Don't Trust the Republicans

Seriously, what over the past 8 years has the Republican Party done to inspire trust? Ruin the economy? Get this country into a foolish war that it was destined to lose? Double (yes, double) the national debt? Am I going crazy here?

Now, we're supposed to trust these very same people to fix the economy with a massive bad debt bailout? No thanks, the Republicans created the deregulations that have led to where we are today, they now own them. If some of their precious corporate friends lose everything - too damn bad. That's what millions of Americans have been losing under all of these policies for almost a decade now.

The fact is that this bailout that seems destined to happen won't even address the underlying problem: people losing their homes. If we're going to bail out anyone, why not the American people? These people were told by these banks that they could afford these loans when they couldn't, or that they could get out of their subprimes if they needed to - when they couldn't. This bailout won't stop people from losing their homes, it's just that now these banks won't be responsible for taking on risky debt. This is absurd!

This is an absolute betrayal of actual conservative economic policy - some of which now even most Democrats subscribe to. Pay as you go. Don't take overly risky debt. Be accountable for your actions. These are all policies that the bulk of the Democratic Party now subscribes to, yet the Republicans are more than willing to abandon.

So, let's get this all straight: The free-market Republicans bought the country's two largest mortgage firms, Freddie and Fanny, meaning we now own more than 50% of this country's mortgages. Then we buy 80% of one of the largest insurance companies in the world, the 18th largest company in existence - according to Bob at BMG. Now, we're going to take on the entire banking industry's bad debt? Isn't capitalism supposed to be about companies taking personal accountability for their actions? Since when should government take all the risk - and the corporations all the profit?

The truth is, I'm not opposed to a little government intervention to help the economy. But this bailout plan is absurd. If we're going to bail out anyone, bail out the people. If we bail them out - we save the companies anyway. Along with the economy. If we don't bail out the people, but bail out the companies... maybe the stocks will be saved, but millions more will lose their homes - devastating this country's real economy (the people who must live with it). Things will get worse, not better, as companies are told it's okay to take on bad debt - the government will be accountable for you. Politicies this government creates should make sense for the people who live in this country, not just the corporations. Otherwise, we're not just a welfare state, we're a corporate welfare state - and that should offend all American taxpayers, many of whom get screwed in the process.