Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Okay, first of all, let me jump on the bandwagon with virtually everyone else here, and say that I oppose the $700 billion bailout plan. I've not seen the plan, don't know any of the details, but I am opposed for the same reasons you all are. It seems absurd to spend this amount of taxpayer dollars, bailing out financial institutions who got themselves into trouble, through no fault of my own. Why should my money go to this, when there are so many other things I'd like to see it spent on? Like alternative energy, education, and paying down the national debt.
But here is the thing, it is our fault, and we are liable. We elected this Congress, who did what we told them we wanted, and made housing affordable for all Americans... the good old American Dream! I didn't vote for Barney Frank, but someone did, he was elected, and he ultimately went to Washington and forged the legislation to allow these institutions to do what they did. It's not really the financial institutions fault, they only did what our government allowed them to do, and behaved like Capitalists, which is to be expected in a Capitalist society. Those who made the transactions made good commissions, and everyone was happy, until people began to default on their loans.
I did indeed vote for people who went along with Barney and gave the green light to low-interest loans to low-income people. I have even bragged about how Bush enabled more minorities to own homes, than ever before in history. There was nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of, until people began to default on the loans and the financial institutions began to fail because of it. Now, the damage is done, the mess has been made. Suddenly, we all want to blame Congress, when it was our fault, we elected them and blessed them when they put forth this legislation. We are great at coming up with brilliant ideas to realize our dreams and goals, but we suck at accepting responsibility for the consequences.
Now here we are, all in opposition of the bailout, but the reality is this... IF we don't bail out these financial institutions, we can forget that 401k, we can forget that IRA, and we better be looking for the nearest Soup Kitchen. If you are invested in any stocks whatsoever, they will be worthless without a bailout of these key financial institutions. This isn't some simple matter of where we would like to spend $700 billion, or what we would rather be doing with the money. If that were the case, we could easily say it's stupid to just give it to the people in trouble now. The fundamental problem is, they are our future. If we don't bail them out, we are all screwed. We can certainly bitch and grumble about it, we can get mad as hell, and we can point fingers of blame all we like, but in the end, we really don't have a choice here.
What this should be, is a 700 billion dollar lesson that Government is never the answer to our problems. If people can't afford housing, it is not the best idea to let government make it easier for them to do so, it is better to improve their situations so that they may one day be able to afford housing, even if we don't see immediate results, even if we can't help all of them. We will have to tolerate the cries of liberals who pull at our heart strings and throw out individual stories about people who are in dire straits, and we will have to grow up and understand, we can't do everything for everybody, all the time. But this won't be a lesson for many, it will simply be another political football, another reason to stick it to the side you despise, and continue bashing. No one likes forking over $700 billion, but it's kind of like war, it is what has to be done now, it's time to pay the consequences for government's actions, a government WE elected, a government who was supposedly doing what WE said we wanted.
But here is the thing, it is our fault, and we are liable. We elected this Congress, who did what we told them we wanted, and made housing affordable for all Americans... the good old American Dream! I didn't vote for Barney Frank, but someone did, he was elected, and he ultimately went to Washington and forged the legislation to allow these institutions to do what they did. It's not really the financial institutions fault, they only did what our government allowed them to do, and behaved like Capitalists, which is to be expected in a Capitalist society. Those who made the transactions made good commissions, and everyone was happy, until people began to default on their loans.
I did indeed vote for people who went along with Barney and gave the green light to low-interest loans to low-income people. I have even bragged about how Bush enabled more minorities to own homes, than ever before in history. There was nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of, until people began to default on the loans and the financial institutions began to fail because of it. Now, the damage is done, the mess has been made. Suddenly, we all want to blame Congress, when it was our fault, we elected them and blessed them when they put forth this legislation. We are great at coming up with brilliant ideas to realize our dreams and goals, but we suck at accepting responsibility for the consequences.
Now here we are, all in opposition of the bailout, but the reality is this... IF we don't bail out these financial institutions, we can forget that 401k, we can forget that IRA, and we better be looking for the nearest Soup Kitchen. If you are invested in any stocks whatsoever, they will be worthless without a bailout of these key financial institutions. This isn't some simple matter of where we would like to spend $700 billion, or what we would rather be doing with the money. If that were the case, we could easily say it's stupid to just give it to the people in trouble now. The fundamental problem is, they are our future. If we don't bail them out, we are all screwed. We can certainly bitch and grumble about it, we can get mad as hell, and we can point fingers of blame all we like, but in the end, we really don't have a choice here.
What this should be, is a 700 billion dollar lesson that Government is never the answer to our problems. If people can't afford housing, it is not the best idea to let government make it easier for them to do so, it is better to improve their situations so that they may one day be able to afford housing, even if we don't see immediate results, even if we can't help all of them. We will have to tolerate the cries of liberals who pull at our heart strings and throw out individual stories about people who are in dire straits, and we will have to grow up and understand, we can't do everything for everybody, all the time. But this won't be a lesson for many, it will simply be another political football, another reason to stick it to the side you despise, and continue bashing. No one likes forking over $700 billion, but it's kind of like war, it is what has to be done now, it's time to pay the consequences for government's actions, a government WE elected, a government who was supposedly doing what WE said we wanted.
