Taxpayers Bailing Out Wall Street

September 22nd, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

I was supposed to spend the weekend celebrating my Birthday, instead I found myself glued to the T.V. Watching analysis after analysis of why the government needs a blank check from the Taxpayers. Then comes the numbers, $720,000,000,000. What? $720 Billion. Now I’m pissed off at both candidates.

First thing I noticed, both want to point fingers. You can’t watch one of them speak without talking about the other. i don’t want to hear Barack Obama’s plan from John McCain or Vice Versa. This should have bought a pause in the Partisanship and started an American Debate. Where democrats stood up and said; “We started the deregulation in an attempt to get more Americans into homes, our bad. And the republicans stood up and said; “We allowed it to continue longer than should have been allowed. So this is a mark on both our houses. Let’s work together to solve this problem.

In a way they did, but it centers around the numbers on the check. If you want to bring Congress together, put a large amount of cash between them and watch the sparks fly. I wonder why do we have to come close to a total meltdown before someone in the Government stands up and stops it.

Now I don’t like to play conspiracy theory but when you can’t get a straight answer from a politician than what other choice do you have? Now John McCain tried to get legislation pushed that would have stopped these loans about 3 to 4 years ago, but was blocked in Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans were receiving money from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, so neither party wanted to stop the money from flowing into their pockets.

President Bush even wanted policy passed that would’ve stopped loans given to people who couldn’t afford them. But an unpopular President with the rival party in control of Congress has little chance of getting any policy passed. So that leaves the American People to clean up the mess.

But don’t move to fast on that. The American people also have to stand up and take their part in this debacle. We love free stuff. No matter the cost later down the line. So while we were all lining up to sign our name on the dotted line, we should have been thinking this really sounds to good to be true. But we didn’t. We continued to reap the benefits of a broken system, until it crashed on our heads.

Will I be the only person to say this. It’s a plague on all our houses. From the White House, to the stock market, and all the way down to main street. So who should really get help? I’m not going to pretend to be some financial wizard with the answers to all the questions. But I am a concerned American citizen who doesn’t want my daughter to have to pay for the mistakes of my generation.

So my first question would be, who was complaining before all this went bad. The white house could boast they had the largest number of home ownership in American history before the crash; so there was no complaining there. Wall street watched as the stock market continued to climb, even in the mist of rising gas prices; so there was no complaining there. Average Americans went and bought property with no money down and a flexible interest rate with the idea they could sell the property down the line for a profit; so there was no complaining there.

Then, as most problems do, the hit came to the people first. The foreclosure rate started to rise and give platforms to political candidates. The same candidates that allowed the problem to get out of hand, while taking money from the companies that were digging our financial graves. And we expect them to solve the problem by throwing more money at it. Or at us because we should also benefit when the government starts giving out money. Just realize we will have to pay that money back in the form of taxes. So if you are hoping the Government is going to bail you out of foreclosure, remember your taxes will go up to offset the the help given to you. So in essence, you would actually be paying for yourself to get out of foreclosure; it just comes in an IRS envelope over time.

Okay. I get it. There is a lot of blame to go around but how do we fix it?

My answer to that would be, allow the market and American people to take a hit. I know it sounds cruel but it’s how I live my life. Sometimes you have to take a loss to learn a lesson. When you look to gain something from the situation for yourself, sometimes you get in the way of realizing the gravity of the lesson. BIG THOUGHT.

The Great Depression started because Wall Street was given the ability to gamble with the savings of Millions of Americans. Unemployment was at 24%, people where standing in bread lines, and the government let it happen. Until Roosevelt stepped in A New Deal. The government came in and ushered out money. New programs to help everyone affected by the crisis on Wall Street. While we can’t be mad at the progress made during those times to save our economy, everyone got something. And we forgot the Gravity of the Situation. If you don’t believe that; why did we repeat the same mistake so close to the last one? The Great Depression didn’t happen thousands of years ago. It started in 1929. That’s not even 100 years ago.

Just as in life. If you continue to make the same mistakes, you will continue to get the same results. If the government comes in and bails out every sector that takes unwise risk, then why stop taking the risk. Instead of spending money on the Bail Out, keep our Military Strong enough to protect us during this period and allow the market and the people to learn a lesson about what we all owe America. Yes it’s the land of opportunity, but not at the expense of the Overall standing of our nation. Sometimes we have to take the hit to make the U.S.A. stronger. She has allowed us all to have some measure of success. If it’s just the feeling of knowing that there is a chance for me to build a life in peace.

We all take advantage of the Freedom we have. It’s a blessing to live in The United States of America. We can not continue to put her Sovereignty in jeopardy because we are unwilling to take a couple bumps and bruises of our own making. And if you say, I’m paying my mortgage, so I didn’t create this problem. Think about this. Are you paying attention to your local elections? Do you know if your Senator is know trying to add Billions of dollars worth of Pork into the already $720 Billion Bill? If you’re not paying attention, then you’re not understanding the gravity of the situation and you too are caught up in America’s problem of your own making.

The only silver lining in all this is the fact that the government will probably make back the money from the loans. The truth of the matter is, our economy is still pretty strong. During the great depression people were standing in bread lines, now people are standing in line to buy the new IPhone. In a few years, people will have rebounded and the government will be selling property back to the market. The loans will be safer, the american people will be looking for a deal, and we will continue on.

The only problem. There will be another problem. In some other sector and the government will again step in. Instead of making one sector learn a lesson from the downfall of another. We will let each sector figure it our for themselves. Always leaving a weak link in the chain of our economy. And a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.