People are calling their congressmen opposing this because:

a) nobody, certainly not the general public, has any f'n idea if this is the right thing to do or not. I've got a bachelors in Physics, and run a 60 person small business and I have any idea at all if this is TRULY a good bailout.

b) It's a stupid large amount of money.

c) folks are reacting purely (or at least mostly) emotionally, having not yet personally felt pain from this and a) above. They may have lost more in their investments this year than they spent in gasoline with our spendy gas prices. But right now they're more painfully aware of the gas price issues. Everyone will vote for whomever says "drilling" the most often, no matter if that matters or not.

As soon as people can't move because not only can they not get a loan on the new house they want, other buyers can't get loans to buy their house. Or maybe folks won't be able to get loans to send their kids to college. Then there will be more political cover.

---- Brian