The pending bailout legislation does not offer realistic solutions to our current financial problems.

Within the next 24 hours, House members will get another chance to vote on financial bailout legislation. They rejected the first bailout bill on Monday, and they should reject the second version, too.

The new legislation would not fix our economic problems. It contains a slew of extraneous and irrelevant provisions, such as increased spending on alternative energy and rural schools and mandates for mental health parity in health insurance.

To be sure, the second bailout bill is better than the first one, since it would raise the level of bank deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from $100,000 to $250,000 and thus give Americans more confidence in the banking system. Yet Congress could pass this measure on its own, rather than rush through complex and misguided legislation.

Congress is hurrying because President Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and Senators McCain and Obama are telling Americans that the sky will fall if members don’t act. This fear-mongering has forced Congress to vote on poorly-considered legislation. Our leaders are like the two-year-old who says, “If I don’t have my way, I won’t breathe.” We should hold them to their idle threats.

In his address to the nation last week, Bush warned of dire consequences if a bailout bill did not pass: “More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet. Foreclosures would rise dramatically…. Even if you have good credit history, it would be more difficult for you to get the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college.”

Unfortunately, the pending bailout legislation does not offer realistic solutions to our current financial problems. Indeed, it promises more than it can deliver.

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