The GOP Alternative

Justin Fox gives his view of the conservative alternative to the bailout deal. He says it “seems to be a joke.”

It calls for a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax to “encourag[e] corporations to sell unwanted assets.” But the toxic mortgage securities clogging up bank balance sheets are worth less now than when they were acquired. Meaning that no capital gains tax would be owed on them anyway. If you repealed the tax, banks would have even less incentive to sell them because they wouldn’t be able use the losses to offset capital gains elsewhere. Seriously, where do these people come up with this stuff?

Meanwhile, John McCain’s view is that he doesn’t have time to debate tonight because we don’t have a deal on the bailout while at the same time he’s the one preventing a deal from being reached.