"We need this to be clean and to be quick, and we need to get it in place."We're focusing most of our attention on the numbers, rightly so -- asking American taxpayers to take a $700 billion gamble (and that's both conservative and kind) should meet with fierce opposition.
I fear, however, that we may be overlooking greater dangers. Take, for example, this provision from Section 8 -- no kidding -- of Sec. Paulson's draft proposal:
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."Disturbing as it is, there's more where that came from. I tend to agree with what Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd said in his opening statement today:
"After reading this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not just our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution as well."So what we have here is more than an ill-conceived proposal to postpone (not prevent) the inevitable collapse of our broken economy -- it's a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to grab power from The People and our representatives.
We cannot allow that.
