Panic, Damn You!

John McCain joins President Bush and Secretary of Goldman Sachs Henry Paulson in the "pass-this-bill-or-prepare-to-eat-garbage" coalition:

If the financial rescue bill fails in Congress yet again, the present crisis will turn into a disaster. As credit disappears, students will no longer be able to get loans for college, and families looking for a new home will be unable to get a loan. New car sales will come to a halt. Businesses will have difficulty securing credit for operations and may be unable to pay employees. If we fail to act, the gears of our economy will grind to a halt.

At this point I'm amazed that he (or his many alarmist cohorts) left out the part about being forced to sell ourselves into white slavery to the Red Chinese….

Remember back when people jumped all up in Alan Greenspan's grill just for him uttering the phrase "irrational exuberance"? We now have the president, his Cabinet, and his would-be successor predicting imminent economic collapse if we don't immediately pass a trillion-dollar bailout rescue that will force taxpayers to overpay for currently illiquid mortgage-based debt instruments. And oh yeah, there might be a financial "panic." Ya think?

Has there ever been a two-week period when America's putative leaders expressed less faith in the country they claim to run?