Bailout Package

Hi All!

Heading to a board of aldermen meeting here in an hour or so and had a few minutes to write while Maddie is watching Andy Griffith and I am watching the snow fall. I hope that it sticks around!

Well, the title of this piece is about the bailout...I don't have a tremendous amount to say, or a great deal of details but it does reinforce several principles that I believe in:

*Any bill sent through the House or Senate should be "clean"--no stuff attached to it, no special projects, nothing to sweeten or entice representatives--simply put "No Pork" and the president (whoever he may be at the time) should have line-item veto.

*Remember back in October, when the world as we knew it was going to simply cease to exist? Banks would go belly-up the next day, bread lines would form, the value of the dollar would plummet further than it already has and gas lines formed while gas prices soared? The BIG government (including folks I voted for & some I didn't) demanded a HUGE bailout--immediately...WELL, here we are, still no bailout and now we are in the midst of spend, spend, spend...here comes INFLATION!

*Could you use a million or two, or heck say a couple hundred thousands...well, while you and I cut our personal budgets, cease to spend on any extras and basically go on a pinto bean diet...the government wants to borrow and spend MORE of your hard-earned money! I don't suggest that we borrow money from China to give each taxpaying American a portion, I say, we don't borrow at all...

*IF WE DO BORROW...we must focus-focus! Housing--not bailing folks out, but making more money available to borrow to the average American...allow money to get to "Joe-Investor" who will buy up the foreclosures and short sales...they can fix them up, rent them out to the folks who have been displaced and eventually as the housing market stabilizes, they will sell them...contractors will be employed, goods will exchange hands, laborers will be back in business...FIX HOUSING & BANKING, not the arts, or contraceptive programs, or museums, FIX THE BASICS!

*Support the folks who don't take government dollars...THERE ARE BANKS out there who had good, solid lending practices. They loaned to folks who had good credit, assets and money down...yes times may be hard for these folks, but they are paying their bills and other people's too! Some of these banks turned down TARP money--yes, you heard me right! Turned it down! They are cautious and understand that taking government bailout money makes them beholden to the government...Keep in mind Ben Franklin's mantra: A government big enough to help you is a government big enough to control you....that's paraphrased folks and could have been Thomas Jefferson...nevertheless, you get my point!