Who to vote for in 2008

I’ve come up with an easy way to decide whether or not to vote for an incumbent in any congressional election this cycle.

Here are a pair of links:
House Roll Call Vote on “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”
Senate Roll Call Vote on “A bill to provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes.”

Here’s how to vote: lookup the incumbent candidate in your area. If they voted NO (or Nay) on the appropriate piece of legislation, vote FOR them. If they voted Yes (or Yay, or I’m an idiot and will listen to political panic rather than economists), vote AGAINST them.

See? Isn’t that easy?

I did it wrong!

“To help struggling homeowners, the plan requires the government to try renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers’ monthly payments so they can keep their homes.”
Deal reached on financial markets bailout

Obviously, I should have gotten a highly suspect mortgage two years ago, rather than actually reading the fine print and deciding NOT to gamble with my financial future. Had I done that, Super Government would save me, too!

EDIT: Proposed legislation. Reading it now.