A plea to save our country...

I sent this to Obama and Judy Biggert before the sentate vote a couple of days ago. Durbin's contact form was broken, and his congressional email bounced, so I couldn't get to him, not that it made any difference. It turns out that all of my representation (Illinois) voted for this heap of dung. After the Senate approved the act I read it, well most of it... it's 451 pages of legal-speak. I quit making notes and comments as there were too many comments to be made. It is truly a bad plan benefiting people who default on their loans and those elite that made them. The rest of us are left swinging in the breeze. The "pork" was legal coercion to get the votes required to pass. We elected these people to represent us. We deserve better than we got.

The "Emergency Investment Act" is now law. Mark this date down. Remember what you did today. It's a date that "will live in infamy". Our government's relationship with all of us fundamentally changed today. Shame on all who voted for this act and those who stood by and allowed it to happen. I'll post more on why it will not help the economy and how it accelerated our country's slide into socialism later. Maybe that's what you want, but it's not what I want.

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x,

It is my earnest hope that these messages reach you. I am not in favor of the proposed "bailout" or "investment" plan for the following reasons:

1. Private sector must remain private. Risky credit policies have to run their course even if the consequences are painful. I realize that this is not going to resonate, so I have other concerns that follow.

2. If these financial firms are too risky to extend credit to how can they be any less of a risk with regard to stock or warrants?

3. Exactly which financial firms are going to be helped? What is the criteria for investment or credit?

4. How can we be assured that those people overseeing these programs are acting in the public's best interest and not in their own? It seems that nearly every official involved in setting past and present policy has ties to several of these failing firms.

5. How can we be assured that those responsible for acting irresponsibly not only do not profit from assistance, but are fairly punished for their recklessness? Clearly the bylaws, regulations and legislation in place for the GSE's and SEC were not effective. How can we be sure that this law won't be equally inert?

6. It appalls me to see the level of partisan posturing happening by both parties. I am embarrassed by it.

7. What I now see are provisions being included to solicit senate votes that do not directly address the issue at hand. I realize that this is how the system works, but it's distasteful to see given the current circumstances.

8. Nobody has adequately explained the alternative to a bailout. Much of the American public is sophisticated enough to follow logic when it's presented. Many of us do not appreciate generic doom and fear tactics. If someone were to clearly lay out the facts we would respond. Pandering to our fears has become a troublesome consistency by today's leadership.

9. The financial aid provided will not prevent foreclosures and repossession on bad debt. The only benefactor would seem to be the executives and shareholders of these companies. As for how the markets will be affected is a guess and a gamble at best. When credit is stretched beyond the population's ability to repay, prices are inflated, and subsequently taxes increased in part on those inflated prices isn't it a matter of time before something breaks? I wish our leaders would stop using job loss and foreclosure as a platform when no spending program can adequately address those two symptoms of a sick system.

If a plan is absolutely necessary, I would be in favor of a loan program that clearly identified where the money would go, had very strict guidelines for who qualified for loans, that eliminates companies who are too risky to repay the loans, that had an extreme transparency, that had a combination of private sector (non-invested) and public sector oversight and lastly that had provisions for investigation and remediation regarding the legislation and private practices that led to this situation.

Respectfully,