Letter to the Editor - 7 October, 2008

We’ve been robbed. The Bailout Bill is nothing short of election-year robbery. I’ve read the contents of the bill and it makes me sick. You can find it on the internet and read it too. If you do, you will discover that your $700-billion in tax money, money that was “urgently needed to avoid an economic disaster not seen since the depression”, was spent on the following items: renewable energy credits; carbon mitigation and coal provisions; increase and extension of oil spill liability trust fund tax; deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers; extension of mine rescue team training credit; Indian employment credit; railroad track maintenance; seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility; extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds; provisions related to film and television productions; exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children; mental health parity; increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; secure payments for states and counties containing federal land, among other things.

Do any of these items help with the emergency action to free credit markets from being clogged with bad mortgages that were mandated by congress? Even a fifth-grader could answer that question correctly. And yet, the President of the United States pushed for it, both of the major Presidential Candidates voted for it, one Vice-Presidential Candidate voted for it (the other is a governor but would have voted for it if she could), and both of our Indiana Senators voted for it.

I have come to a conclusion. The supporters of this bill are either ignorant, or cowards, or crooks.

Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for or supporting. Do you really want someone that ignorant leading our nation anywhere?

Maybe they knew what was in the bill, but were afraid NOT to vote for it; afraid for political reasons or afraid for economic reasons. Do you really want cowards leading your nation anywhere?

Or maybe they new exactly what they were doing, and for financial gain and/or to maintain political power they mortgaged our nation into the next two or three generations. Do we really want crooks and liars leading this nation anywhere?
There are no other options: ignorance, cowardice, or robbery.

To add insult to injury, the “crisis” was generated by congress who mandated home loans at below market cost, to individuals who could not pay for loans, on houses that were overpriced. This initial mandate was made to pay for the votes of the new home owners, who are now facing foreclosure and/or bankruptcy as a result of their bargain. The banks, who went along with this scheme, made decisions they would never have made under normal market conditions because of corporate greed, and as a result are now facing bank failures of a magnitude not seen in generations.

So the ignorant, or cowardly, or crooked politicians are covering the mess they created by giving more money to the greedy financial institutions, and the unwise and overextended home owners, by taking money from hard working, tax paying individuals who HAVE made good decisions! Does any of this make you upset?

As far as I can see, the only politician, on a national level, who has been looking out for East Central Indiana is Congressman Mike Pence who, even under strong pressure from his party’s President and his party’s Presidential Candidate, has stood strong against this unprecedented power-grab and money-grab-legislation.

I don’t say this as a political endorsement; it’s simply a mater of fact. President Bush, Senators Bayh and Lugar, Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain, and Vice-Presidential Candidates Biden and Governor Palin (by lending her support) have ALL picked our pockets for the next several decades.

What are we going to do about it? Is this still a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, or is it a government of cowardly, ignorant, power-hungry crooks masquerading as political statesmen and women?

If you remain silent, you willingly open your pocketbook to the next generation of what used to be called civil servants. It’s time to do something. Someone just stole $700-billion dollars that belonged to you. Who’s going to hold them accountable?


Thanks for reading!