It’s not a Wall Street “fat cat” bailout plan, it’s an economic rescue plan! At least that’s what the spinsters on Capital Hill and in the media are now trying to tell us, the American public. ADHEREL

Well, I’m still calling it a bailout plan. Why? Because in my mind that’s still how this plan has been explained and presented to me. That’s my understanding of it.

Chief Bailout bill architect Henry “Hank” Paulson told me, Congress and anyone else who would listen last week that he needed a $700 billion dollar blank check to save the U.S. economy from certain financial “Armageddon”. His deadline was Monday.

After a weekend spent reworking the bill and instilling further fear in every American of the dire consequences we would face without it, Congressional leaders got together on Monday and still couldn’t get the package passed. Fearing for their jobs perhaps, members listened not to Paulson or to President Bush, who also called for an immediate passing of the bill, but to the American people. Good for them.

It was indeed a victory an American public that is absolutely fed up with the way things are being run in this country. Lie after lie we are told. The end of the world is coming if we don’t act. “Read my lips, no new taxes” former President Bush once said. His son followed up alleging Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – anyone seen them yet? And then just a few weeks ago John McCain virtually torpedoed his presidential candidacy revealing that the financial system was fundamentally sound. And I don’t mean to pick on the Republicans, the Democrats are to blame as well. What a disaster.

Now Hank Paulson and his band of merry men, Ben Bernanke and Christopher Cox, are telling us that the financial system will collapse if we don’t handover $700 billion ASAP.

These so-called experts who want our cash are the same ones who screwed this system up in the first place, and now they want us to trust them with $700B?

But where Hank and the lawmakers on Capital Hill have failed miserably is in telling Joe Public why this money is needed and why the urgency. Because for most of us, all we see from the bleacher seats are the Wall Street “fat cats”, as they are called, only getting fatter.

We see their mismanagement and greed get rewarded, not punished.

We see Paulson, the former head of Goldman Sachs, letting Bear Sterns, Fannie and Freddie, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and other financial institutions fail. But once Paulson’s high and mighty Goldman started to teeter, that’s when Hank stepped in.

And from these failed companies we see former CEOs walk away with bushels and bushels full of cash for running their firms right into the ground.

Former Lehman head Richard Fuld pocketed $40 million last year alone. Stan O’Neil left Merrill last year with a $161 million dollar deal. And just a few days ago it was revealed that Washington Mutual CEO Alan Fishman has a package worth over $15 million, that for just 18 days on the job!

Isn’t the price of failure, failure? Apparently, not on Wall Street where there seems to be zero accountability. Run wild, make your cash and if things go bad, let the taxpayers bail you out. There’s no risk!

We also hear how the stock markets will tank and our economy will come to a standstill. Well, last I checked we are still standing. I can still buy a turkey sandwich down the street. McDonald’s is still flipping burgers and the movie theaters remain open for business. So much for that Monday apocalyptic meltdown, Hank.

The stock market, despite its much-publicized drop of 777 points Monday and its under-publicized rise of nearly 500 points Tuesday, is close to flat on the Dow from the moment when the Bailout Bill was voted down Monday to market close Wednesday. And who has the most money tied up in the markets? Is it the middle to lower-class “main streeters” or is it the upper class elite who naturally want this bill to go through so their fortunes will be (temporarily) saved?

Hell, Warren Buffet got into the act this week dumping billions into Goldman and GE preferred stock, you think he’s hoping this bill gets passed? Ah, yeah!

So why should we care about Wall Street’s failures? What’s in it for the little guy, because most of us still don’t have a crystal clear understanding of how this bill impacts our/my livelihood one year from now. It simply hasn’t been properly and adequately explained.

Indeed, this economy is in dire straits and the average American really is suffering. But I almost get the feeling now that the little guy is willing to suffer even more provided Wall Street takes a bullet as well. That sentiment is out there.

“If this ship is going down, you are going down with us,” might very well be the battle cry for some of the “have nots.”

My guess is the bill will pass in some form, and apparently we’ll all be saved, from what disasters we’ll likely never know. The stock market will go back up – because here in the U.S. that’s now the only direction it’s allowed to go (ban on selling stock coming I’m sure), banks and other financial intuitions will be rescued, riches will again flow on Wall Street all while Joe Public is left holding the bag. At least that’s my understanding right now. What a circus.