My Senators Also Voted for the Bailout Bill

October 1, 2008 by TFB

The United States Senate passed the bailout bill 74-25. The votes are here . Both of my senators voted Yes. I'd like to think they were fooled, like they were on the WMDs.

The bailout bill, if also passed by the House, will benefit me personally in the immediate term. The value of my mutual fund portfolio will go up or at least not go down as much otherwise. Its long term effect on me is probably negative. As a productive citizen, I will be forced to pay for all this.

[Update on Oct. 2, 2008] The text of the Senate bill (via NPR).

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Comments

3 Comments on My Senators Also Voted for the Bailout Bill

  1. Andy on October 2, 2008 | permalink
    2.  

    I am in the same boat as you. As I discussed in a recent post, the short term effects of the bailout will be to probably restore some market confidnce and liquidity. However long term we continue to grow our national debt (upto $10 Trillon now), devalue our dollar and spend our future generations monies. Per a recent quote from a commenter "As a taxpayer you should be appalled. – As an investor, be relieved"

    Great blog you have here and adding to my RSS reader.

  2. Sammy on October 2, 2008 | permalink
    3.  

    So are you rethinking whether a Roth 401k might be a better option?

  3. TFB on October 3, 2008 | permalink
    4.  

    Sammy – No, not yet. It's so hard to predict future tax rates. Even if you think taxes will have to be higher in the future, exactly when is the question. Say I'm going to retire 20 years from now. Will the tax increase kick in 2 years from now and then drop back down again 20 years from now? Or will the increase happen 17 years from now and stay high or go higher and higher for 30 years after that? Those questions are impossible to answer. For the time being, I'll take the bird-in-hand approach even if it may not prove to be optimal in retrospect.

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