Shame on Congress!

Years before many of the investment bankers responsible for the financial crisis now gripping our nation were even born, an unprecedented event shook the world. On October 6, 1973, Egypt launched a surprise attack on the State of Israel.

Far from a coincidence, the date had been chosen to inflict the maximum amount of damage possible. Only ten days after Rosh Hashana, the start of the Jewish new year, October 6th was the absolute holiest of Jewish holidays: Yom Kippur. For thousands of years, Jews worldwide typically spent the holiday praying, fasting, and asking God for forgiveness, and for the two-and-a-half decades that Israel had been in existence, Jews in Israel also avoided using electricity, automobiles, or fire, bringing the country to a virtual halt. 1973 was different from most years, however. In 1973, for many, choosing to pray meant risking death, and the survival of Israel was at stake. Consequently, the Israeli Defense Force fought for three weeks straight, eventually pushing Syria out of the Golan Heights and Egypt west of the Suez Canal. Despite the gravity of the holiday, it was clear to Jews everywhere that there was no option but to fight, however upset it might make God.

Thirty-five years later, such clarity seems to have been lost in the midst of adversaries far more subtle and confounding than actual armies: negatively sloping graphs on CNBC and credit-default swaps. The 110th Congress -- one day after failing to reassure not only the United States of America, but the entire world, by passing legislation that would have allowed investors to grant some semblance of trust to their fellow creditors and debtors -- decided to do the only thing it could do. Recess.

Though tanks are not bearing down on the Beltway, make no mistake about it -- lives are on the line now, just as they were for Israel. With employer-based health care coverage in an already fragmented, disastrous state (thanks to previous Republican Congresses), even those lucky enough to be insured for medical conditions today may not be so lucky one month from now. Tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs as a result of the events that transpire in the days to come, just as thousands on Wall Street already have. In this country, not having a job means not having the health insurance you might need to pay for an operation that could save your life. (Just ask anyone suffering from cancer who was fired from their job, but can't declare bankruptcy anymore thanks to the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005.)

Yet with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana bearing down, there was simply nothing the House of Representatives could do. Joseph Lieberman would be gone from...the Senate. Jewish Representatives wouldn't be able to think on...the thought of empty stomachs that they might have to grapple with on Yom Kippur, ten days away. Indeed, there was seemingly no way that the fraction of Jewish politicians in the House could stay in Washington to decide the economic fate of the nation. Naturally, this meant that non-Jewish Representatives deserved breaks, too.

Let it be known: the actions of those 435 members of Congress who comprise the House of Representatives -- and the decisions of those Jewish Congressmen who left Washington especially -- are nothing less than deplorable. Each Representative absent from the confines of the Capitol should be deeply ashamed, for at this moment, there is nothing more important to the security of our nation -- and therefore to the security of the State of Israel, one of the United States's staunchest allies -- than ensuring the immediate stability of the economy. Whatever you might think of Henry Paulson's $700 billion bailout package -- and there is no question it was deeply flawed -- given that the stock market and credit markets will be opening on time on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, there is absolutely no excuse for any holiday to interrupt the work that needs to be done to craft at least a partial antidote to the current mess.

That is not to say that there is anything wrong with ordinary American Jews going to synagogue on the High Holidays -- far from it. The ability to observe religious events as one sees fit is one of America's great virtues. Nonetheless, government officials have a responsibility to put their country before their personal lives, and it is not unreasonable to think that doing so might involve missing certain holidays or events, however important. After all, as we have all seen over the past several months, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department worked on divvying up failing banks over weekends specifically to avoid inciting panic in the markets during the week. (Most of the dire announcements came on Sundays.) What Congress has done is the exact opposite. It has failed to serve voters, and fled the scene. It's both shocking and pathetic.

We still have much to learn, apparently. When Israel was in desperate straits and required decisive action to save the country, its political leaders and soldiers were there to save it. Now that America finds itself in the same position, its leaders are using religion as a poor excuse to leave citizens on their own, while simultaneously raising the chance of precipitating an even more severe global panic than the one they helped create the day before. "Happy New Year," indeed.

At least one thing is clear: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's view of the world is wrong. For if there is a Zionist conspiracy to selfishly rule the world, the Zionists are conspicuously absent.

Aaron Greenspan is the author of Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era.

Follow Aaron Greenspan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thinkcomp

Comments

[schatsie]

What are you talking about? We bottom 80% have seen no increase in our incomes in the last 40 years while Wall Street had a party, offshoring jobs, increasing interest rates, blowing up the housing bubble and loosing pensions and healthcare.... Increasing Payroll taxes and giving the message that spending was good for the economy... You know before the MASSIVE Payroll tax increase of 5%, we were saving 5%

This did not happen overnight, and is a result of institutionalizing greed in the rich with the fantasy that something would trickle down... It did not AT ALL and now they have the MASSIVE HUBRIS to dump their bad debts on us..

Hopefully we will have an new revolution....

[strangelet]

Excuse me, but this is a pointless rant. Legislation is not written by having 400+ representatives sit in a big room and yell at each other. I am reasonably sure that the specific legislators and administration folks who have to figure out what to propose next will be meeting on Tues and Wed, just like they did over the weekend.

The failure of the bill on Monday demonstrated (at least) two things: (1) the House Republican leadership is incapable of delivering their members' votes on a controversial bill; and (2) members from both parties who face tight reelection races are afraid to vote for anything that looks like a "handout to Wall Street", based on polls and voter communications to their offices.

Condition (1) is not going to change soon, so there would be no point in simply revoting the measure in the next day or two. Condition (2) may change -- there is already evidence that popular opinion is swinging in the direction of realizing that some kind of rescue plan is really needed -- but it will require time for "nervous" members to re-evaluate their best personal political strategy.

Bottom line -- there is little for most members of Congress to do on this matter for at least a few days, except think about it. Different situation from, say, Israeli pilots in 1973.

[Aaron Greenspan - Huffpost Blogger]

strangelet,

I'm afraid I completely disagree. There is a lot for Congress to do on this matter, and the last thing they should do is simply sit around and "think about it" while the credit markets tighten further and world markets unravel. What they should do is work toward a direct equity investment plan that puts as little taxpayer money on the line as possible, while reassuring investors and banks that the entire system has the full backing of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

Both the Treasury and the Fed are meeting today and tomorrow, but Congress is definitely in recess, with individual members discussing issues only informally. I can't imagine a worse time. This crisis demands a formal response, and every day counts.

Aaron

[jhNY]

And I completely disagree with you. The Congress you write about does not exist, the consensus implied in the construction of "what they should do" is unrepresentative of anything but what you, a single person, would prefer to see take place, and however many readers you can convince to agree with you. And how in hell can anybody reassure anybody else that the "full backing of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve" means anything but a willingness to pass along private debt to the federal deficit and to print wheelbarrows full of money to "pay" its myriad obligations? The future value of the dollar is a black hole, thanks to this quality of reassurance.

And besides, it's evidently unnecessary. Yesterday, the Feds gave away ('made available' I suppose is the preferred phrase) to banks in need the same amount of bilions we had thought were on the line with the bail-out vote, without anybody else having to vote or anything!

[larry278]

Jewish members of the US Congress may not be sabras but they are Americans, fearless Americans. We gentiles with Yiddishe kops know that. Jewish people often think fast, very rapidly.

[STEW2949]

Aaron, I couldn't agree with you more. Once again religion has conflicted with state affairs and our leaders have failed us. I fear that the public is now very confused; Is this the most serious crisis since the Great Depression or just another stunt to make moree profits for the rich and bloated?
For my part I am sure that we need quick action to instill confidence in our economy. Sadly a strong leader has not emerged. Nancy Pelosi has been vilified for stating the obvious, at perhaps the wrong time, and Mr. Paulson is unable to articulate his case in an inspirational way. John McCain has not the credibility following his recent attempts to gimmick his way up the polls and back in a race he would win at all costs. Barack Obama is trapped by virtue of the fact that he is not the President (yet) and knows that he must keep his campaign away from Washington, where it only confuses the issues. Our present 'Leader' appears daily with a long face that is so pained as he again confronts a problem he has created, he has no ability or desire to inspire!
The Israelis in 1973 had leaders they would die for. More importantly the devout among them set aside their religious principles to defend their nation. We sadly lack both.