We are in grave danger, folks, but not from a possible melt-down of the economy because some mismanaged banks have failed or are about to.  The real danger lies in Congress' penchant for sticking it's nose in where it doesn't belong, which almost invariably makes matters they're trying to "cure," measureably worse.   This proposed "bail-out" is no exception.  We GOT in this condition when Congress during the Clinton Administration--pushed by the Democrats and joined by a few liberal Republicans--allowed...no DEMANDED...that Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae loosen the criteria to qualify for home loans and instituted what amounted to "affirmative action" for black borrowers and then lowered the amount of cash required to back their shaky loans. 

 

HUD Secretary, Andrew Cuomo--yes, THAT Andrew Cuomo--encouraged FM & FM to imply to private-sector mortgage companies that any such shaky loans they gave would be "backed" by the U.S. Government, even though that would have been...let's say...less than completely legal?  Lenders went along with the scheme because HUD and others such as Barney Frank and Chris Dodd essentially assured them that they would be "protected" from any losses sustained by defaults by these bad loans.  Thousands of loans were made to borrowers with little or no possible chance of ever paying them back.  Why?  The impetus may have been "compassionate" in that it was supposedly designed to allow people otherwise unable to afford homes to get loans for them, but like most such schemes by liberals, there were dire, probably-unintended consequences that liberals almost never consider when dreaming up one of their vote-buying giveaways.

 

Former Clintonista cabinet members, James Johnson, Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick, were given top-tier jobs with FM & FM and took these cash-cows to the cleaners.  All managed to obtain multi-millions in salaries and bonuses--in at least one case, as the result of the CEO "cooking the books" to make it look like their profits were larger than in reality so as to trigger massive bonuses--$800 K to Ms Gorelick alone.  Remember, this was in addition to her million dollar plus "salary."  She left FM having gotten away with almost 20 million dollars in under 10 years!   Raines was even MORE generous to himself, leaving after "earning" $90 MILLION!  By the way, all three either have served or are currently serving as "economics advisors" to the Obama campaign!   Ms Gorelick, by the way, was the culprit who erected that "wall" back in the '90's which prevented the FBI and CIA from sharing intelligence information and THEN sat on the 9/11 Commission to help "find out what happened and why intelligence failed."   Talk about irony!  She got her seat on the Commission from the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, by the way.

 

Raines lost his job over the "cooking the books" scandal, but still left with mega-bucks and FM & FM continued its merry way, contributing some $200 million to various Congressional and Presidential races over those years.  Guess who was the largest recipient over about 20 years.  None other than Christopher Dodd, Democrat Senator from Connecticut and, coincidentially Chairman of the House Banking Committee!   Number two (even though he was only at the trough for couple of years, is none other than the Messiah himself...Barrack Hussien Obama.  In fact, the lion's share of those donations went to Democrats of one stripe or another with a few "moderate" Republicans sprinkled in...including $20K to Sen. McCain in the distant past. 

 

At any rate, the impetus for the current mess in the mortgage business can be directly traced to Congress, HUD Secretary Cuomo and the rest of the Clinton Administration and their inattention to the government's business--which, in fact, is NOT the government's business.  The government does not have the Congressional authority to pick winners and losers in our economy, even though it has assumed that authority for itself.  Government has NO BUSINESS loaning taxpayers' money or even guaranteeing home loans with taxpayers' money, but we keep on doing it and the American people keep on looking the other way in hopes that some of that money will come THEIR way.   Disgusting.

 

Everything the government touches, with the possible exception of the U.S. military services, it screws up.  Strange, isn't it, that just about the ONLY thing the government does that's mandated by the U.S. Constitution IS the military services.  When it oversteps its authority (which it does continually and routinely) it messes things up.

 

Failed banks should be ALLOWED to fail, and we should return to a free-market economy.  Yes, without the bail-out there MAY be a recession or even a depression.  With some tax policy tinkering, both can be made short-lived.  Certainly, the LAST thing we need to be doing is spending taxpayers' money to bail out fat-cats who made horrible business decisions.  

 

This will probably happen, despite the fact that it's simply unconstitutional, and may even get the sanction of McCain and/or Obama.  We'll see.  Democrats are prone to loading up such bills with goodies for their pals.  Hopefully the GOP will stand firm and keep that from happening with THIS bill.   McCain's support for a $700 billion bail-out COULD cost him the election, though, because he'll be defying his base which he MUST have in order to win in November.   No true conservative wants to sit still for this out-and-out theft of nearly a trillion dollars and McCain's support for such a device will send them home on election day, costing him the Presidency.  Right now he's ACTING presidential--unlike Obama with his, "Call me if you need me," attitude.  This IS a serious crisis and needs to be solved quickly, but bailing the bankers out--which is how the public will perceive this--is exactly the WRONG way to go about it.