Give everybody $50,000!

The bailout package should be resoundingly rejected no matter how many “Sweeteners” are added to it. The bailout won’t work for the following reasons.

1. All it really does is move us one step back from the cliff we’re about to go over. There is no fundamental change of direction, so the next step will put us right back on the brink again. This is merely a stall tactic. We need painful and meaningful changes in our spending habits and tax policies.

2. Wall Street tells us that it must get these “toxic” loans off its books. First of all, nobody seems to know just exactly what loans are where, so how could you possibly know which ones are bad? That certainly leads to a huge question about how much anything is worth. Next Wall Street changes direction and tells the taxpayers that these toxic loans are “an investment.” We’ll probably end up making money on it. It’s a sure bet. They’ll even manage it for us. This sounds exactly like the pitch they used the first time they created and sold these investments. They’re willing to try it again with $1 trillion of the taxpayers money. They haven’t even changed the sales pitch. Are we that gullible?

3. There is a natural bottom to the housing market. Artificially creating a bottom simply delays the inevitable. But at what cost?

4. This bailout is typical of any negotiations. Reach for the moon and settle for a nice little package. Wall Street put a gun to our heads and threatened that the world was going to fall apart if we didn’t give it the keys to the Treasury with no oversight. It’ll accept a little bit of oversight. Big deal. All of this is just a bunch of fluff. The bottom line is that the taxpayers are still on the hook for $700 billion.

5. Of course Wall Street still has one card left up its sleeve. It warns that it doesn’t know whether $700 billion will be enough. It may need a $1 trillion or more. It warns us that doing nothing is surely going to sink the country. Of course, nobody knows whether the bailout will work, either. Either way ordinary Americans lose. Let’s not put an additional $1 trillion on the backs of the taxpayer

6. Restarting the credits markets to the way they were is a disaster. Not everyone can afford a home, or at least the kind that builders have been pushing for a long time. Stop the subdivisions of McMansions. We need more affordable housing. We need to get back to sensible lending. I’m sorry but not everyone is qualified. Credit in general must be reined in. Americans just can’t resist easy money. The government and the people are like alcoholics. We got incredibly drunk and now the bailout is our aspirin. But being alcoholics, we’re going to go right back and do it again unless there are some fundamental changes in attitude and policy.

James Riley
Youngsville

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As Americans we hear about the “trickle down” effect whenever the bailout package is discussed. I think that most Americans would rather see a package that features the “trickle up” effect. Here is how it would work.

Instead of giving $700 billion to the banks, mortgage companies and Wall Street, why don’t we give $50,000 to each taxpaying American citizen? This would cost less than the currently proposed bailout and would help the economy in the following ways ...

1. People who are delinquent on their mortgage payments could get current and in some cases they would be able to pay the mortgage off. This would make the mortgage companies happy.

2. People who are not able to afford health insurance or their medications would be able to purchase both. This would make the pharmacies, drug companies and insurance companies happy.

3. People who can’t afford that new winter coat or new clothes for their kids because their fuel bills have taken such a big bite out of their budget would now be able to purchase those things. This would make the retailers happy.
4. Some people would buy a new car to replace the outdated one they have been trying to get by with. That would make the auto industry happy.

5. Some people would splurge and take a trip to see loved ones or to just escape the stress they have been living with for so long. That would make the airline industry and the gas companies happy.

6. Some people would put money into a 401K, CD, money market account or savings account. That would make the banks happy.

All in all, the economy would start moving in the right direction and the citizens of the United States would begin to have faith in their government.

It seems to me that the “trickle up” program would be a much wiser use of our money than the proposed bailout program, and it would cost less.

Billy Brewer
Lillington

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Gosh! This financial crisis seems so familiar: Industry giants take advantage of regulatory loop holes to rape U.S. taxpayers for enormous profits that benefit very few and push the economy to the breaking point! The solution: Call upon the reeling taxpayers to once again wring more money out of their shrinking disposable incomes to support a government bailout. Can anybody say Savings and Loan? Enron? Squared! It was a decision to bail out an irresponsible industry that was given a deregulation-driven blank check to make tons of money— and then squandered it!  

So here we stand again backs against the wall, staring down the barrel of bad government pushing us to make an emergency decision to saddle our children and our children’s children, etc., etc., with higher and higher interest payments for ever-increasing periods of time — kind of like an adjustable rate mortgage, wouldn’t you say? Or the war in Iraq! There’s a definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
So what’s it going to be? Your money? Or your life!

Rick Towner
Raleigh

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I would like to thank the representatives who voted against the passing of the bailout. This was a courageous movement on their part in the face of such pressure to go along and be a part of the crowd. Remember, the same conmen who declared war on Iraq are the same one who want your $700 billion to line their pockets and take care of their Wall Street friends!!  

Ron Lindamood
Fuquay-Varina

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I have a partial solution to the economic crisis we are in. Let’s start with the president and work our way down through Congress. Let’s pass a law that for the next four years, they must serve at either no pay or reduced pay. Remember, our first three or four presidents served at no pay, either. And also put in there that they cannot make money taking it from fat cat lobbyists, either. But let them keep their speaking honoraria, money from personal investments, book deals, etc. Can you imagine the money the federal government would save if even for four years neither the president nor the Congress were actually paid?

And the other thing is this. They always complain that they cannot get enough Congresspeople to show up for votes on key issues. Let’s have a time clock installed outside the doors of each house of Congress. The members would actually have to punch in, just like the average Joe, in order to get into the chamber. Then when pay is reinstituted after four years, no one in Congress should be allowed to make any more than the median income of the constituents they represent in their state or district. Then we would see who the real “statespeople” are instead of the politicians who only look out for themselves!

Edgar Taylor
Knightdale

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There is no blame game to play concerning what is currently going on with the economy. The Bush administration and Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) are responsible for letting these companies go on a wild pony ride. Certain people are responsible for taking out loans and mortgages they knew they couldn’t afford or pay back. Everyone needs to accept responsibility for their part, realize they screwed up, and move on, instead of playing the blame game. It’s time to fix this problem, not point fingers. And fixing this problem is more important than adjourning Congress so candidates can go out and campaign. That’s what they pay people to do.
Our tax dollars pay Congress to do their job and sort this mess out.

Charlie Burnett
Raleigh

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The government pushing lenders to issue loans to people who had no financial recourses to repay the loans is the reason we are in this mess. Fannie and Freddie bundling this trash paper into financial instruments continued the recipe for disaster. How is it that this simple explanation is not shouted from the roof tops? The current Washington lawmakers who pushed this on us are now going to fix it? May God have mercy on the souls of Barney Frank and his comrades.  News flash: Barack Obama is as liberal as they come and would not rein in his comrades.

Nick Tesla
Durham

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I’m absolutely in shock over what I’m seeing. Nobody likes the bailout. But if we don’t get it, a lot of people won’t be able to get paychecks because their employers can’t make the payroll, won’t be able to sell their houses because potential buyers can’t get loans, won’t be able to get loans for college, for a car, for a new roof--you name it. And now the Republicans have the gall to blame Democrats for the Republicans’ own vote? How gullible and stupid do they think we are? Talk about putting partisanship over patriotism. For shame. For shame.

Barbara Norton
Durham

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During the past several weeks I have been amazed at the outcry against the “bailout” package aimed at shoring up our nation’s economy, especially the notion that the package only helps billionaires on Wall Street.

While I do believe there is plenty of blame to be left at the doorstep of investment bankers, there’s a whole host of others that participated in the making of this debacle; the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, our elected representatives in D.C., and us, yes, US, American citizens.

Should we blame everyone else for our propensity to live beyond our means? As a nation we don’t  save, we purchase too many things on credit and then we expect our house prices to continually go up in value so that we can pay later for today’s excesses.  

As someone who became a Realtor three years ago, I was continually amazed at the number of people who felt entitled to purchase a home without having to spend even one dollar out of their own pockets! Let’s face it, this kind of thing is a recipe for disaster for most people, and we have no one to blame but ourselves if we didn’t understand this.

Right now our country stands on the brink of economic disaster and who stands to lose the most? It’s not those on Wall Street, but us, the everyday American taxpayer. If Congress doesn’t act now, I’m afraid most of us will watch our hard-earned investment and 40l(k) portfolio value drop precipitously, and there will be more job losses as small and large businesses combined find it impossible to keep operating.

Congress must come together now to agree on a plan that will quiet the stormy worldwide markets. Once that happens, I hope it will enact the reforms necessary to prevent another economic meltdown such as we’re seeing today. Finally, I hope all of us learn our own lessons about spending, saving and the principles of sound money management.

Pam Accola
Raleigh

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Like most ordinary citizens of this nation, I am not pleased — in fact, I am extremely angry! — that we are being asked to bail out the banks and investment companies in order to “restore confidence in our financial institutions.”

Rather than award the same people who got us into this mess, it seems to me to be a better investment of our tax dollars to commit to spending $700 billion dollars either, 1) putting solar panels on as many homes as $700 billion will buy, or 2) investing in a real mass transit system for the entire U.S., local and interstate. Either of these alternatives would put money back into the system, create jobs, help to reduce our dependence on outside energy sources (i.e., we wouldn’t have to wage wars in the Middle East), as well as creating a sense of confidence in our real financial systems.  

Why isn’t something like this being proposed?

Will Hooker
Raleigh

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There is a solution to our present financial crisis: Charge it to the oil companies. Here is the situation: The oil companies have for decades operated in a protected environment, protected by Army, Navy, Marines and local police. They render a service that we sorely need, but it is time we made a decision to make them the number one public utility. All other utilities are responsible to government except oil, and we can, by an act of Congress, declare oil companies a utility with the whole United States as their franchised territory. As such they have an obligation to the USA to provide help in time of need.

The oil companies can pay hundreds of billions of dollars to buy the franchise they now enjoy. That is the first step. Second, use the bailout money under close supervision, so we will get our money’s worth. That’s their job, to bail us out in time of need. But it isn’t all loss: The oil companies will be allowed to charge a dollar a gallon bailout fee, so all the citizens have a part in the operation. Every time they get a gallon of gas, they are helping.

Next, there will be money paid back on the bailout. This goes to paying down the national debt. Also with supervision. It isn’t too much to ask our number one public utility to help our Uncle Sam, particularly when it will get its money back with interest.

John Townsend
Wilson

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I was very disappointed in the overall coverage of the financial crisis.  The media devoted virtually no attention to the framework of the plan put forth by the House Republicans or the positions of the Democrats who dissented. Instead, the media blamed everyone who voted no for the ensuing drop in the Dow.

They did not look at the true cost of the bailout. By injecting the government into the capital markets and thus, by definition, impeding the free flow of capital, the government would be undercutting the most powerful force behind the growth of our economy. What would have been the real cost to the American people if we implemented a plan that could have depressed growth of the economy by 1 percent to 2 percent annually and eventually doubled unemployment by undercutting the market mechanisms that have allowed the United States to consistently outperform Europe and virtually every other economy?

It is ironic that this bailout is occurring the same time the business press is looking so condescendingly at Italy’s efforts to prop up Alitalia.  Everyone concedes the Alitalia efforts are a political move that will continue to mire Italy in slow growth and high unemployment, yet it is exactly what our president, Treasury and Democratic leaders are trying to push in Washington. Let’s look at the options, so that we do not become another Italy.

Lloyd Melnick
Chapel Hill