Wednesday, September 24

My letters to DC today

What I sent off to my two senators, Representative and President Bush today:

Dear Congresscritter:

This is a matter of great importance to me. I am extremely concerned about the proposed bailout package for Wall Street.

Let me be clear about the current proposed bill in Congress.

No. Hell no. No way in hell!

I could make it even more explicit, but I'm (trying to) keep this letter as civil as possible.

The problems and questions as I see them as a taxpayer with my own budget problems:

The degree of urgency for passing this bill. How do Bernanke and Paulson know the urgency? The "rumors on the Internets" is that this bill has been in the making for months at the Whitehouse. If true, then why is this becoming known now instead of earlier?
Giving one man spending authority for that kind of money without any kind of oversight is ludicrous and down right unconstitutional. This is nothing but an in your face brazen power grab, something that this administration has been way to keen on doing, and I have been objecting to for years.
The one man chosen to "fix" the problem (and there are absolutely no guarantees on either side that this bill will help it, let alone fix it) is part of the problem to start with. Hank Paulson needs to resign, effective immediately. Regardless of what solution is found.
Do we even really know what the problem is? Yeah, the big heads on TV are saying it's all about lack of liquidity (and yes, I even understand what that means, even if it is talking over the heads of the majority of listeners and voters). But while we may see the problem, we may not be seeing the underlying cause of that problem. And is the proposed fix the only fix that there is? What options are available?
The problem to me seems that consumers and corporations, all taxpayers are so deep in debt that they are now unable to pay for that debt. Fix that problem, and I think most of the other issues we are now having will go away.
The sub-prime loan collapse can be blamed for starting this whole mess, but my bigger fear is that not only are the sub-prime loans problematic, the prime loans and the commercial loans made in the same time span are also problematic. And I think that those are already starting to show problems, but they haven't reached the magnitude of the sub-prime loans. Yet.
Because of the above, I am very afraid that $700 billion will only be the start of the money that needs to be paid out. Again, there are reports on the Internet that say we may need to spend $1 trillion to $1½ trillion. That's real money (in the line of "A billion here, a billion there and soon you're talking real money"), in excess of 10% of the current total deficit. In one shot to the gut. And I find the current deficit to be outrageous to begin with.
This proposed solution does nothing for the real people that are suffering in this country. It just keeps the existing extremely flawed system going. What is going to happen when not only the people of this nation are still or again in this situation, and the country itself is also in the same situation? A $10 trillion+ debt has to make this country not that far behind from collapse.
This proposed bill is nothing but a Socialistic bailout for Capitalists. Does this mean that Capitalism should now be considered dead? Why isn't there a Capitalistic fix?
What exactly are the assets that the government is buying? Assets, to me, have value. I'm not exactly sure that what will be sold will have any value. What can the government possibly do with these possibly worthless assets that will increase their value?
Who is going to determine the values of these assets that will be bought the government? At what cost?
Compensation for the executives must be cut. These corporations want a government handout (and as far as I'm concerned, that's what it looks like), so they should have some regulation. I would propose that any companies that are to take any of this money must first have all executives (not just the CEO, but the rest of the executives including board members) agreed to cut an individual's compensation to a maximum of $999,999.99 per year, and no golden parachutes. Not one golden thread. And the period of this agreement will be as long as the government has control of the assets that were bought. Maybe very short for some, but I predict very long for others.
If the assets that are eventually resold are sold for a loss, the government gets stock in that company to cover that loss. The taxpayers should not be on the hook for any loss. And any gains that are made go back into the budget, hopefully to pay off some of our own debt. The taxpayers should definitely get something back from this proposal.
This proposed bill only lets the banks and other financial institutions get to the point of continuing business as usual. Business as usual can not and must not be continued!
What will really happen if things do collapse?
Are we only postponing a collapse till later, and will it be inherently worse than letting it collapse now?
The Treasury printing more money will only be inflationary, and the Fed keeping rates so irrationally low will keep the pigs at the trough when they have clearly way overeaten.

I cannot believe that the people that should know what the hell is going on is just now getting around to telling us the sky is falling. They should have known this was going to happen, and indeed I believe that they did know, they just chose to ignore it until things were going so terribly wrong, they had to talk about it.

The people that have been and are currently in charge should be ashamed of themselves. I call for the resignation of Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke. I also put blame upon the shoulders of Alan Greenspan.

I also call for the resignation of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney in this matter. President Bush has touted his skills as a business man and Cheney has talked about his "superior" private experience.

I consider the current legislation to be toxic, that unless the taxpayer is explicitly protected from bad transactions, that the taxpayer retains all profits from handling these sales, and that Wall Street be very much punished for this greed, any yes vote will be a call for throwing the bums out. Yes, this means you.

The election is way too close for the voters to have "forgotten" what is going on, and while my two senators may not be up for election this year, I certainly will be remembering what happens in the next four years, and I will be campaigning against if I must.

A constituent:
Bryan L. Price

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My letters to DC today