Corporate Welfare

$700,000,000,000.00.

It would be impossible for any family, and this includes the Gates, to spend that amount. The $700 billion bank and mortgage lender bailout proposed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would be spent literally over night. This scenario, a massive takeover by the government of the US mortgage industry will make Washington the single largest mortgage holder in the world. Uncle Sam would, in essence, become America’s landlord.

Whether or not this step needs to be taken, and I don’t believe it needs to be done, the amount does not need to be any where near Paulson’s proposal. That Washington thinks 700 B is not large enough gives you an idea as to how out of touch the beltway has become. Paulson has also indicated that a significant portion of the money has been locked away to give promised salaries and bonuses ranging from 10 to 25 million a year to those executives who worked so hard to drive their companies’ stock into the cellar.

The Free Market is a marvelous tool and it works properly every time it is allowed to operate honestly. What we are experiencing right now is a corruption of that system; a twisted blend of socialism and corporate welfare. The depression of the late twenties will look like a bull market once Paulson is done, if he is allowed free rein in this matter.

The bank owns you if you owe them $200,000. If you owe the bank $2,000,000,000, you own the bank. What would happen if all those homeowners got together to boycott this plan? What if they all refused to send in their payment until a real solution, one that doesn’t reward incompetence, is found?