BAILOUT - Failure of Government

When President Bush first submitted the bailout bill two weeks ago, I agreed that it was urgently necessary. I also understood that the Senate and Congress would need to refine the terms. It needed to have more control to protect taxpayers. Our elected representatives have added weak oversight to limit Secretary Paulson’s complete discretion and control of all $700 billion. It minimally addresses CEO pay restrictions, but not foreign owned institutions, leaving them in the bailout pool. Nothing in the bill addresses citizens facing foreclosures. All of these things seem at least related to the current financial crisis, but promise little in the way of protecting the tax dollars we will be investing in the economy. It ultimately does appear to be the powerful giving our money to the rich, again. Adding insult to injury, unrelated issues have found their way into the bill, such as energy and tax bills, as well as pork barrel, which take up over three-quarters of the verbiage.

If we had any faith in the way our government worked before this bill, citizens must now acknowledge that our elected representatives aren’t capable of addressing our country’s business needs quickly, sufficiently, or without taking care of their own wants first. At this point, I don’t trust the legislative or executive branches of our government to handle any of our nation’s concerns. They have proven their complete ineptitude while formulating this bill.