Robert Kuttner argues that we should, but that the plan still has serious problems:
But what about the plan itself? Ever since the plan was unveiled, I have been urging that critics of it not festoon it with more benefits for homeowners and more limits on executive compensation -- but offer a whole other approach. The road not taken included direct government refinancing for homeowners instead of government mopping up of junk securities. With that approach, stability trickles up. The money markets get the same relief. But it's far more just to ordinary people and far better politics. The Democrats, alas, were not able to add more than modest additional homeowner help to the package.
The second basic difference in the alternative approach is the idea that government should become a part or full owner in failing financial institutions. Variants of this have been proposed by Jamie Galbraith, former Soros associate Rob Johnson, and Douglas Elmendorf of the Brookings Institution.
But Congress did not follow this path. So is the package worth voting for? It is, in my view, but just barely and only as a stopgap. Congress did add tighter controls, and does not permit Paulson to go out and spend the whole $700 billion at once.
James Galbraith considers how much the plan will cost and whether it will work:
Whatever happens, if my analysis is correct, even if the bill is passed the issues will not go away. The $700 billion will permit parts of the banking system to be reorganized. I doubt it will cure an underlying problem of illiquid securities many times larger than that. I believe that as banking consolidation proceeds, alongside the decline and fall of the "shadow banking system," the fact that deposit insurance, regulation, disposition of bad assets and enforcement are the sensible way forward will become increasingly apparent. In short, I would do these things now if I could. But if they are not done now, they will still have to be done later, even if this bill is passed.
And Courtney Martin writes that it's refreshing to see politicians actually discussing the economic challenges faced by average Americans:
A $700 billion bailout for the country's richest is being framed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as a gift for the country's most average. The middle class, he and the Republican fear-peddlers argue, will have to suffer the slings and arrows of a desolate economy if the big banks aren't restored to royalty. True, credit must be repaired so that students and small business owners can take out loans, but let's be honest, there are no superheroes for the middle class here. We've already been thrown on the tracks.
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