Let's Slow Down This Frantic Rush to Action

I have been doing my best to follow the current financial crisis in this country, and although it is very complex, one thing I know for sure…there is absolutely no reason to rush to get this bailout done. I would rather see a deal that is fair to the American taxpayer, and it strikes me that getting this done rapidly just does not serve the American consumer. I have no doubt that a bailout, whether it’s done tomorrow or whether all parties are taken into account before a deal is struck, will satisfactorily bail out the offending financial institutions and give them what they require to keep afloat.

What I would like to see Barack do is come out and say that before Congress rubber-stamps the deal quickly thrown together by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that has language in it that the deal can’t be reviewed by any oversight committee, court or government agency, that they should allow the experienced team of advisors that have already assembled to assist Obama with his economic plan to meet this week or next for the purpose of reviewing the plan on the table and to make certain that it meets all of the objectives that have been laid out by Barack recently and what he has said in the past. It will demonstrate tremendous leadership standing up and making sure that this is the best and most thoughtful deal that will protect the American people while providing the necessary resources to the offending companies in question.

Furthermore, Barack should announce that other experienced voices with their own bailout plans be considered before this country is forced to live with a bailout that protects large multi-national corporations who should not be rewarded for gross mismanagement and the McCain-Bush led Republican Party, which has basically given their approval to these companies to conduct themselves unethically when they all knew that we would ultimately arrive at this time of crisis. But it is a crisis that deserves more than just a band-aid, and haven’t we allowed the Republicans to destroy this country’s financial infrastructure enough already?

it can also be argued quite successfully that this crisis has actually been manufactured and that George Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s greatest wish is to leave this country in a colossal fiscal mess so that whoever becomes president will literally have no money to deal with and very few options to manage their way out of this totally preventable disaster. It is also probable that it is the wisdom of the McCain campaign that the more emergency issues that the new president will face, the less attractive that Obama will appear to people who are the most susceptible to the fear mongering that the McCain campaign has been peddling since this election season began.

There are a couple of things to read that reinforce the concept that we definitely should not rush into a deal that I believe strongly will surely make Wall Street and higher end investors absolutely delighted, because this is truly a legal theft of the American treasury without any ability for the average American to recoup anything for giving this lovely gift to the wealthiest among us, but I also believe that in the end, we, the lowly American taxpayer, will be left with very little to show for our hard-earned money just being handed over to what I consider the least deserving recipients of these funds, the very people and companies who knowingly and completely voluntarily ran their companies with a cavalier attitude knowing that they would just be turning their bad debts over to financial speculators who would be left holding the bag and would eventually be holding their hands out and begging to be bailed out.

Barack, let’s not join the chorus of people who bow our heads and just agree to go along with everyone else. I realize that we will have a bailout program ultimately one way or the other, but it should not ignore the very people who are the ones providing the ultimate funding of this close to trillion dollar bailout, the American taxpayers and consumers.

Finally, while I don’t believe in restricting how much money any CEO or the hierarchy of any company can earn, I do believe that it is highly appropriate to call for an investigation into the actions and procedures leading up to this financial debacle, and should anyone in any one of these companies, or governmental agencies for that matter, be found to have violated any laws or protocols established by government regulation, they should be held accountable and be subject to any civil or criminal penalties that apply.

http://krugmhttp://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/news/economy/bailout_proposal_Monday/index.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/news/economy/bailout_proposal_Monday/index.htm?cnn=yes