I'm NOT as dumb as you think I am CONGRESS!!

I am soo tired of being treated like  your average working American is significantly  dumber than our congress men and woman! Yes, I think that we can agree that for alot of us money had gotten tighter and we were not enjoying the prosperity that maybe we had been fora few years.  Of course for a LONG time we were told that the sky was falling because of high oil prices...and at that  it was surprising  that they were willing to take a break from telling us that the sky was falling because of global warming.  And now of course it is the housing bubble and credit freeze (??) that is going to bring destruction down on all of us.   I mean if you are going to preach the apocalypse would it kill you to pick WHAT it is that is going to bring about the end of the world and stick to it?  Trying to keep track of what it is that I am supposed to be terrified of this week is getting exhausting. 

  However, after the government had to step in to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers went  bankrupt, suddenly oil prices are no longer a concern (kind of a shame because it's down to  $95 a barrel).  The government had to come in riding on it's white horse and save us all from certain disaster.  It had to be done NOW, I mean if we didn't have the bailout bill passed in two days......wait...what WAS going to happen?  I forget....fairly certain the sun still rose this morning because  the earth is still rotating around it.    The American people HATE this plan...they called their representatives in numbers RARELY if ever seen in this country to tell them to absolutely NOT vote for this bill.  Many did not.  The media roasted them for 'pandering' because they were concerned about  being re-elected.  THEY SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT BEING RE-ELECTED IF THEY VOTE IN A WAY THAT THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT DISAPPROVE OF".  There is a reason why they call them 'representatives'  they are supposed to represent US when they vote.  How dare they do what we told them to?  Of course the overwhelming implication (when it was merely implied rather than said out loud) is that we are dumb.  We don't understand the bill--THAT is why we don't want them voting for it. If it was presented to us more CLEARLY...if we UNDERSTOOD the ramifications...yadda yadda yadda.   Of course the people who live in their bizarre little political world in D.C.  who haven't lived on 'Main Street' in years if ever OH so clearly are better equipped to tell us what we like and don't like and what we want to see happen and don't want to see happen.  

  Here is something I want to be clear about and I think I can say it with certainty.  I UNDERSTAND THE BILL, I UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF PASSING OR NOT PASSING THE BILL AND (congress are you listening)  I STILL DON'T WANT IT TO PASS. 

    I think that the bill is BAD for America.  I think that a market correction will be tough on America but we are a tough country.  If we can survive 9/11 we can survive a housing bubble letting some air out, we can survive the residual effects of what greed did to some areas of the economy.  We CAN not and WILL not survive the LARGEST EVER intervention of the government into the private sector and survive as a free market economy. 

  You can look at what happened in Japan in the 90's.  The politicians there tried to artificially prop up a real estate bubble, it led to a decade of economic stagnation.   I believe that what happened in the 1930's when the government raised taxes and spending turned a stock market crash into the Great Depression.  

  I don't care how often it is told to me on TV that they are not 'rewarding' anyone on Wall St. but merely trying to protect those innocent bystanders living on Main Street.  The free market works because people benefit from making wise decisions.  You or I are anyone can live the American Dream.  FIgure out how to provide a good or service either a new one or an old one cheaper or better than someone else and you can be rich.  Of course there is a downside.  You might not make it, your decision might not be as good as you thought it was and you could lose money and go bankrupt.  Same thing with people merely investing their money.  If you pick a good company your money becomes MORE money.  If you pick a bad company or make a bad choice you can lose money.  Quite often the higher the risk the greater the return if it succeeds.  Most of us have to balance how risky we are willing to be when we invest our money.   If you win money if you make good choices but get bailed out if you make poor decisions.  Why would you EVER make the safe investment choice?  If you don't believe me ...look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or study the savings and loan failures from the late 1980's and see what happens when profits are privatized but losses are socialized.  

     Let's also not forget that the people who we are looking to to fix the problem CAUSED the problem.  By lowering interest rates too low, by giving people mortgages they could not afford by the "Community Reinvestment Act"  which told banks to give loans to people with no or poor credit.  Even when the government was warned about the dangers at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac they denied anything was wrong.  Largely because their hands were in those companies pockets.  They had a MAJOR interest in how those companies did....now we want to give them that same amount of involvement in ALL of our financial institutions and think that somehow this will make things BETTER...LESS corrupt?  Sorry Congress...I understand why all that would greatly benefit YOU...I understand that there is something for YOU to gain in making government larger than it has ever been...in having a personal interest in all of the financial workings of the greatest economy in the world, I know that you would LOVE to sell me that this is what MY FAMILY needs....but I 'm just not that dumb.