Michael Moore can be kind of annoying, but he makes an excellent and unexpected point here (below), that the financial crisis is connected to Americans' lack of affordable health care. But you know what's really striking about this crisis? No one seems to really understand it. I've been reading about it and listening to people talk about it for a week, and there's absolutely no consensus about what's going on. Or what to do. It would actually be funny if it weren't so disturbing.

And so today the bailout failed to pass, through an unlikely coalition of the farther left and farther right. And others who were understandably afraid of losing their seats through supporting something which is so wildly unpopular with the average American. And why are Americans so hesitant to believe that if they don't support this thing, the sky will fall? Maybe because of all the lies of the past eight years, the "smoking gun that would become a mushroom cloud," Iraq's WMDs, etc. We just don't know what to believe anymore. And neither, it seems, do those in Washington...

(He's just one opinion, but Professor Nouriel Roubini, the doomsday economist who predicted the current crisis—people used to laugh at him—does not think the proposed bailout will work: "You're not resolving the two fundamental issues," he says. "You still have to recapitalize the banking system, and household debt is going to stay high.")

Michael Moore:
"...Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

"And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

"Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance. Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

"It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

"This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!" MORE MOORE...