The truth of the matter is the government takeover of those entities could very easily cost the U.S. taxpayers  $1 trillion or (much) more in additional debt--not the fictionally absurd and obsolete figure of $25 billion being floated about this weekend by the Bush administration--to bailout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Add that backbreaking tab to an already-very-precarious U.S. budget that's been speeding along on our fastrack to national bankruptcy for the past eight years, and we have the equivalent financial burden of a ton of bricks--to add to the ton of bricks we're already carrying--on the backs of  not just taxpayers today, but for many decades to come.

Is the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout an inevitable conclusion? Perhaps.  The alternative (not doing this now) could very easily be instantaneous economic Depression. Instead, we're opting for a long, drawnout downturn that could take multiple presidential terms for us to recover.

But, it is the manner by which Bush and McCain are trying to sell this to us now which makes my stomach turn and my blood boil!

This is all being not-so-subtly hinted at in today's/Sunday's coverage of the matter in the NY Times "Mortgage Giants Agreeable to Rescue Plan, but Its Cost Is Unknown." And, it's going to be up to every responsible citizen in this country to scream bloody murder right now--as in today and tomorrow--about this....

 The administration is not expected to say how much the bailout ultimately will cost, in part because it does not know how much the Treasury will be able to ultimately sell the assets for. It could be politically uncomfortable to put a price tag on a huge bailout, only two months before the presidential election. The Congressional Budget Office said two months ago that it was impossible to say how much a bailout would cost, but estimated $25 billion based on the companies' projected losses at the time.

(Bold-type emphasis is mine. Please read this again, too!)

Bob Herbert, also in this weekend's NY Times, addresses the same issues of Bush and McCain, and the entire GOP, in "[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/opinion/06herbert.html?em
Running From Reality.]"

If there was one pre-eminent characteristic of the Republican convention this week, it was the quality of deception. Words completely lost their meaning. Reality was turned upside down...

(--SNIP--)

...you would never have known that the Republicans have been in power over the past several years and used that titanic power to lead the country to its present sorry state.

(--SNIP--)

...McCain spoke at the end of a day in which stock market indexes plunged. The next morning the Labor Department gave us the grim news that another 84,000 jobs had been lost in August, and that the official unemployment rate had climbed to 6.1 percent -- the highest in five years.

It stretches the mind almost to the breaking point to think of John McCain as an agent of substantive change.

Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama, made a couple of very interesting statements after speaking with Treasury Secretary Paulson late Friday, and as reported in Saturday's NY Times by Elisabeth Bumiller and Jeff Zeleny: "Campaigns Voice Support for Rescue of Fannie and Freddie."

Senator Barack Obama, in comments to reporters in Terre Haute, Ind., said that although he supported the concept of a takeover, he would withhold final judgment until the Treasury Department released a detailed outline of the plan.

(--SNIP--)

"There is no doubt that what was taking place in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was in many instances irresponsible -- it may have been illegal," Mr. Obama said.

Well, contrary to the headline in the NY Times piece, it's good to hear our candidate saying these things.

Let's hope that our candidates at the top of the ticket continue to expound on this theme over the next day or two, as well.

Contrasting that with what we're hearing from the other side of the presidential campaign, it's not even worth me wasting my time providing you with the meaningless responses McCain and Palin made in this article! (Read the article for their worthless comments, which really didn't address the matter, other than endorsing the bailout now.) But, as far as they're concerned, it's: 'Yeah, go ahead and hand over that blank check to George W. Bush now, because that'll keep the real story from getting out before Election Day.'

But, here's what McCain's chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said:

...Mr. McCain saw the takeover as distasteful but essential. "You've got to do what they're doing today," Mr. Holtz-Eakin said. "You make every effort to insulate the mortgage and financial markets from financial distress so there's no further harm to homeowners and businesses in general."

"You've got to do what they're doing today?" Oh, really? What exactly are they doing today? The Republicans are hiding the extent of this mess from us as I write this. And, they're doing everything they can to turn this into something entirely different than it is. Gosh! How out of character for the G.O.P., huh? (See Mr. Herbert's comments from today's NY Times, above!)

Yesterday, I wrote about the reality that this Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac could easily cost taxpayers over $1 trillion RIGHT HERE.

I truly hope these four words--all from Obama's acceptance speech 10 days ago at Invesco Field in Denver--become the mantra of Obama/Biden, and all Democrats, especially right now, but over the next eight weeks, as well....

"Enough!"

(and)

"Own your failure!"

It's truly important, both as we make it clear  who's to blame for this economic mess--and perhaps more importantly the true EXTENT of it which is being hidden from the public right now--and in terms of how the next president (or two or three presidents) will be busy spending much of their time digging us out of it, that it was the George Bush and John McCain that brought us to where we are today.

Yes. Today.

No matter how the GOP tries to trivialize it or lie to us about it, it is McCain and Palin that have to "own their failure."

And, it is a failure of massive and historical proportions, too. (It's not "a $25 billion problem," no matter how much the MSM and the Republicans would like us to believe that is the case now.)

So, if we succeed at getting just those three words ("Own your failure!") across about the G.O.P., constantly between now and Election Day, by underscoring the true extent of this Fannie and Freddie failure now, then the American public--Democrats and Independents and even many Republicans--will go right ahead  on their own volition, and via their votes, they'll tell the Republicans (Obama's fourth word from his acceptance speech) on November 4th: "Enough!"