I'm not sure what to think, but I think I might be relieved if the darned thing went down. I tried to start wading through the 110 pages of the bill, and on first glance it looked to me as if the reforms and regulations imposed on the plan were vague and difficult to enforce.

Furthermore, just Friday the Senate failed to pass a much more modest $56 billion economic stimulus bill. According to the Reuters news agency, this bill "would have extended unemployment benefits, increased food aid and funded new construction projects to create jobs."

It doesn't make sense to me that a bunch of rich white guys on Wall Street need help more than ordinary working people do.