Wall Street Bail-Out Fails in the House

By a vote of 207-228. Perhaps this means we'll get another stab at converting large chunks of our economy to a socialist model. Perhaps it just means that the House knew how outraged their constituents would be if this hand-out passed.

Ultimately, I don't think that giving the money to Wall Street would solve the problem. If it is true that we have $700 billion laying around to give to firms who lost their money honestly (perhaps crookedly), I believe the better bet would be to offer an unprecedented stimulus to the American economy by giving every adult American an equal share of that pie. Why is this such a bad idea? As of 2006, the Census Bureau estimated that almost a quarter of Americans were under the age of 18, out of a total population of 300,000,000. That's 75,000,000 minors, leaving 225,000,000 persons over the age of 18.
Here's the math: $700,000,000,000 divided by 225,000,000 = $3111.11 per American over the age of 18.
We all know that Wall Street is only going to get itself in trouble again, or find some way to weasel out of its obligations from whatever version of the bail-out bill passes. Give the money to ordinary Americans. Those bankers who have helped cause the crisis we are now in are Americans, too, and so of course they will get their $3111.
Assume that money is taxed at a rate of 20% (in places too low, in places too high, but a good middle number depending on the bracket). That's $622 less $3111 = $2489. $622 x 225,000,000 = $140 billion right back into the government coffers to make the total cost of this unprecedented economic stimulus a paltry $560 billion.
Let's make it happen!