I do like the Republican idea of offering an insurance program in lieu of the case bail out. It's just unfortunate that we're so f*cked at this time that only a flood of cash can help (or so they tell us)

A flood of cash has already been out there. It hasn't helped. What they are planning, in essence, is to make the Federal Government the owner of all the mortgage loans no one wants. Which means we will all own the paper, and the property, should they go into default. The people we buy them from, in the meantime, will be free (within poorly worded limits) to go off and make profit and continue to pay exorbitant salaries for totally BSing the American public.

Better that we make them long-term loans, and let them keep holding the assets. The loans should be setup in such a way that they have low payments for the time being to give these companies the ability to function again and not worry so much about the debt servicing. If the bad loans fail in any case, it will give the companies time to deal with the assets and get them dealt with. The fact that they will have a low interest long term loan to service will make it something they have work on with the auspices of their shareholders over the long term.

Giving them a long term loan with certain conditions on payback and operations - like compensation limits, and percentage of profits used to service their debt - will be better for all of us. Lets hope the government can come up with a better plan than just buying all their bad assets and dumping them on the rest of us.

Getting out to vote is the important part, no matter who you support.

Here's the thing I don't understand. Republicans are for deregulation and free markets, however when it gets to this point many conservatives want the market to correct itself. Is that realistic? Things are too interwined don't u think?

Yes, that is true.

Which is why they are even considering anything like what is going on right now. But if the Federal Government is going to have to create money out of thin air it is probably better that they lend the money out then pay it out and get something of uncertain or no value in return. Plus if the government buys the assets, that means they have to put a bureaucracy in place to manage them.

But no one wants these institutions to fail, and the resultant super devaluation of homes would be devastating.