Why three pages became a novel

The original bailout bill first rejected by the House was only about three pages long. Later that week, the Senate revived the Frankenstein monster, which was now the length of a novel. Why so much longer? The better to hide the pork spending, of course. Oh, and also to hide obscure authorities not discussed with the public beforehand:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced late Friday night that the government would buy part ownership in an array of American banks.

President Hoover tried something like that in 1932 during the Great Depression. No detail was provided about how the new approach would work, only that it was similar to Britain's move to pour cash into its troubled banks in exchange for stakes in them.

The rescue program originally was sold to Congress and the public as a plan to buy mortgage-related loans from financial institutions. The goal was to remove troubled assets from those institutions' books and inspire them to restart more normal lending operations.

Congress passed the massive and hard-fought legislation, and Bush signed it. The government raised the amount of bank deposits it insured. Billions of dollars of reserves have gone into banking systems in the U.S. and other countries. Yet credit, the economy's lifeblood, has remained virtually frozen.

This paralysis in the credit markets has translated into intense turmoil in the stock markets. The Dow Jones industrial average just completed its worst week in history, plummeting more than 18 percent. Over the past year, people in the U.S. have watched $8.4 trillion drain from investment accounts and retirement savings.

So the administration decided to use the bailout bill to pump equity directly into the banks - an idea never mentioned during the congressional debate. The administration says it is authorized in an obscure corner of the 400-page legislation.

I guess so long as Congress tucks the authority away in some 'obscure corner' of legislation, they can do whatever they want, regardless of how many Americans may oppose their agenda. Isn't rule by decree wonderful? No American should vote for ANY incumbent this year, at ANY level. It's time to throw them ALL out on their ears, and we may not have many more opportunities to do it with ballots.