Now that the House of Representatives has torpedoed the Wall Street bailout bill, maybe they’ll be ready to consider the modest proposal I put forth in this week’s Metro column:

Washington scrambled this past week to approve a $700 billion bill to tackle a crisis that some called “the greatest threat to this country since the Depression:” a crisis that could lead to 35 million people living in poverty.

While critics worried that the cost would be too great, proponents of a bailout for the poor noted that the nation cannot afford to have one in eight members of its productive workforce bereft of cash… [read more]