"Republicans soak the rich (and you)" update

From Brad DeLong:

Mark Kleiman:

Magnitudes: Total value of the bailout bill: $700 billion. Net cost to the taxpayer: unknown, but much less than that [$100 billion]. Drop in the value of U.S. stocks today when the bill failed to pass: $1.3 trillion.

That's not quite the right comparison. There is also a loss of $2.0 trillion or so in lost wages corresponding to the lost expected profits that are reflected in the stock market declines.

The House Republicans thus have a benefit-cost ratio of -30-to-1.

That's not just rich people's yachts, it's middle-class people's retirements. If your 401K has all its money in the Vanguard 500 index fund (the most widely used S&P 500 index fund), then yesterday you lost 8.8% of your nest egg. That's years of your hard-earned savings, vanished in one day.

And yes, if you're rich, you also just lost your yacht.

Of course, some of that stock market value may or may not come back (stocks made a big comeback today). But how good do feel about being governed by a party that doesn't mind kicking U.S. wealth right off a cliff because of a "partisan speech" given by their opposition?

The Republican party doesn't serve the interests of rich people any more. It doesn't serve the interests of businesses. It sure as hell doesn't serve the middle class. Whose interests does it serve? Heck if I know. But whoever they're serving, they have 49% of the Senate, 47% of the House of Representatives, and they have the Presidency. And they have more than half the cable news commentators defending everything they do.

And if you believe the polls, their candidate is on track to get 43% of our votes come November. Is this some kind of a joke?

Speaking of jokes, I've heard it said that "If you're under 30 and vote Republican, you don't have a heart. If you're over 30 and vote Democrat, you don't have a brain." Chuckle, chuckle. Well, to whoever invented that joke, here's a little joke of mine:

You're a complete blithering f***tard! LOLZ!