Do we have to act?--Unfortunately, Yes

Over the past few weeks and this economic crisis, I have done a lot of research and talked to some very knowledgeable people on all this. These are my current conclusions:

1. The first "bailout" bill was not a good bill. It is good that it did not fly.
2. The revised "buyout" bill that failed yesterday, was better. A much different beast.
3. Most importantly we need to have some significant bill to deal with this credit crunch. My initial reaction was the market will work it out--no federal involvement. Although I still see this perspective and share it's goals, I also see that something major needs to be done-
4. What to be done now? My hope is that although we conservatives would like a drastically different solution (capital gains tax reduction, etc) a pragmatic approach would be to fight to at least have these items in a revised/improved/passable bill-

a. --Change the Mark to Market accounting rules.
b. --Increase the FDIC insurance limits from $100,000 to $250,000
c. --Endorse an insurance plan funded by wall street to cover a significant portion of these potential losses from bad mortgages (some of this is there now).Dave Ramsey has an interesting take on all this on his web site "common sense plan"
d.--There will still likely need to be federal money to buyout the mortgages--I do not like this, but from the advice I have obtained, the President is correct in that the Government is the one that can wait out the markets and sell the properties when the market rises. All this restoring liquidity, etc. I am hoping the insurance provision can do the job without the buyout, but I am doubtful. I am worried about possible problems down the pike with all this federal involvement.
e.--as part of this or a separate piece of legislation-repeal Sarbaines/Oxley?

This "plan" is much better than the original and is politically pragmatic ie. enough so that Republicans AND, yes, enough Democrats will support it. IF the politics and Nancy Pelosi get out of the way, this bill will pass and we can move on. Inaction is not an option.

*Update April 2009--I was wrong. We should not have acted, at least not in this bailout way. It has gotten way out of hand.