To the Editor:

It’s unfortunate that we have not seen more coverage of an unprecedented event in our nation’s history, occurring as we speak covered in more detail here in The Sun. The stimulus bill currently being debated before Congress is massive in scale and scope on a level before seen in our nation’s history.

We have all read about the programs of the New Deal in our history books and how they permanently changed the role of government in our society. Today we face a bill that even in inflation-adjusted dollars dwarfs those game-changing social programs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many banks have made it harder for borrowers to obtain all kinds of loans over the last three months despite a $700 billion federal bailout program and a flurry of other bold moves to stem the worst financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s.

The Federal Reserve in its quarterly survey of bank lending practices released Monday found large numbers of banks reporting tighter credit standards across a broad range of loan products — from credit cards and home mortgages to business loans.

In these dark times, when betting on horses yields better returns than the stock market, hedge fund manager and amateur hedge fund manager alike must look for other means of making money easily. To those considering selling junk on ebay, stuffing envelopes in your home, starting a Ponzi scheme or gambling to make an honest dollar, hark! I know of a way you can get richer by doing absolutely nothing. Really. And you don’t even have to pay me for a book to tell you how.

This proven and reliable get-rich-quick scheme is called deflation, and it’s a great reason to start recycling your beer cans. Deflation means that the purchasing power of the dollar increases. Or, in simple terms, that the five-cent refund from your beer cans buys more now than it did before.

Over the weekend, President Obama urged Congress to “move swiftly and boldly” to help pull the country out of the current recession by passing his stimulus bill. Yesterday, the House passed the proposed $819 billion package. The plan represents a commendable step toward ending the financial crisis; however, because of concessions made by House Democrats, its passage was considerably more swift than bold.

The portions of the bill that went through provide several key tools to help jump start the economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Getting the financial rescue through Congress may have been the easy part. Getting it to work may prove the tougher task.

After two weeks of anguishing debate, Congress passed and President Bush signed the enormous plan to save the financial industry and prop up the economy in hopes of avoiding an unthinkable free fall with Election Day just a month away.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, at a meeting last month, had shocked congressional leaders into action by warning of pending economic collapse without immediate federal intervention. After the climatic House vote on Friday, he said aides already were working out details and lining up advisers from outside the government so the money could start flowing. The goal is to unfreeze credit markets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a week of tumult on Wall Street and Washington, the House moved toward a final vote Friday on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, an unprecedented government intervention designed to steady an economy on the brink.

Congressional leaders expressed quiet confidence they would have the votes to send the measure to President Bush for his signature by day's end, four days after an earlier version was rejected.

"Our economy is not stable. Working families are suffering. Unemployment is over 10 percent in my district," said Rep Hilda Solis. The California Democrat voted against the measure that failed on Monday, but this time, she said she was considering a switch.

The bill's critics said it was a step in the wrong direction.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, winning lopsided passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where Republicans opposition softened.

Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it by a wide margin, 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.

In the House, leaders were working feverishly to convert enough opponents of the bill to push it through by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly rejected an earlier version and sent markets plunging around the globe.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional and White House officials, stunned when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy, scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets.

"Doing nothing is not an option," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said after seeing the $700 billion emergency package for the nation's financial systems fail 228-205 on Monday.

With the House not scheduled to meet again until Thursday, congressional leaders and Bush administration officials promptly sought to assess what types of changes could win over enough votes to guarantee success. President Bush planned to make a statement on the rescue plan at 8:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.

Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.

When the critical vote was tallied, too few members of the House were willing to support the unpopular measure with elections just five weeks away. Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle.

Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders and the Bush administration have reached a tentative deal on a bailout of imperiled financial markets that could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

The House could vote on it Sunday and the Senate on Monday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the accord just after midnight Saturday and said it still has to be put on paper. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson talked of finalizing the deal but added: "I think we're there."

The plan would spend up to $700 billion, most of it on buying deeply devalued mortgages from the housing market's collapse and other bad loans held by tottering banks and other investors.

The aim is to prevent credit from drying up and causing a meltdown of the U.S. economy.