Sunday, September 21, 2008
Bailing out Washington
President Bush wants 700 billion of your dollars to help fix the housing/financial market mess across our country. Supporters think if the feds don't do something, we could head toward a second Great Depression. Critics say we taxpayers are rewarding terrible decisions by some business leaders who greedily looked at making money rather than making good decisions. So what's the right thing to do here?
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I don't appreciate the federal government needing to bail out the large companies for their bad lending practices while their top executives are lining their pockets in preparation to run and hide. The President and hie men should have been on top of this situation long before things got into the mess we are facing now instead of telling us that the economy is fine and there were no problems when all of us could read the handwriting on the wall. They have been asleep at the wheel with this crisis in the same way they were with everything else since George W. Bush took office in 2001. And John McCain will just continue the same old mistakes.
The Great Depression largely happened because the government sat back and did nothing until the domino effect brought down the country. Perhaps this bailout will prove that we can learn from history. This was preventable. As Madison wryly said about the role of government: "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
I am not happy about it, AND it has been coming for several years, starting with all of the really bad loans made for housing and poor-no regulation for the short traders on Wall Street and others on wall street and the banks they all were interconnected with over time. It is too late to get out of it now without risking a total collapse in the banking system, that would impact not only the USA but globally as well.
If we think things are bad now, NON ACTION would throw us into a huge mess (collapse) with things possibly as bad as the depression years, or at least a much longer recession. Can you imagine if most of the major and many of the smaller banks froze and would not or could not loan any money to anyone?? We cannot afford that.
As for "my tax dollars" paying for it, I am willing to risk the US/the taxpayers *perhaps* not getting paid back by SOME of those the government is loaning money to for this (and they are asking 11% interest from one loan over two years) than having things really go to H*ll and having a much worse situation if we simply do nothing or let them fail like dominoes.
The US did not make this decision alone. The other big and powerful nations who pumped up the financial/banking system last week also realize this is a GLOBAL problem that would affect not only the US but the countries who buy and sell alot of our products we have and use to keep our economy afloat.
It is scary, but it has to be done or we face FAR worse problems. When both the Democrats and the Republicans (and the other experts who have expert knowledge about this that I do not have) get together and say this is the most serious threat to the US economy since the "Depression," I am willing to pay attention and assume they know what they are talking about on it. I don't need to know any more gory details or possible scenarios. I wish us the best and I know everyone involved will do their best. They are struggling to keep the US afloat now and in the future. It is past the "politics" and partisan point, or at least it should be.
This is a "3 a.m. phone call" and it has to be answered and responded to quickly and decisively by the best experts we have on hand now.
This is a "hit or miss" trial for the government. Either they hit a grand slam on their bailout idea or they strike-out. This is a HUGE risky move by the government at a time where we the people don't want to hear about ideas or plans, we need to see proper and corrective action.
I myself, think this is a ridiculous idea that will backfire in the government's faces. Either way, the taxpayers' will be footing the tab. We, the taxpayers', will once again be "screwed" over and the big firms and high-paying executives will only get another slap on the wrist.
I love my country just like any other person does, but if Congress passes this bill, who will learn their lesson? It sure won't be the firms, cause they will do this again in time, because they'll know that the taxpayers' will pay for their mistakes.
The way this should be handled, is the money should come from the corporate executive officers who make five times more than the average hourly worker. The executive officers who make the easy $10 million plus salaries.
The firms created this mess of junk, they are more than capable of digging themselves out of the graves they made without government or taxpayer help.
I understand we can't all go crazy and panic. But, come on. Why should we spent a ridiculous amount of money because some greedy morons duped a bunch of Americans into buying houses they couldn't afford. It is all tumbling down now. The business people get millions of dollars. And we taxpayers get absolutely screwed. Our debt is unbelievable already. How can we take on even more?
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