The Republican Senator from Minnesota, Norm Coleman, said during a campaign stop at Christy's Cafe in North Mankato this weekend, "The government could make 10 or 20 times what it pays on this [bailout], possibly". His statement was in reference to the current bailout package for Wall Street that is currently being debated in Congress. The Bush administration has issued a sparsely described 3 page proposal that basically wants the taxpayers to pony up $700 billion dollars to bail out failing Wall Street firms. The Bush proposal would give unprecedented powers to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to execute the bailout as he sees fit without any congressional oversight. Wait a minute isn't that how we got into this mess?

Norm Coleman described the massive government bailout of failing financial institutions as necessary and could even end up being a good deal for the federal government. Unfortunately, the proposal that the Bush Administration is pushing forward at record speed doesn't exactly describe how the taxpayer would ever be paid back if on the extremely slim chance the taxpayer doesn't end up holding only a brown paper bag of excrement.

Apparently what Norm Coleman wants us to believe is that this could be a great deal for us. He seems to think that we as taxpayers should be happy that we are investing our tax dollars in toilet paper instead of something like gold. Wall Street CEO's are bailing like rats off a sinking ship and Norm Coleman wants us to believe that we could actually make money on this deal. Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich from Ohio called the deal today, "Cash for Trash". Other progressives are calling the bailout the end result of 30 years of failed Republican economic policies with a final push by them to "privatize profits" and "socialize their risk" on the backs of the U.S. taxpayer.

We should apparently be thankful to the Republicans for allowing us to trade in three ounces of gold for a roll of toilet paper.