NBC’s Mike Viqueira reported today that lawmakers are deliberating a bill that would provide a $25 billion dollar ‘loan’ to the auto industries as a way to help them “re-equip” to build more energy efficient cars.

According to the report, last week House minority leader John Boehner said “”looks like a bailout to me,” in regard to the auto industries request. He had not yet seen all the details, but the summary appeared to be enough to raise concerns.

Comments on the article page indicated that voters are beginning to feel frustrated at a Congress that appears to be conservative but just put taxpayers on the line for 80% of yesterday’s A.I.G. bailout.

One commenter from Alabama notes:

“What’s the point of protecting your country in a policing action halfway across the globe when your country is falling apart internally from a dire economic situation and those terrorists some say we have to fight over there so we don’t have to fight them here are blowing people up in Yemen.”

Another reader comments:

“[M]cCain says today that he’s gonna “clean up the corruption in Washington?” First, he is part of that Washington needing to be cleaned, and Second, it is the stock markets unregulated behaviors that are responsible for this crisis.”
The comments seem to be fueling thoughts that are reverberating among the electorate – how can an “in-crowd” presidential candidate portray himself as “widely experienced in these governmental matters” yet be the champion of reform for the very same policies he has helped to prop up?

That will likely be the question he’ll have to answer in the remaining weeks before the election. It is nice to finally seem some real issues addressed in this campaign; sadly though, it took a near-economic-collapse crisis to do it.

Regardless of the election, however, whoever takes office this January will have quite a mess to clean up.