$700 Billion Bailout A Shot In The Dark?

I'm not going to pretend I really understand what is going on with our economic health here in the US. I know it has something to do with lenders making financially suicidal loans to people who were either greedy, or weren't willing to understand what they were getting in to. I know the nation is in a dark hour and based on what the government does it could get a lot worse. I know I don't trust the government, especially congress, to do the right thing primarily because the "right" thing is a hard thing.

I'm not convinced the bailout is the answer. Do the american people really benefit from it? It seems to me it just takes the american people down the same road we'd be bailing the financial institution out of---spending money we don't have. And it's not just the financial institutions we'd be bailing out. We'd be taking on the debt of cities and towns that have over spent. We'd be bailing out labor unions and others.

And where did congress get the $700 billion figure? Did they do their due diligence to figure out what they're buying? ABSOLUTELY NOT! They haven't had the time. (BTW, why are they in such a hurry?) Apparently they pulled the number out of their... um... hat. Here is a quote concerning the figure from Forbes:

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Well, $700 billion is a BIG number alright. But is it big enough? And if it doesn't work, how much more will they need in a few months?

I'm afraid we need to bite the bullet and take the correction now (Boy, I hope I'm prepared) because the alternative is Socialism. And, if that time comes it will be time for us to stand and rend our coats.