“All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation. “– John Adams

Well, with all the bad news about the credit crisis in the news, today our government has finally offered us a solution for something. Now all we have to do is find a way to harness the spinning of the corpses of our founding fathers as an energy source and we have our solution to clean energy problem.

Well, they went and did it. Our brilliant leaders have bailed out the greedy banks by giving them 700 billion dollars of our money. Good to know that the only way the bill got passed was by including bribes to congressmen for their votes in the way of pork, mental health insurance and tax cuts. Truly our government has finally lost its mind and placed the final nail in the coffin of the idea that this country is a free market run on capitalism. Let’s welcome the socialist era with open arms.

I’ll admit that I’m going off a bit half cocked right now as I haven’t read anything but summaries of the bill. I do find it interesting however that what started as a four page bill from the desk of the president has been bloated to a 450 page bill full of congressional incentives, regulations and stipulations. My, do our lawyers love their loop holes. However, this bill, at its fundamental core violates all that our country was built on and should stand for.

Capitalism is about making decisions. The bottom line is these greedy bankers made bad decisions that lead to their companies being put into dire straights and financial trouble. The people that made decisions for these banks knowingly invested money in what amounts to paper, then sold these shaky investments to other people, who willingly bought them. Why? Because the government backed them. Then, when the housing markets started to crash, as all markets naturally do, these people all started losing money. Who’s left holding the bill for these bad decisions? We are.

This is not what is meant by “We the People”. There are a lot of questions that should be asked. If the Bush administration and the republicans knew that this was going on, why didn’t they warn investors? Why did the Democrat controlled congress not vote for controls on these investments to stem the pending financial crisis that we are now in? Why did government agencies like the SEC, that are set up to prevent and monitor this sort of thing, not call these people to task for what they were doing? I think however the biggest question is we should be asking is, why are we, as tax payers, the ones responsible for bailing these people out and pretty much giving them a get out of jail free card while they walk off with the big pile of money in the middle of the board because they landed on free parking?

Are there provisions in this bill to remove the CEO’s that made these decisions? Are there provisions in the bill to prevent these same CEO’s from getting their bonuses from the money their company will be making once we bail them out with our hard earned money? I haven’t heard of anything sweeping that will stick.

The other truly disturbing thing is that the Republican party, the party of less government and laissez-faire have permitted something like this to be voted through on their watch, and worse, championed it! Are you kidding me? Why aren’t these men out there shaking their fingers at these collapsing banks going, “well, that’s what happens when you make bad business decisions.”

I realize that they have scared all of us with tales of economic woe that will ensue should this bill not have passed. They point to the 777 point drop of the Dow on the day the bill was first voted down, without of course pointing to the rebound of close to 500 points the following day. “It was the largest drop of the dow ever” they cry, without saying that percentage wise it wasn’t even close to what happened in 1987. Again, I hate to sound like the raving conspiracy theorist, but is this the excuse they wanted to get their hands on the free market? Well, they’ve done it.

No, I’m not blind to the problems that not bailing these companies out would cause. Yes, they are some of the largest banks in the country and things could have become much worse than they are. I also understand that some good is coming out of this bill, namely the increase of the FDIC insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000. However, there are no guarantees that this bill will make things better. All it does is put our money on the line at a time when I think it might be better spent elsewhere.

This bailout is the first step on to a very dangerous and slippery slope that I don’t think our government is to worried about sliding down. Our government has truly lost their focus as what their purpose should be, and it’s time that we the people start calling these men and women to task and get them out of the decision making process by replacing them with people who are going to keep the people and the constitution in the front of their minds.

Last 5 posts by Jeff Hopkins

• The Yeti Rants: Obama vs. McCain... what's the difference? - June 23rd, 2008
• The Yeti Rants: A Democrat form of Government... - February 29th, 2008
• The Yeti Rants: It's Good to be Back! - January 30th, 2008
• The Yeti Rants: Is This What the People Asked For? - February 16th, 2007
• The Yeti Rants: No Taxation Without Representation.. - January 15th, 2007