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Award winning journalist Gary Baumgarten hosts the Newstalk show on Paltalk.com. He asks critical questions, and invites people from all around the world to talk directly to his newsmaker guests using Paltalk's voice over IP technology.

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Today's edition of News Talk Online on Paltalk focused on two issues; the economic bailout plan and tonight's vice-presidential debate. Since the precursor discussion of the debate is about to be dated, I'll concentrate on talking about the bailout.

Here's my problem with the process, as articulated during the show and not contradicted by any callers. The House voted the original measure down because of strong constituent opposition. All House members, of course, are standing for re-election this year. It wouldn't do well to fly in the face of the barrage of phone calls, e-mails and letters in opposition to the plan. The Senate, of course, has the luxury of staggered and longer terms. So it approved a modification of the plan in the hopes, from the perspective of proponents, of pressuring the House to now follow suit. Now, I don't know how good a plan this is. But I do know one thing. It shouldn't have included pork barrel spending measures. This is not the time to play that game. The economy is in dire straits and if that money is really needed for a bailout, by God, then every penny of the $700 billion budgeted should go for that. Can anyone on Capitol Hill say Bridge To Nowhere? Frankly, it's high time Congress write bills in terms the average American understands. And every portion of those bills, especially those that appropriate funds, should be directed toward the resolutions' stated purpose. It's time to stop pork barrel spending. If Congress doesn't have the resolve to do this itself, then it should hand it over to the president by giving him a line item veto. It's time for our elected officials to start acting responsibly!