The $700 Billion Bailout -- an Opinion

I received an e-mail from a friend concering the $700 Billion Bailout. Several members of this writer's family work for Wachovia, who just recently (Monday morning) was bought out by Citigroup. I fired off a return e-mail. What follows is the discourse:

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HEY, WHATS GOING ON? I JUST WANTED YOUR OPINION ON THE BAILOUT. I GOT LUCKY THAT WACHOVIA GOT BOUGHT OR I WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB.

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I think the bailout is a way for Bush and Paulson to save their buddies. It is not a very intelligent plan. (And yes, you did get lucky. So did I, since I have stock in Wachovia. Of course, now I have stock in Citigroup that's nearly worthless, but it's better than nothing.)

The bailout is one of the stupidest ideas those idiots in Washington ever came up with. It looks just like a plan by a corporate elitist trying to save his corporate buddies. Maybe it looks that way because that is exactly what it is. Paulson (with Bush's backing -- and if that isn't a signal there's something wrong with the plan, nothing is) is simply attempting to bail out his buddies -- with nearly a trillion dollars of our --the taxpayers' -- money. Without talking to economists and economic analysts, without holding one hearing (not one), these glorified morons -- who are almost all millionaires, by the way -- are going to vote on an economic measure they don't know anything about. Instead of doing this on a case by case basis -- bailing out one, making deals with another, letting others just sink or swim on their own -- they want to save only the ones THEY WANT TO SAVE. The plan calls for Paulson to have most of the discretionary power to decide on who gets what. They did put in an oversight clause. Big deal. All that means is that AFTER Paulson bails out a company, they can either say bye bye to all the money or bitch about the money spent. If there is no bailout, companies will be bought like Wachovia and Merrill Lynch. Or not.

They are simply trying to scare people. And they are right about one thing. Something needs to be done. How about going after the top executives of all those corporations and prosecuting them for fraud? How about taking away every one of their golden parachutes and putting those billions of dollars into a mutual fund for all those pensions and 401ks that just disappeared? Or put that money into a mortgage fund for people who are losing their homes? How about some jail time for those corporate fat-cats? How about never letting those sonsofbitches ever trade on a stock exchange again? How about some regulations now so that none of this will happen again, which is how we got here in the first place?

How about a couple of alternative economic plans instead of just the $700 billion bailout slightly altered?

They want to bail out all these rich, conscienceless s.o.b.'s, but I don't see anybody talking about paying my damned mortgage. Or yours. Or my neighbor's. No matter what they do, those corporate tycoons will still be corporate tycoons, with thier millions, their houses and cars. So some of them lose their jobs. Big deal. They still have millions. But Joe Average out there has lost his pension he's worked all his life for, John Q. lost his house, and Jane Doe lost her job and her 401k. And they have nothing but their wits to fall back on now. Some of those people have reached retirment age. They have nothing. Where's their bailout? They did everything they were supposed to do. Now they have nothing.

The corporations acted recklessly and fraudulently while the government allowed them to do it. And they are the ones who get bailed out?

This sentiment is why the $700 billion bailout lost in the House of Representatives. It had nothing to do with Pelosi's speech or hurt feelings or the individuals' personal ideologies. It had everything to do with the constituents of all those Congressmen voicing their opinions, threatening their Congressional seats if they voted for this ridiculous piece of legislation. Remember, 228 Congressmen voted against it: 133 Republicans, 95 Democrats.

It's time for people to stand up and tell the government "No," just like they did Monday morning, with e-mails, letters, petitions, and phone calls. The people need to say, "Trickle down has led to too many near crashes, nowhere near enough wealth distribution, and this failing economy. Let's start from the bottom up."

What they need to do is invest in the American people. They need to take that $700 billion bailout money and pay off peoples' houses (those that still own one) and hand them clear title. These people then won't be spending one-third or one-half their incomes on their homes and worrying about a place to live. This will free up half of their income (because the other half, of course, is being spent on necessities -- food, clothing, utilities, gas to back-and-forth to work). Perhaps a little more. Then those people (who still have jobs) can spend half their money on other things, put their money into a dead economy, reinvest, revitalize the economic base by providing the demand for goods again. A demand means subsequent production of goods. Increased production leads to steady employment and new jobs.

Screw Wall Street. Let them fix themselves. Washington needs to help the people that put them there.

But Congress will end up passing some lame legislation to help their corporate buddies (because, in the end, those guys put millions into their election and reelection campaigns) and Bush and Paulson will be the heroes of Wall Street. Meanwhile, before this year is over another 100,000 people will lose thier homes or be forced into foreclosures -- on top of the thousands that have already lost their homes this year (and last) because of these reckless and greedy, unregulated corporations.

But, hey, millionaires don't have to worry about that kind of thing. Do they? At the end of the day, they will still have their bank accounts, yachts, and second summer homes.

Call a millionaire Congressman up (the Senate votes today on this asinine bailout plan) and tell them "No."

That's my opinion.

Hope everything's fine up your way.