Badly understood consequences.

People are celebrating that the bailout didn't get voted through.  Which is a bit odd since no bailout is actually costing considerably more than a bailout would.  

$700bn to stabilize a failing economy is, to be quite frank, a bargain.  This is a case of people kissing large chunks of their savings, investments and pensions goodbye to save a few bucks on taxes.  In fact, about one trillion just evaporated from the market yesterday.  Within that trillion are financial instruments owned by regular people.  The middle class.  This affects everyone. 

And look around you.  The Chinese, who have up until now been so keen to lend the US money to keep the wheels of the economy well-oiled (so they can sell you the consumer crap you love so much), are retreating in fear.   This will only get worse. 

The real tragedy here is that many of those who wanted to vote for the "bailout" didn't dare to do so for fear of losing their seat.  Staying in office is actually more important to them than stabilizing the economy.

No doubt McCain will take credit for the failed attempt to stabilize the economy. The idiot voters will see him as a hero, and by the time the american people have figured out that it would have been considerably cheaper to stabilize the markets, they are stuck another 4 years with a bumbling idiot for president. Not to mention an unqualified religious nutcase for VP that even most republicans find an embarassment.

These are dangerous times.  The recession just got a lot worse.  More banks will fail and the US took another step towards idiocracy.