I'd prefer not to elaborate beyond that other than to say neither of us are interested in seeing America sink any lower in the eyes of the world or down the socio-economic totem pole.

He makes a good case for the left's reflexive defense of the Obama plan and attacks the Repulican conservative right.

We differ in that I believe the Republican conservative right, which I myself supported during the last election, was crushed with the implosion of McCain.

Victory belonged, as it were, to the left. I waited to post anywhere until after the new President took office and make my critiques of his policies where I see them. I remain unconvinced he possesses the mettle, the intelligence, or the imagination and am eager to be proven wrong.

I've privately made exactly the case BTD makes here, that the left are actually more confused and nut-less with Dems in office. Obama won and won with the support of the left. Indeed, without the left HRC would be President now.

The cost of high-speed rail, energy, health, and education reform will be significantly higher than the current stimulus package allows. To their credit some Obama folks acknowledge as much.

The problem is bipartisanship. This package should have been beefed-up to include nationalization and rammed down Republican's throats while they were still on the mat.

With them back in the game, and Republicans at the grass-roots level looking much sparkier than their bone-headed leaders, Dems are going to face opposition from Republicans running against big government and bail-outs of both the big and small defaulter.

I think the logistics make for a formidable challenge, though.  Let's assume we need new laws and a new appropriation of funds in order for a nationalization of major banks to take place.

Announcing "we want the legal authority to nationalize certain banks, I call upon Congress to pass a bill" would ratchet up the uncertainty in the financial markets by several orders of magnitude.  We would see the sort of runs on the banks that we have desperately been trying to avoid.

Announcing "we want the authority to nationalize banks X, Y, and Z" might not be much prettier, although it seems preferable.  There's a reason why the FDIC just shows up on Friday afternoon, after all, and doesn't publicize its plans in advance.

But is there any alternative?  It seems impossible to negotiate a bill of this magnitude in secret.  If it's not something that Treasury can do within its existing authority, getting the additional authority requires a mustering of political will that isn't going to happen easily.