We have seen countless stories about the bailout and, now that it appears there is an agreement, we can examine how a national liberal Democrat will govern us.

The need for this bailout was because of Democrats and their philosophy that government should just hand out money so they can feel good about themselves. We see in every story Sen. Dodd and Rep. Frank telling us they are looking out for us and trying to solve the problem. They are the main ones responsible for this mess.

You can read all the stories pointing out this started under Carter and expanded under Clinton. This was another attempt of Democrats to transfer wealth and then waste it. Now we may have to pay out $700 billion to correct this mess.

Here is a small list to outline this story...

The Democrats blamed reckless de-regulation for the crisis today.
Of course, Democrats blocked all reform on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the last 10 years.

In 2001 President Bush urged reform

In 2004 Democrats refused to reform Fannie and Freddie.

In 2008 President Bush warned Congress 17 times about the crisis that the Democrats created and ignored.

Bill Clinton even said the Democrats were at fault.

It is clear this is a Democrat mess because if there was one Republican involved in this then the Democrats would have had hearing weeks ago, investigations, and probably had them in jail by now. The fact that there are no investigations is proof that the Democrats are to blame.

It is also disgusting to watch Dodd, Franks and Pelosi telling us that Wall Street is to blame when they forced the rules to waste the money. Yes, many in Wall Street did take the money and ruin their companies, but they were encouraged by government backing these bad loans.

Congress is the problem, not capitalism. It is important to remember this as we watch Congress spend billions more each year.

Bruce Caldwell
Signal Mountain
sarmatt25@comcast.net

* * *

To be sure, the Democrats have certainly had a great deal to do with this current fiscal mess.

Republicans must also shoulder their share of responsibility. They began their run in 1994 and did rather well with their "Contract with America" ... for a couple of years. Then they got the smell of money and began acting like sharks with blood in the water, like drunken socialists instead of the drunken sailors they're so often compared to. I've known too many sailors over the years and none of them had any money. Actually, Congress has no money either ... none, that is, which belongs to them. They spend ours.

We can discuss criminal behavior such as what appears to have been done by Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana, but we must also include those such as Congressman Duke Cunningham. We can point to the amoral behavior of President William Jefferson Clinton, but then we'd also have to include Congressman Newt Gingrich and others.

We can blame this current problem on President Clinton, but didn't he have to deal with a Republican Congress? Congress, according to our U.S. Constitution, is the only body authorized to initiate spending tax dollars. Period. Not the Senate. Not the Supreme Court, or the lower courts. Not the president. Congress is the only body.

So what did they do?

President Bush most certainly has done an admirable job ensuring this nation has been protected from further terrorist attacks. Too bad he hasn't done as well with his veto pen when it came to spending our tax dollars.

We certainly did have companies such as Enron, Tyco, Loral, and others who did their share of damage on Wall Street. What did our Congress do to encourage and enable this behavior?

What do shareholders of companies do to prevent those "golden parachutes" for executives who are failures? Why do those shareholders allow executives to be paid megabucks when they fail?

Locally we have our own Secret Mayor Man, Claude Ramsey, who perceives himself to be on the same level as the CEO of a $500 million company, but he too spends none of his own money. All he has is that funny money, the hard-earned cash contributed to the county coffers by those of us schmucks out here on the street who get up and go to work every day so we can pay our taxes ... and he spends it with impunity, as though there are no consequences for his failures. Because there are none. All he has to do is twist some arms to raise our taxes when he makes a mistake, perhaps offer a new playground or a new school.

We have Richard Floyd who is so brazen as to tell me he knows better what's good for me than I know for myself. We have Gerald McCormick who wants more money for the school system to waste, Bo Watson who will agree to a 21 cent tax increase, but 43 cents is too much and firmly believes that private industry taking all the profit while taxpayers assume all liability for a project is just peachy keen. JoAnne Favors who will extend personal issues onto all in a specific group of individuals, and Tommie Brown who will take care of "(her) people" even if that means this is at the expense of those who aren't "her people."

But Andy Berke is going to solve all of the problems with our local upsurge in violence by holding hearings during the daytime while regular citizens are at work, hiring big bucks consultants to come in to testify, and otherwise grandstanding and spending our tax dollars.

This "bailout" of Wall Street and the mortgage industry is but a symptom of the disease.

"Tax, tax, spend, spend ... oh, what an alarming trend." I still wish I had thought that one up.

When I went to college on the GI Bill it cost me $7.50 per semester hour for classes at a state school, if memory serves correctly. 1/2 to 3/4 time, including books if I bought most of them used, cost me just about one month's check from the VA. What does college cost today? Inflation doesn't account for the increases, but free spending and college loan availability certainly has. The real estate market as well as others have suffered from the same money availability.

There is no leadership, even though our elected officials and their appointed functionaries would like us to believe they're leaders. There is no restraint of spending, even though these same people would have us believe a cut in a budget request is the same as a cut in spending. The same people who've gotten us into this mess would have us believe they're fully capable of resolving it. Is this nuts or what. And they want to be paid for fixing what they broke in the first place, with additional bureaucracy to go along with their solution.

I'll admit to having been born at night. My mother will attest to that. I guarantee it was not last night. She'll attest to that too, especially if someone wants to discuss teenagers and their stress inducing capacity. I'm told mine knew no bounds.

Here's the deal I would offer ... fix what you broke and if you fix it you won't go to jail.

Yes, I am mad as can be. And I'm not alone.

Royce E. Burrage Jr.
Royce@OfficiallyChapped.org