Thank you to the Arizona Delegation

Thanks to all 8 of the Arizona Congressional Delegation for voting no on the bailout bill. Its great to see that some things can be bad enough that everyone agrees that its a stinker. I don't always agree with our delegation with all of the things that they do. I sometimes question the local politics that they do or do not decide to be a part of. However, in this case, my sincerest thanks goes out to each one of them for keeping an eye out for the taxpayer.

As other blogs have reported, part of the reason that the bill failed was because of the negative speech that Speaker Pelosi gave right before the vote. I will be curious to see if Pelosi is more well behaved this next time around. Unfortunately, I believe that chances are some sort of bailout is probably going to pass.

I think that in the longrun the bailout will only stunt the rebound of our economy. Its not a bad thing to shake out the bad debt and let things start with a new slate. There will ways to recover - ways to make money. Heck, look at Mesa. Things could not have been more dire two years ago. Voters roundly rejected a property tax and the city was forced to make cuts (not as deep as they threatened, but still). All confidence was lost in the council, and it was clear that change needed to happen.

Since then, things have started to turn around. It has taken time, but sometimes things must be broken down before they can be built back up. The failure of the property tax is probably what has lead to Waveyard (hopefully), the new Council and Mayor Smith, and the growth opportunities around Gateway and with the new Gaylord project.