ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

let the markets handle their own problems!!!!!!

I believe in what this man says. Read below.

The Bailout and What's Next

Dear Friend,

Yesterday marked a day that will go down in history, when Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike took on full responsibility to protect the interests of taxpaying Americans, and defeated the deceptive bail out bill, defying the dictates of the Administration, the House Majority Leadership, the House Minority Leadership and the special interests on Wall Street.

Obviously Congress must consider quickly another course. There are immediate issues which demand attention and responsible action by the Congress so that the taxpayers, their assets, and their futures are protected.

We MUST do something to protect millions of Americans whose homes, bank deposits, investments, and pensions are at risk in a financial system that has become seriously corrupted. We are told that we must stabilize markets in order for the people to be protected. I think we need to protect peoples' homes, bank deposits, investments, and pensions, to order to stabilize the market.

We cannot delay taking action. But the action must benefit all Americans, not just a privileged few. Otherwise, more plans will fail, and the financial security of everyone will be at risk.

The $700 billion bailout would have added to our existing unbearable load of national debt, trade deficits, and the cost of paying for the war. It would have been a disaster for the American public and the government for decades and maybe even centuries to come.

To be sure, there are many different reasons why people voted against the bailout. The legislation did not regard in any meaningful way the plight of millions of Americans who are about to lose their homes. It did nothing to strengthen existing regulatory structures or impose new ones at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve in order to protect investors. There were no direct protections for bank depositors. There was nothing to stop further speculation, which is what brought us into this mess in the first place.

This was a bailout for some firms (and investors) on Wall Street, with the idea that in doing so there would be certain, unspecified, general benefits to the economy.

This is a perfect time to open a broader discussion about our financial system, especially our monetary system. Such a discussion is like searching for a needle in a haystack, and then, upon finding it, discussing its qualities at great length. Let me briefly describe the haystack instead.

Here is a very quick explanation of the $700 billion bailout within the context of the mechanics of our monetary and banking system:

The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them.

Confused?

This is the system. This is the standard mechanism used to expand the money supply on a daily basis not a special one designed only for the "$700 billion" transaction. People will explain this to you in many different ways, but this is what it comes down to.

The banks needed Congress' approval. Of course in this topsy turvy world, it is the banks which set the terms of the money they are borrowing from the taxpayers. And what do we get for this transaction? Long term debt enslavement of our country. We get to pay back to the banks trillions of dollars ($700 billion with compounded interest) and the banks give us their bad debt which they cull from everywhere in the world.

Who could turn down a deal like this? I did.

The globalization of the debt puts the United States in the position that in order to repay the money that we borrow from the banks (for the banks) we could be forced to accept International Monetary Fund dictates which involve cutting health, social security benefits and all other social spending in addition to reducing wages and exploiting our natural resources. This inevitably leads to a loss of economic, social and political freedom.

Under the failed $700 billion bailout plan, Wall Street's profits are Wall Street's profits and Wall Street's losses are the taxpayers' losses. Profits are capitalized. Losses are socialized.

We are at a teachable moment on matters of money and finance. In the coming days and weeks, I will share with you thoughts about what can be done to take us not just in a new direction, but in a new direction which is just.

Thank you,

Dennis
www.Kucinich.us
216-252-9000 877-933-6647

why did they up our heat bill s in the middle of this bailout..... we older people cant handel all this

I think everyone needs to slow down and consider all options. Giving wall st a blank check will not solve the problem. We should not be rushed as President Bush insists on doing. Something is very wrong with this plan.

Yes, this is an enormously dangerous situation and yes, something needs to be done quickly to fix it. However, we must not act in such haste that we don't do a good job of crafting a workable solution. I am relieved that we have been given a few days to tweak and review the contents of this bill. We need to be VERY sure that we do not throw 700 billion dollars down the drain.

Yesterday I sent e-mails to my congress people urging them to pass some legislation to provide financial aid to the ailing financial markets, and to be sure to include safeguards for the American public to prevent their money from being wasted, and prevent any of it being used to give bonuses or "golden parachutes" to executives.
I urge you all to do the same.

Here is an alternative plan to the economic issues at hand: Lou Dobbs just interviewed Congressman Peter DeFazio and the plan (The No Bailout Plan) has historical significance from the 80's S&L crisis, also some foreign countries employed these similar measures to restore their credit lending problems.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/30/18155/2039/370/615926
This is where you can read the proposal.

Frankly I am grossly disappointed in our Barack Obama for supporting and pushing this Bailout crap through. He has just lost major credibility with me. It appears Barack Obama has a poor concept of both our disdain of the bailout and he insight into the complexities of the US economy. Shame on you Barack.

We KNEW the market would go right back up, like it did the last time, and the buyers (rich) would get phenomenal bargains as they bought. Re no crash repeats: R E G U L A T I O N.

So let's take action already. Let's put some money up from somewhere and help pay homeowners out of those scams that the predators in the lending firms got them into. The fed takes the lein on the property and the homeowners can pay back the government at some reasonable interest rate, the crisis is solved.

Don't turn money over to anyone to bail out the scam banks.

I think we should vote ALL of you out!

Please insist that your congresspeople get this rescue plan passed quickly. Even though it is tough to swallow it has to be passed for the salvation of our country as we know it.--Jim in Rocheater, NY

Let's get this bailout done. There is no hope of Main Street surviving without the bailout!

This is too much debt to leave our children and grandchildren. I say "no" to the bailout as it is written now. It gives the same people who have been lying about the economy too much power over the money. I am not for paying for the lifestyle of Wall Street. A solution has to come in the form that will do something for the housing market and the credit crunch. I say "back to the drawing board, Congress and Senate.

Failure to pass the Financial Reform Bill was the most irresponsible thing that I have ever witnessed. The lack of leadership in this group of legislators is appalling. I am tracking those congressmen from my state that didn't have the courage to vote for the bill. If they can't lead, they should at least get out of the way.

I personally thought the idea that the Republicans didn't vote for the bill because of Nancy Pelosi's comments was not true. If it were true they were NOT putting America first. I'd like to believe they didn't vote for it because the people back home didn't want them to. Why couldn't they just say that? John McCain's comments the last two weeks have been bizarre. His behavior has been the most political I have ever seen in my 65 years. It's almost like these people think the American people are stupid and will believe anything. Hopefully all the financial experts are correct about this needing to be done since I'm sure some bill will eventually be passed.

this is one more fraud. Congressman De Fazio has the correct approach. We need to guarantee the credit not hand the thieves who began this scam the keys to the Treasury. Bernanke and Paulson must be fired before moving forward with anything,

I think the bill should not be passed, unless they help the people who are being forclosed on. It is
affecting my son who is about to lose his house and
he can not seem to get help. So unless they do some
thing to help. Do not pass the bill let the stock market take care of them selves and let other business
buy in and take over like what has been done with a
couble of the business's.

I'm like most retired people, I get by on my Social Security, Medicare, savings interest payments and my mutual fund gains. During the last 8 years I have had some winners and a recent major loser. My SS and Medicare does not keep up with inflation, I'm behind the curve about 1.5 percent per year. Since the interest rates on CD's are held low by the Bush administration I lose about 2 percent per year on this money. The big winner over the period has been my mutual funds, until 2 days ago at least. I've lost over 40% of it's value since Jan 2008, what a terrible deal for a senior citizen. I'm voting for people that look out for all if our citizens.

The government stinks and will probably never get better.

I think all these rich CEOs should give back the millions they took but I know that will never happen.

The people that are proposing the fixes only know one way of doing business, the same way they have been doing it their entire lives. Worse yet, their whole livelihood depends on keeping the existing system going, even though their shares may still be held in "escrow". Let the current system fail, let the millionaires lose, until they allow the changes that allow for equitable pay for equitable work - and I do not mean a 1% fee for a billion dollar merger, just for doing the paperwork. I know it means that the majority of us will get hurt, but we are used to working, honestly and hard; we can recover. If we eliminate the excesses of the past, they, hopefully, will not recover to doing business "as it has always been done, lately".

Let our ecomomy work like it was supposed to, and it did, until the Wall Street "financiers" realized what they could get away with.

I was extremly disappointed that the so called bailout plan did not pass. I don't think congress realizes the impact that not passing this bill has on the average citizen, especially retired people who depend primarily on their IRA and investments for their income.

The majority party in congress (Democrats since 2006 elections) made the rules and regulations that caused this financial meltdown. Ongoing investigations, unless derailed, will chronicle the sequence of events. All congressmen and bureaucrats supporting this criminal theft from our citizens should be removed from office and receive no pension or health benefits paid for by the taxpayers.
The solution is not to reward the people who caused it in either congress or the financial community who were not responsible but rather to take the suggested "bail out" money and send it directly to each tax payer. Let the failing institutions fail and those able to do business in a responsible manner take over the failures assets. With the $250,000 check each taxpayer would be due under this plan I am sure they would be able to set right, on their own, what the crooks have stolen.

My wife and I agree completely that inaction is simply not an option. We're retired and, needless to say, are concerned that our retirement savings are being jeopardized by the inability of the members of the House of Representative (including, I might add, the Representative from our District) to either understand the consequences of inaction (a distinct possibility) or to be willing to take a potentially unpopular stance and vote to take action.

You can bet that our "no" voting Congressman is going to "get an earful" from us, and I hope that others will do the same with regard to their Representatives and Senators.

The good news is that November 4 is fast approaching and these folks are clearly concerned about keeping their jobs, so we do have some leverage. Let's use it!!

AARP--bullshit.

Congress has proved once again that it would sell this country down the river to get re-elected. Why or why do we elect (and re-elect) these nincompoops? Their inaction is a national disgrace! Vote no on all of them!

Have the politicians take the time and effort to explain what the situation is to the people and don't be afraid to do something about it. Doing nothing because you are coming up for election is not something to be proud of, and will definately be remembered come election day!

So why are we giving money to people i.e. bankers who are already rich while the rest of us aren't. Dream? Yeah before real estate got so expensive I thought one day I, a blind man, and my blind wife could have a house. But Impeachaable George took that away. Combine lack of meaningful employment with this depression we're in and VOILAH dream gone! How about dividing this monstrous sum among U. S. Citizens and legal residents.

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.

So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.

That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.

A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads

Put away money for college - it'll be there

Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.

Buy a new car - create jobs

Invest in the market - capital drives growth

Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves

Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U.S. Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U.S. Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.

Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion

We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC

And remember, The Hoover plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

THE MESS ON WALL STREET IS DUE TO NOTHING MORE THAN GREED. WE SHOULD NOT BAIL THEM OUT.CHECK THE FACTS AND THEY WILL VERIFY THIS STATEMENT.

Granted, congress could not get their act togeather for a vote. But the managed to take a long holiday vacation, rather than solve a problem. isn't it time we held these no loads accountable for their actions/lack of results??????

A “Bottom Up” Solution to the Current Financial Crisis

The Bush Administration has proposed dealing with the current financial crisis by using $700 billion of taxpayer money to buy up all credit system clogging bad debt currently on the balance sheets of our major financial institutions. The idea is that once the bad debt problem is resolved, financial institution balance sheets will be strong enough to start lending again, and this will get the economy moving. This may or may not work, but an even bigger problem is that it doesn’t do much for all of the millions of people who have lost, or are about to lose their homes because of sub-prime, variable rate loans they can no longer afford and cannot refinance. This is the “Main Street” problem that both parties say we must solve, without a lot of detail about how it can be done.

I would like to suggest a new way of looking at the problem. Instead of fixing the problem at the financial institution level, why don’t we take a bottom-up approach and attack the problem at the individual homeowner level. The plan would work something like this:

1. Instead of giving $700B to financial institutions, the Federal Government decrees a six- month moratorium on foreclosures, and announces that Fanny May and Freddie Mac will refinance all owner-occupied subprime loans into 30-year fixed rate loans at a very low interest rate, say three percent, and owner-occupiers who had “qualified” for their original sub-prime loan would automatically qualify for the refinancing. These loans should be “assumable”, so that the people who could not afford to keep their homes even at these reduced rates would have another tool to help them sell their homes to someone who could afford them.

2. The Government’s action would cause an upward revision of the rating of sub-prime based CDOs currently being held by financial institutions, strengthening their balance sheets and in effect, taking a first step in re-priming the “credit pump.”

3. The Government would also announce low-cost loans to the financial institutions while the sub-prime mortgages were being refinanced. This would be a further pump-priming measure for the credit markets.

4. Mutual funds, hedge funds and savvy investors would be quick to see that the outlook for financial institutions had become a lot brighter, and would start buying the stock, leading to a market rise.

5. The availability of cheap 30-year fixed rate mortgages and the virtual end of foreclosures would put a floor under the housing market, help reduce the over-supply of homes on the market, and the resulting tightening between supply and demand would slowly stabilize housing prices and eventually get them back on a more normal upward track.

The true long term cost to the Government (and by definition the taxpayer) would be the difference between the long term Treasury rate the government pays for the money they borrow, and the three percent rate they get when they lend that money out to refinance the sub-prime mortgages. And the Government’s up front costs, when short-term Treasury yields are near zero, are very low.

At the end of the day, we would create a “trickle up” effect, where by solving the problems on Main Street, the problems on Wall street go away. It certainly seems to me like a better way to go.

it is time for members of Congress to start thinking about the rest of us and stop worrying about their own re-elections. Democracy is about working together to accomplish goals, and that is what these Congress members ought to be doing, or we should remove them next month.

Yes. I stand to lose money.

I tend to believe Paulson; however, I don't trust others in the
Bush Administration. They have not been worthy of my trust.

I don't see any reason why regulations were not included in this
bill. It could have been included in concept without the detail.

So we pass the bill and give $700B to the incompetent banks.
Without regulation, the same thing will happen again.

If we are going to fail anyway (no regulations), we may as well
fail now. I don't want to dump this in my children.

Ronald Harris, San Diego, Ca.

Why should we give money to the IDIOTS who have lost the money in the first place. I can't think of the two people who were on Lou Dobbs tonight, but they have a plan that worked in Sweden & other places. It would not cost as much money & if it works we will be better off that giving the money to a bunch of IDIOTS who do not care about us just as long as they get their bonuses. I think that if we let congress & the house spend the money it we will never see any of it again. I don't care if who you vote for they get their money before we do. John

One major thing that comes to my mind, and I believe one of the big reasons bail out was not passed yesterday, is MORE accountability from these big organizations that they WILL NOT BE GIVING MEGA BONUS PACKAGES TO ANY OF THEIR EMPLOYEES with this money. So many of the CEO's etc. make more money than is right for any one person.

I believe AARP should back off now,let the Big Shot cronnies and theives of wall street pay it back or sink.I want Wall Street to feel my pain as a retired person.they can go broke too. This Country was not based or built by Wall Street or Credit. It was based upon the very people you sent your fearful tactical letter too. Back off let Wall Street figure it out, NOT US!!!!

Screw the banks and Wall Street. Every American over 18 should be given an economic stimulus of $500,000. People could pay off their morgages, student loans, or invest it as they deem fit. Why not that's what the banks and Wall Street have done. Golden parachutes to the working, middle and lower classes. No bailout, No way!

Remember the Iraq War? The Weapons of Mass Destruction? The Gloom and Doom? This is happening all over to scare the people of the US. If the President and his financial directors can't put this country together, they are the ones who have messed things up, pouring billions into the war instead of the people, the infrastructure, the hurricanes' damages, rebuilding our country. I say NO BAILOUT! Let those who chose to gamble with our money take the risk they've made. No more fear tactics, no more pulling the rug out under the main street people who can't find jobs, pay their bills. People can't even "invest" their hard earned money. NO MORE FEARS! Don't let our younger generations bear the cost of the failed administration.
NO BAIL OUT!

It is time to change congress from a list of entrenched democrats and a list of entrenched republicans to a group of people willing to work together and get the country moving forward. It is time to put partisan politics away and vote for people that will work together for the good of the country. Vote American and Not Party - Eliminate those politicians that get in the way!

Why should there be a bailout when no one has learned their lesson?Bail them out, slap them on the wrist, bad boy and give them another chance to do the same thing? Lets see some accountability such as Sarah Pallin!I don't have any money to give away.

Can someone please send me the names or a link to all the lawmakers who vote No on the bailout. I will NEVER, at any time in my life vote for them. I don't open emails with attachments Cecelia114@aol.com

Yes the country has problems but the bush/pelosi plan isnt going to fix them---only postpone them.

As an alternative, why not take a second look at the FEDs policy of supposedly helping the economy by continuing to lower the prime rate which is once again being considered. All is does is give a one day spike in the market but if it were working, we wouldnt be in the mess we are now in.

If the prime went back to between 4-6 percent and there was some assurance that it would stay there, seniors throughout the country would take their money out of oil speculation stocks which many fled to when our certificates of deposit wouldnt pay us anything any longer and put their money back in the banks.

This would give the banks more money to loan and make oil prices go down. Will there be some losers? Yes However, the losers will be those who took risks that they should not have taken rather than causing those of us who played it safe to lose.

I will not vote for anyone who does anything close to a wall street bailout when there are other options out there.

I agree congress needs to craft a rescue for wall street, but it needs to include the protections the democrats included + more attention to individual mortgage holders who were steered into unsavory mortgages. These mortgages should be renegotiated with the mortgage holders, whether that is the government or the lending institutions. Taxpayers and citizens should also be informed that this is NOT a one time rescue--that all our troubles will NOT be over with this. Jobs have already been lost, savings have already been wiped out. The government is where we must be able to turn for investment in our infrastructure which will create jobs. If we put money into jobs and education and if we are encouraged to STOP spending money on things we cannot afford (such as ENDLESS WAR, with NO financial responsibility along with it, gas guzzling cars, two homes (whatever)) we can pull this off. We need a government we can trust in now. For too long our government has been torn down by it's own leaders. Times like these make one understand why lies and cheats hurt us all. Where is our confidence?

I believe that Congress should change the current bill to include words to the effect that all the CEO's should NOT receive a golden parachute and give back ALL of the monies that they have fleeced from the public, including their cars, homes,etc.

It's very hard, we are retired...and what little mutual funds we had saved...have now fallen beyond belief...we are tempted to just pull them out, but want to support our country. We are distressed over two issues...deregulation of the lending institutions...WHY...of course no president wants to stop the great economy when it is going strong....and we feel the younger generation wants everything now...and also took the risk of their flexible mortgage...the blame game goes all around. Our neighbors bought 2 houses to rent...on a flexible mortgage...they are in their 30's...had the RV the boat, etc...and both were in fields affected by the mortgage market...she is a realator and he is a builder...now don't you think they would have thought about mortgages each going up $500.00 in one month...on top of their own personal mortgage...no because they wanted it all. American values have changed...the baby boomers worked hard, and saved...the new generation cannot see past a few months...and thus here we are....

PURGE the house and senate

Make them suffer, punish them, do not bail them out, bail out the mortgage holders who cannot make payments and Main Street. Help all we people who are suffering from this Wall Street Greed. Jail them, but do not bail them out!

I'm 52 yrs old, am currently disabled, and have been trapped in the system trying to get my SSDI insurance. I have 5 shares of Wendy's stock and 140.50 in my 401k left to my name. I can't see why those idiots in Washington DC can't get off there money grubbing hands(not the phrase I wanted to use)and get some sort of legislation done to help the little people out here in small town USA. I love my country but, sometimes, I want to strangle those idiots. I say we boot all of them out and start over! Phil

The inaction must fall on the American people. If we don't read bills and make congress answerable for the "pork" or make them explain why they catered to a special interest group, then we are responsible. Does "By the People and For the People" sound familiar?

Politicians are prostitutes. They are for sale. The only answer is to form a citizen lobby and buy them for all of America's purposes.

Spin, spin, spin. The bailout is now being called an economic rescue package. Wall Street's and yes even Main Street's greed has finally caught up with them. I realize that this affects all of us greatly especially AARP members. This will delay my own personnal retirement by two years or so. But I was on the greed band wagon investing and reaping the rewards of false profits. But not to the extent of the Wall Streeters. They earned hundreds of millions of dollars selling worthless paper to each other and back again. We have a false economy and if we don't take the hit now we will have to do it in the future. The difference is if we take it now we won't have to pay a 1 trillion dollar tax bill for the "rescue". We no longer make anything in this country we sell paper or products made in other countries. We preach capitolism to the world and as soon as the fat cats get into a financial bind we go the socialist route. Not a good precedent. Last thing to think about is the last time the feds got involved in private enterprise was the Resolution Trust company to bail out all the savings and loans that failed. The retoric was the same, they would sell the assets and the taxpayers would not take a hit. Well it cost the taxpayers 45 Billion dollars in 1980 dollars. Do you really want Uncle Sam running the banks and brokerages?

With the present rancor in Congress how are we to know that they are trying to do the right thing. Congress takes any offering and then tries to put their own personal slant on the issue. Is a rescue package needed? or can the institutions fix the problems without help? I don't know.

I think we should deal with this crisis as we did with the great depression but acting sooner. Instead of bailing out the financials we should be developing jobs and working on our infrastructure. This would build jobs and bring the economy back. We do not need to reward those who got us into this mess with our tax dollars. Let their businesses be sold on the open market. Many of these companies have valuable assets outside the financial sector which they have let go bad with their greed and recklessness.

It is irresponsible to not pass this bill. The whole world is going to go into a meltdown unless we do something. The American public was never fully educated on the dire outcome of not passing this legislation.

we need definites...the following must be corrected and exact wording must be written down and looked at by council other than Bush's Attorney General, we need an Attorney General that is going to fight for us and not look after the top 1%. we must not let these carpetbaggers loot our treasury on our dime.
1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called oversight group that was going to monitor Wall Street's spending of the $700 billion;
2. It had NO penalties, fines or imprisonment for any executive who might steal any of the people's money;
3. It did NOTHING to force banks and lenders to rewrite people's mortgages to avoid foreclosures -- this bill would not have stopped ONE foreclosure!;
4. It had NO teeth anywhere in the entire piece of legislation, using words like "suggested" when referring to the government being paid back for the bailout;

Congress did the correct thing yesterday. I will vote against and work against any member that votes for the bail out bill.

It would also help to provide Congress with an alternative plan that is better than the Big Bailout. Fortunately, we can do that. All Congress has to do is remove the mark-to-market accounting rule, and replace it with a “discounted cash flow” accounting rule. Doing so would . . .

* Enable firms to record a more realistic value for their assets
* Boost balance sheets and restore credit ratings
* Provide useful information that would serve to create a liquid market for these assets

In short, this one simple regulatory change would accomplish everything the Big Bailout is supposed to achieve, with NO expenditure of federal funds and exposure to tax payer losses.

I believe we taxpayers should be assured that we WILL NOT BE LIABLE
FOR "GOLDEN PARACHUTES" FOR EVERY WALL STREET EXECUTIVE affected by
what our government does in this situation. We have a lot of Americans suffering now because we no longer have American Manufacturing Jobs anymore. Congress must do the right things for
Main Street America!

As a poor retiree living one day at a time, with no investments, I am probably less likely to think it's imperative that we jump to save bankers' skins ..... they seem to have done very well with building their many branches ... up til now --- Now, it's time for them to pay THEIR bill ....

The RISE in stocks and the value of the dollar today proves that there is time to find a better solution. The bailout is NOT in the best interests of the American people. Urge the Senate to vote "NO"!!!

I am in favor of letting the big wall street giants fall. But they must make ammends to the middle class stockholders, those with 401k's and mutual funds first. I really don't care if the corporate management gets anything out of it. In fact they should get nothing.

Something must be done to save the country's financial situation now. Then something must be done to prevent our current situation from happening again.

AARP's got it all wrong. Please explain why I, a taxpayer (ie-our government) would want to spend $700 billion on buying toxic assets? The market created this mess they should clean it up...not the taxpayers.

Those people who think this is a bailout for big spenders on Wall Street haven't been listening to what is happening in the credit markets. They are essentially frozen...small business cannot get lines of credit to run their business, college loans are or will soon be unavailable, and if any among you need a new car...too bad, not to mention what is happening to the dealers. And the leadership is just plain shoddy, Bush is irrelevant, his party has left him in droves, and the idea of government as the enemy is clearly as ridiculous this week as it has been since Reagon took office. A plan is needed, McCain is an angry, short tempered politico, whose choice of Sarah Palin only emphasizes his lack of talent for leadership. We need a bi-partisan plan, we need a leader, its time for a pragmatist and it looks like the best choice now is Obama. I intend to vigorously campaign against my representative who voted no...and may God help us all right now....we're going to need it.

Dennis Kucinich said it best: "The $700 billion bailout would have added to our existing unbearable load of national debt, trade deficits, and the cost of paying for the war. It would have been a disaster for the American public and the government for decades and maybe even centuries to come.

To be sure, there are many different reasons why people voted against the bailout. The legislation did not regard in any meaningful way the plight of millions of Americans who are about to lose their homes. It did nothing to strengthen existing regulatory structures or impose new ones at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve in order to protect investors. There were no direct protections for bank depositors. There was nothing to stop further speculation, which is what brought us into this mess in the first place.

This was a bailout for some firms (and investors) on Wall Street, with the idea that in doing so there would be certain, unspecified, general benefits to the economy."

Subject: New Bailout plan Someone sent this to me and it sounds like a good idea.

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend. To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S.Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend. Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in th eir pocket. A
husband and wife has $595,000.00. What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family? Pay off your mortgage- housing crisis solved. Repay college loans; what a great boost to new grads. Put away money for college; it'll be there, Save in a bank, create money to loan to entrepreneurs. Buy a new car,
create jobs. Invest in the market, capital drives growth. Pay for your parent's medical insurance; health care improves. Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( vote buy ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG, liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American General go
back to being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the
private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy idea that can never work. But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC. And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

For once congress had the guts to do the right thing.

Anybody left in Congress who can offer common-sense, pragmatic leadership rather than idelogical, partisan posturing?

No bailout, no way!!!!!!!!

Voting down a rushed, unsatisfactory bailout proposal isn't inaction. Since when is a "yes" vote work, and a "no" vote considered slacking? Congress rejected a package that lacked the kind of controls and limits necessary to keep the American taxpayer from shouldering the burden of the financial industry's bad management. Not only does that sound like work to me, it sounds like the kind of work I expect from my elected representatives.

When someone tries to rush me into a decision, I've found it's usually against my best interests to do so. Rushing to fix Wall Street's long-term problems with a short term, hurry-up solution is against the best interests of the nation and the world.

Let the troubled companies fail. They would just go into receivership and operate as usual. Let the free market work.

12 Republicans didn't happen to like what Nancy Peolsi said so they decided.....stick it to America !

SOME ASPECTS OF THE CREDIT PROBLEM CAN BE HELPED WITHOUT TAXING US AND THE NEXT GENERATION TO BAILOUT FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS

Enough is enough. There are too many financial professionals. It is time to start seeing a significant number of them lose their jobs.

There have been a number of fairly short-term credit fixes that would help loosen the credit markets. None of them are perfect, but we cannot expect perfection.

At fist I was in favor of the bail-out. But even though my holdings have diminished significantly over the last 8 months, I CANNOT see spending 700 billion dollars to bail-out financial professionals.

I am willing to see a significant loss to my estate, which I believe will be temporary. This will take 3-7 years to work through. Then it will be OK.

For those who don't have that many years, they should be in bonds and fixed income securities.

We need to separate the CREDIT markets from this. The credit markets need to be fixed, but giving that to Paulson is an outrage.

Paulson represents a bloated, over-protected bureacracy which must experience the real world...not be protected from it. He must resign.

Paulson MUST never be granted that kind of power under any circumstances.

This whole thing was voisted on us too quickly. The consolidation in the investment/banking industry is happening regardless of the bailout. Action has been taken by the Federal Government for Freddie Mac and Fannie May and AIG. What was the urgency to complete in such a short time. The revised version of the plan (originally submitted by Bush) was better but it still did not do anything for the small guy.
The way to pass such a bill is to make a provision that banks/credit card companies cannot increase their rates during the implementation of the bailout and if the Federal government decreases their loan rates then this must be passed onto the consumers by the banks/credit card companies.

Congress did the right thing by not rushing to a decision. that bailout should come with conditions, and be a loan that the entities should have to pay back with interest. not only that no entity receiving this money should be allowed to pay out any stock bonuses or cash bonuses to any high management besides their current salaries plus, no raises for them, not the rest of the company.

This means no stock options to management, or any bonuses until after the money is paid back in full. Investigations should be held on how many oof these executives paid themselves high bonuses as the company was going under. How many of them sold their stocks before the companies went under (insider trading, and loans should be restructured to allow the owners an opportunity to pay a straight loan without exhorbatant interst rates. Congress definitely should take their time and make sure the american public is protected to the fullest -------- NO BLANK CHECk.

I hope the bill DOES NOT PASS the markets will take care of itself. Stop
offshoring jobs thats more important this is why we got in this mess in the first place. This is a big country we need our maunfacturing back in a big way. When November rolls around vote most of these bums out of office

Trust,This bunch of money hungry fools can't do anything. Katrina,Iraq,the economy,they grab with both hands and point the finger at others.I didn't vote for them,but enough is too much.I wouldn't trust them with a dime, not$ 700,000,000,000. They want to drive us so far in debt that all policies are bankrupt.Rob with both hands and blame others...Our government is for and by the people...This bunch has passed legislation to the special interests:insurance,credit cards,wall street,all of their special buddies. They all deserve zip.Our standing in the world,monetarily and with GitMo,among other failed policies have put this country lower than third world states.Thank You Good Bye to Bush and Chaney.

First of all, let's banish whatever copywrighter crafted the word "Bailout" for what we're trying to accomplish here to some far portion of the earth where he/she will never be heard from again! That term only nourishes the rumors and speculations of those ordinary folk who say that they don't want taxpayer dollars used to bail out those rich guys on Wall Street!

Let's find a way to accomplish the stabilization of the credit markets in an incremental way = we likely won't get it absolutely right the first time, and the initial intervention may not be appropriate further down in the process.

But we absolutely must act on this stabilization, and there must indeed be people out there who have the savvy to make the necessary first steps happen. PS And let's quit throwing blame around -- there's plenty for everyone!

Yes something must be done now! But congress must act now after giving through consideration to insure the best plan will protect the average person not just Wall Street. Now is not the time to place blame on anyone. Both parties must share the guilt.

Most important, any plan CANNOT play politics or benefit any partisan groups. And keep the plan public!

Here is a very quick explanation of the $700 billion bailout within the context of the mechanics of our monetary and banking system:

The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them.

Confused?

This is the system. This is the standard mechanism used to expand the money supply on a daily basis not a special one designed only for the "$700 billion" transaction. People will explain this to you in many different ways, but this is what it comes down to.

The banks needed Congress' approval. Of course in this topsy turvy world, it is the banks which set the terms of the money they are borrowing from the taxpayers. And what do we get for this transaction? Long term debt enslavement of our country. We get to pay back to the banks trillions of dollars ($700 billion with compounded interest) and the banks give us their bad debt which they cull from everywhere in the world.

Support Dennis Kucinich and monetary reform.

I agree that something needs to be done. However, we were again provided with very sketchy information by the Bush Administration who wanted to allow Paulson to do whatever he wanted with our money without any input from anyone. One of the reasons I am against the bill as it currently stands is that so little information has been released about the details contained in that 110 pages. One must ask what they are hiding if we are only being given sketchy information. Furthermore, why was one of Paulson's Goldman Sachs colleagues involved in putting together the bailout package? What guarantee do we have that the people who perpetrated this mess will not only get off unscathed but may even make money off of the bailout? It has been reported that the AIG mess was caused by actions taken in their London office by an old colleague of convicted Mike Milliken. It seems that he played fast and loose with investor funds which were guaranteed by the home office. Now, while taxpayers struggle to pay their day-to-day bills, the London perpetrator is living in a posh three story townhouse in London and U.S. taxpayers are bailing out the home office. So, as urgent as it seems that Congress needs to do something, Congress cannot allow the perpetrators of the mess continue to live extravagant lives while taxpayers bail them out.

The Government has lost the trust of the American people. We don't believe they know what's the right thing to do. They should be going after the ones who put this Country in jeopardy, not looking for us to bear the burden!!!

The issue isn't bailing out Wall Street, it's a credit crunch to get the real economy moving. In looking for solutions, the government must put the people first. Mortgage lenders, Investment Bankers and the Brokerage community who require that “profits be privatized” but now want to “socialize risk” can’t have it both ways. They got us into this crisis by not asking whether the people they lent money to could replay. Now those who borrowed are facing the loss of their homes as market conditions have changed. Yes, the consumer has to take some blame in this crisis, but those lending the money have the primary responsibility. Banks benefit form reselling the homeowner’s promise to pay to the Investment Bankers and Brokerages Houses, creating the expectation of billions in profits.

Now the value of many of these houses has dropped below what the home buyer owes. What happens when the home buyers lose their houses? The Banks end with unoccupied homes – a loss for everyone. Let’s go back to basic.

Rather than a bail out of the Investment Bankers and Brokerage Houses, let’s protect the people and reset this economy based on the true market value of these properties, as they stand today. Congress should provide 5% fixed-rate 30 year loans for those “owner-occupied” properties, using today’s market values, therefore permitting people to stay in their homes and pay off their new loans. If the house is worth less than the previous outstanding debt, let the private sector deduct the difference from their taxes. This will be far cheaper than the $700 billion blank check currently being considered. If the home owners default under the current $700 billion bail out scenario, then the Banks end up with houses which they can’t unload, which will not be repaid, only a few could afford to buy and our economy suffers even more.

By assisting taxpaying homeowners, the market is stabilized, the banks make money and the people who require that “profits be privatize” and now want their “debt socialized” will pay for the mistakes they made in their rush to make a quick buck. In the long run the mortgage holder benefits by receiving a payback on the current face value of the property, we don’t end up with a lot of foreclosed homes and we don’t give another blank check to those who don’t deserve our trust. Bail out the People, not the Investment Bankers and Brokerage Houses. It’s time for Congress to do the right thing for the people of this country.

Dear Congressman :
Congratulation to those in the House who Vote down the so called 'Bail Out Bill'!
Many Economists and 70% of my fellow Americans disapproved of the Bill and believed that it would not solve the Crisis but only be a temporary fix. A temporary fix that would lead to more and more Taxpayer money having to be channeled to failing Mortgage Companies, Speculators, and Wall Street.
Rather then rushing into a decision on solving the Economic Crisis and trying again for another 'Bail Out' of Failed Mortgage Companies, Lenders, and especially AIG, get the opinions of all Credible Economists and devise a plan that will not only end this Crisis but Protect Our Future!
There has been a plan floating around the Internet, that I have written to you about before, and it still seems like a solution. A Damn Good Solution, that I would modify to this:
1. Instead of 700 Billion Dollars to 'Bail Out' those responsible for this Crisis and reward them, take 10% that's 70 Billion Dollars and give it back to the American Taxpayer as follows:
A. Take the figure, 70 Billion Dollars, and divide it by the Number Of Legal Adult Citizens in the US over 18 years of age, and issue a check in that amount to them. Automatically deduct a Tax of 30% from that, and return it to the US Treasury.
B. Liquidate the failed and fraudulent Banks, Loan Companies, and Companies that knowingly perpetrated this fraud, and place the proceeds into the General Fund. Assist credible Banks and Loan Companies in acquiring the outstanding Loans.
C. Enforce existing safe guards and impose new ones that would control Wall Street High Rollers and the Fraudulent Speculation that has gotten us to this Crisis!
D. Investigate and Honestly Prosecute those from Wall Street and the Lending Industry that have caused this Crisis! When found Guilty, confiscate their Ill Gotten Gains, Houses, vacation Homes, Cars, etc.

How would this help?

Well, from the Checks that we as Americans receive.........

1. Americans will be able to Pay Off Their Loans.
a. That means that Mortgages would be paid down, ending the Mortgage Crisis.
b. Student Loans and Credit Card Debt would be Paid Down ending the Credit Crunch!
c. Americans would be able to afford existing homes that are on the market, and afford new homes ending the Housing Market Crisis.
d. Builders would be able to hire workers and their suppliers would be able to hire workers to keep up with the demand for housing creating new jobs.
e. Americans would be able to rehabilitate inner city housing, removing Blight from our Inner Cities. Hell, that may even give them the incentive to take back their Communities and reduce crime!
f. Americans would be able to afford New and Used Cars, helping to end the Automobile Industry's woes and create new jobs their!
g. Americans would be able to reinvest in the Stock Market, ending Wall Street Crisis. And, as long as they know Congress will pass regulations and laws governing Wall Street and Speculators, invest they will!

These are but a few of the Benefits America would gain from such a Plan, and there are many more Benefits. Of course, there would be some stipulations attached to who gets the Checks. For instance, Convicted Drug Dealers, Convicted Mafia, Convicted Pedophiles, and others Convicted of Violent and Heinous Crimes, and those Convicted of the Fraud that led to this Crisis would be exempt and Receive NO CHECKS!

I urge you to Forgo any Future Bills that would Benefit Wall Street and those that have caused this Crisis. Do not reward them and let them avoid their responsibility! For once Invest in America by Investing in Americans. Americans can and will bring us out of this, and do a much better job then some of those in Congress and on Wall Street have done!

Gratefully,
Rick

About 3 years ago I started researching the most affordable, efficient and attractive way to solve the problem of nobody doing anything that would allow a citizen to protect him/her self from a terrorist attack. I was just about to make a big advertising push after investing all my spare time and money. I knew the economy was slowing down and so did the company I was working for, so they cut me out of the biggest account that I got them into. This meant diminishing wages as well as a slow economy. Then even with the threat of an "October Surprise" from terrorists I can't sell any kits because with the fall of Wall Street everyone is holding on to every dollar they have. I have only one question about this whole mess, WHO IS WILLING TO BAIL ME OUT?
www.personalsurvivalkitz.com

NO BAILOUT!
THEY WERE NOT WILLING TO SHARE THEIR PROFITS W/ME, SO WHY SHOULD I SHARE IN THEIR LOSS?????????????

One big problem with the current state of afairs is, "No one knows the real value of a dollar". When bread cost $0.49 a loaf gas was $0.38/gallon. Now gas is approximately 10 times that cost and bread is approximately 5 times that amount. This equation puts the matter into simple terms the cost of energy (fuel) has increased twice as fast as bread. Take either necessity and compare the dollar value a few years ago (35). The dollar is worth 5 times less than it was in 1973 for food costs and 10 times less for fuel. We consume food at the same rate and have improved fuel efficiency 2X, therefore, the end scenario is the same for both.

We are losing our dollar value at a rate of ~ 8 - 9% per year. We must have a flattening and reversal of this trend or the next depression will be essentially the same as the last but will have greater ramifications because of credit.

If the markets continue to expand without periodic adjustment to increase the real value of the dollar we will eventually reach an acceleration of decline of exponential proportions.

Because of this I personally don't think the bale out is a good plan. A better one would be to soften the drop with measures to increase the value of the dollar over a period of 10 - 15 years. Our economy can not stand a rapid fix nor can it stant a rapid decline. We must control the crash and leave escape opportunities for investors who have their earned money in the kitty.

One way to help do this is to remove all tax on profit increase from investments rising from a crash value until they reach parity for the investor. At that point a scaled tax should be added that accelerates as the investment value increases to a maximum tax that must be established by current market conditions when the maximum value is achieved.

The flip side of this proposal would also require that credit loss or real loss can not be deducted from gains until the parity point is reached. At that time the normal investment tax should be re-established for that investor. This is complicated but so is the problem we face. This program would spread the cost over many years and also incentivise people to invest (take an active interest and role in investing) their money. If more investors watched what was going on with their funds a few people could never again cause this problem. Many watchdogs are much better than a few cash hogs.

Throughout the past year, relief for homeowners with bad mortgages has gone nowhere. The cited reasoning is that the homeowners made bad decisions, or extended themselves further than they could afford. They should pay for their own mistakes, it was too often said.

Shouldn't that apply to Wall Street as well?

The answer we are hearing is "No". Why? Because what happens to Wall Street will eventually ripple down to Main Street. Will it really?

And I would argue: Let it, and let's see if it does.

Wouldn't pumping $700,000,000,000 at the top be depending on the oft-failed "trickle-down" theory? Is there any assurance that all that money would make it down to Main Street? It is assured that much of it won't, and there is no doubt that some of it will be a down-payment on someone's yacht.

But more importantly, to supply that much money to Wall street would be rewarding greed and incompetence. Although that might be acceptable in Washington, it sets a bad precedent for our economy.

I have a better idea:
If the fear is that the "credit-crunch" will harm business's ability to borrow, address THAT problem with that money, if that problem does materialize. Use that money to help finance Main Street, if and when it needs it. The financing could be direct government loans, but more likely, simple loan-guarantees would work.

The benefits:
It is certain to cost a fraction of the $700,000,000,000 that is said to be needed at the top, with better results.

It would allow the free-market to decide the winners and losers on Wall Street. Bad decisions would be allowed to come home to roost.

It may allow the final decisions to be made by a future administration, without the credibility problem of the current one.

SIR
I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE GOVERMENT HELP THE BANKS OUT. AND SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE. AND I ALSO THINK THAT THE GOVERMENT SHOULD KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THEM AFTER THEY GET THE MONEY. I THANK THAT THE CEO THAT RUN THE BANKS AND MAKE ALL THIS MONEY EVERY YEAR. SHOULD HAVE IT
CAP. AT SET AMOUNT. AND WHEN THEY LEAVE THEIR JOB FOR WHAT WHAT EVER REASEN. THEY DONT ANYTHING. IF I LEFT MY JOB OR GOT FIRED I DONT GET PAID ANYTHING.

It is sad that many are going to be hurt by this 'melt down'. The people that caused it are walking away with a fortune in their pockets. In the mean time, we have to wait and hope that the solution to this disaster will be in our best interest.

I have seen small children act better, than our elected officals. I think it is a disgrace and embarassment, that the minority leader, says she said (pelosi) something that made us mad , so we voted against the bill. I guess it doesn't matter how much THAT INACTION cost the working people, just as long as the imature, elected officals get their way. I will vote against every incumbent, in the upcoming election. I think if everyone did the same maybe, the public would get thier voice back. Maybe not but we as voters have to do something to get the elected officals attention. I hope after thier HOLIDAY, maybe they can act like adults for a few minutes , and do what we elected and instructed them to do , and HELP OUR COUNTRY. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.

The reason the package failed is because there would be no public oversight of the funds.

There needs to be an absolute public accounting of where that money would go and who ever receives it must be made to account for how its spent. no miscellaneous columns.

I do not agree with the bailout plan. The market didn't go out of business, even though it had a big drop yesterday, it was on the upswing today without government intervention. I am so tired of scare tatics. If a business has to borrow money to make payroll every week, they shouldn't be in business. I am for letting the companies fail and let some else come in with a good business plan and sensible compensation for the executives. We have General Motors with their hand out for money and yet they paid their inept CEO 65 million dollars. By bailing these financial companies out, we would be rewarding irresponsibility and greed. Perhaps it is time the American people took a reality check and stop living above their means. Apparently the government wants everyone to be in debt. This problem didn't happen last week, it has been in the making for at least two years. Yet, we were told time and time again by President Bush and his minions, that the economy was in great shape. Now, that lie has come home to roost and it is time to pay the cost.

The stock market went down 700 points BEFORE Congress could not come to agreement not before, they were anticipating a bailout. The next day the stock market was up 500 pts.

www.fedupusa.com has very good imformation on the problem and says there is a solution. Just not this bailout. Also a petition to sign
to send the top economists in this country from MIT etc) to Washington to figure this out. Send in the GrownUps!

When we responded in anger and fear to lies about Iraq we gave up some of our Constitutional Rights and the built-in checks and balances given us by the founding fathers.
Acting quickly on proposals presented in moments of fear can result in the loss of liberties that are basic to our lives as citizens of the United States of America.
I hope the Congress will come together and work together, listening, pondering, negotiating for the good of the American people as a whole. Special interests can too easily benefit from hasty action taken under the pressure of fear.
The American people need to know exactly what has been happening, since the Reagan years, to the safe-guards that once existed, safe-guards we thought would protect us from greed and irresponsibility.
Push for the future. Learn from the past. Deal with the facts, not the political advantage.

Yes, we need to do something, but let's not give the thieves the keys to the store. We need a plan that first makes those responsible for this mess suffer some pain. Then, when their resources are exhausted, we ask the taxpayers to take a risk. Since the average person saw limited benefits from this orgy of greed, they should have limited liability.
We need to remember that the people responsible for this will do everything possible to profit from a bailout. Let's not give them the chance to rob us again.

If a bunch of vampires are attached to your neck and sucking all the blood from your body, what should you do? Spend even more money to buy blood infusions so that you can keep feeding them? No. You should get rid of the parasites. Wall Street is populated by vampires, especially all of the CEOs and upper managers of all the corporations in the United States who suck out millions upon millions of dollars for themselves while driving the businesses they run into financial ruin. They live above our world and look down on American citizens as though we are worker-ants, an inferior race, born to drudge for their profit. I strongly disagree. I refuse to support a "bailout" which is just a euphemism for paying them seven hundred billion of our hard-earned dollars to support a continuation of their immoral piracy. We call them captains of industry, another euphemism for captains of pirate ships. The "system" needs to be changed, not supported or continued. I am sorry for anyone who has lost the money they entrusted to those walking sacks of greed. The representatives who voted this robbery down are heroes of the people. Too bad the people are so used to having greedy vampires all over them that they can't seem to live without them. Americans have become comfortable as peons, as slaves, as worker-ants.

If we do bailout $700 billion we should buy ownership at market rate, not at a premium. We will take ownership of the companies seeking aid like any other investment arrangement, so we will not be buying worthless "trash" investments nobody wants. Set up individual retirement accounts so every American can split the equity. All dividends can be reinvested in the company so it will be a retirement account for the young when they are old, or a little extra help right now for the retired. Also, we should just freeze the stock market until all this is figured out to prevent further losses.

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:

Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while
working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to
stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

the bail out for the financial kings should be handled by bail bondsmen. the money should be used for the people that have been manipulated, not the ones investing to make money. the ones trying to provide a home and education for their children should be the ones rewarded. schools, hospitals, students, mass transit {think trains} across country, renewable energy and such are the things that should be invested in. in the meantime there is plenty of room in prisons for the less than honest, divesting them of their ill gotten gains could go a long way before government bail out would be needed.

No way should we support this bailout for the fatcats at Wallstreet.
They made this mess let them go bankrupt and turn upside down.
It is ridiculous to expect the average american should pay for their problems.
They should never have sold to people without incomes, savings, jobs or any mean of repaying.
99% of these people are either illegal alien mexicans or blacks who just want a free ride.
I say no to any bailout! Write your representatives and make it known none of them will be re-elected to office if the do.
Be certain to support McCain/Palin they are the only ones who can solve this problem. Gov. Palin is a great woman of immense experience and is an expert in energy and oil. Senator McCain is a war hero who deserves to be our next great president. I am very sorry to see President George go and most of all VP Cheney to very remarkable men.
Have a lovely voting season and be sure and support the right, American Senator..a real senator and not a muslim.

I believe that Congress should immediately stop all foreclosure sales and foreclosure attempts by note holders across the country.. The majority of homes in this country sell for $400,000 or less. The government should hire out-of-work personnel to go to each of these homeowners, with an appraiser, to determine the value of each home. Pay the noteholder enough to bring the loan to a floor value--not underwater and give the homeowner an incentive to keep his/her home rather than default on the loan because the property is not worth the value of the loan. I would be very surprised if the cost of proping up the real estate market, by working with homeowners, instead of paying hedge funds and banks for their mistakes, would stop the decline in value of the real estate market and at the same time cost a lot less than $700,000,000. Wall Street will work out its problems--even if it causes some companies to go into bankruptcy--and the country will have a stable real estate market and a stable stock market.

The current financial crisis we are enduring is both systemic and a failure of leadership. The President, the leaders of Congress and the Sec. of Treasury all failed to explain the crisis and the rescue package adequately to the American people calmly and in "Main street" terms.

Additionally, the package itself does not address the systemic problems that create the arena for such abuses and lack of oversight of the complex financial and economic structure that governs domestic and international finance. The package, as submitted was a short-term solution to a problem that demands a long-term 21st Century correction.

The whole issue is wrapped around the overarching dysfunctional nature of American political life today where everything is painted in black & white and no gray is allowed. Coming together for the common good is anathema to too many tunnel-visioned politicians in both state and national politics.

All of you who say that this 'rescue' plan should not be passed are not seeing the forest for the trees. Be as angry as you like about how we got here, but have no doubt that if we don't correct this problem, and fast, everyone, including YOU, will be suffering far more than you can imagine. It takes a very long time to rebuild an economy, and if credit truly goes away, there will be HUGE numbers of businesses closing, FAR more people unable to pay their bills, credit cards, or mortgages, and astronomical numbers of Americans out of work.
The plan CAN happen in a manner that is not a 'bailout', but rather an investment in America. And if it is fashioned in that manner, it's not going to cost us in the end, it's going to save us.
Stop being so reactionary and study some basic economics.

If every Amnerican citizen, 18 years of age and older shared in 700 billion, we would each get over $200,000.

People would pay off debts and spend and the economy would recover.

Lets not bail out the bad guys.

"But as real as it is, now is not the time to stoke that anger. AARP believes we must have the courage and honesty to deal with the problem at hand. Now is not the time to finger-point or for politicians to put election-year considerations ahead of the health and well-being of our nation."

Sorry Barry and Alejandra, I think you're wrong! It is time to really "stoke some anger" and for some real courage, honesty, and finger-pointing. It's only "election year considerations" that have elected officials paying any attention at all to the American public.

What ever happened to accountability and to checks and balances? This "blank-check/trust me" approach is an insult to the American people. Let's lay it out regarding the investment industry, the Executive Branch, and the Congress and their respective inputs into causing this mess.

The legislation, as I read it, is worthy of being rejected.

I oppose the proposed bailout plan because it is a continuation of our bad policy's..Let the chips fall, we are hurt either way (the people) so why add more money on top of bad, we need change and it will hurt but it has to be done please oppose this robbery without a gun by the politicans. It will encourage new ways of living without greed and corporate pork! I am actually happy they all took a vacation to get away from the fear-mongering and really think this out. OPPOSE!
I am willing to lose..I will lose in the end anyway (anyone that is middle class)TAKE A CHANCE PEOPLE, THIS IS THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME! oUR MEDICAL CARE MAY BE REFORMED IF WE DON'T KEEP LISTENING TO THE FEAR OF THIS ADMINISTRATION AND THE DEMOCRATES..THINK PEOPLE THINK!

I do not agree with any bail out of any kind. Let is crash.

As of today I am a retiree. As of tomorrow I will receive my first retirement check. Yesterday, I watched as my hopes and dreams vanished with the balances of my 401k and IRA. If the current financial crises continues, my pension may disappear also.

I just sold my deceased mother's condo and am waiting for the buyer to obtain a loan which probably will not happen in the current market.

This should never have happen. I blame it all on the GREED of the CEO's of the mortgage companies and now the little people have to pay it off.

Say no to the bailout. Those who got the loans can read and signed the contracts. They were not scammed. The banks should have to reap what they have sown. The federal government should not be in the banking business.

This bailout rewards irresponsibility, stupidity, and greed. The responsible consumers are being punished for buying what they can afford and paying their bills.

I believe that every legislator who has voted for the de-regulation of the banking industry should have their assets liquidated to begin funding the bail out. They allowed fantasy resources to be fabricated as an enticement for real people to pay them real interest money that they earned with their real effort; now they want other working people to pay off their debt to society. What's wrong with the United States' economy is just a symptom of what's wrong with the United States government - greedy, greedy players; 'fixing' the economy by letting the taxpayers bail out taxpayers, without punishing the legislative and industry thieves who made the bailout necessary isn't fixing anything - it's more of the same.

What we need to do is help everyone understand that the current crisis is one of liquidity disappearing in the financial system. If we don't do something to restore liquidity, our economy will grind to a halt. As unpleasant as it is to "bail out the jerks that got us into this mess", I don't think we have time to develop a long term solution. Failure to act now will have dire economic consequences for a large portion of Americans and many others around the world. We will have plenty of time later to debate how to reduce the probability of a recurrence of the problem in the future.

There are two things important to consider beyond what most are discussing. First there are impacts world wide, not just on Wall St, or Main St, not just personal, but global. Therefore it is important for the US to take action sooner rather than later so that the ripple effects throughout not just this country but the world are diminished.
Second, the most important thing for individuals to do at this time is to notice and transform their fears and their anger, their doubts and uncertainties. Then discuss what you want to see happen, and do not give energy to what you are afraid might happen. Keep thinking about what you'd like to see, and envision it with as much detail, on the emotional, auditory, visual, kinesthetic level as you can summon. Keep repeating what you desire. This follows a spiritual law of the universe.

Acknowledge and transform the negative. Accentuate the positive. Ancient wisdom; modern prescription. Antidote to feelings of helplessness.

I am lossing my Home, Becaues there are no sales,I get $740.00 ss, my house payment,is$750.00 it cost,$12000. a year to live in my home,I think you should bail me out instead, If you give the money to the loan company,I still lose my home,I hope they VOTE it ,DOWN DOWN Fred Kuester

This is time for the American people to wake up and realize what is truely happening in our markets. We are going to deflate even more if no action is taken real soon. We must demand from Washington action before the jobs start to disappear even more. This is not about dem/rep, lib/cons, blue collar vrs white collar--its about ACTING, FIXING and CHANGING going foward. I worked too hard in my life to see it all disappear like it has over the past year. And yes the CEO of Countrywide, WAMU etc. should go to jail and we shoud put regs in place going foward. Make them go to work for us!

First: I'm not for the bailout no matter what happens afterwards and here's why - tell me what the difference is if we let Wall Street go down the tubes now or pay off the $1 trillion in bailout money (add it all up). Either way, we pay the price, the only ones who aren't going to suffer are the very people who created the mess, both on Wall Street and in Congress.

Second: We don't need to have a $700 billion bailout - government could set up an insurance organization similar to FDIC and have Wall Street pay the premiums. Mark to Market could be suspended at least for the time being so that the credit market frees up (afterall that's the excuse we're getting for the bailout). Re-Regulation is a must and it has to be tighter than it was after the Great Depression. All parties to the mess have to be led off to the gallows (both on Wall Street and Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank & Paulson). The US Attorney General has to announce that he's opening up an investigation and rounding up the usual suspects.

Third: Only when we change the way politician and candidates are funding their campaigns and control their means of getting more money than we pay them will we be able to take back America. This means that no one other than a registered voter should be allowed to contribute/donate to any campaign, party, Pac, candidate or their families and that includes the transfer of assests other than cash as well. When we are the only ones paying them, they'll work for us. We have to end Pay to Play Politics NOW!

Last - AARP you are wrong about your dire predictions. The market fell yesterday and bounced back by half today. And markets in Asia and London did fine considering the dire predictions.

As I've said previously - only politicians and Wall Street benefit from this bailout.

Lets take the checkbook away from Congress!

first of all this bill is a bad bill
it is another step to bankrupting the country
and an exzcuse for the privatizing of entitlements as we won'y have any money to fund them
in my letter to the president this morning i stated start at the bottom with regulations to prevent this...to stop foreclosures and redo mortagges.
there by allowing mainstreet to heal and letting the problem clear by the free market system minuminal money the market is being engineered y the 3 largest banks.......Jack

I'd like to see a big portion of that money put back in the individual taxpayers pockets! I am so tired of the very wealthy getting richer off the many tax subsidies and loopholes they benefit from at our expense. I'm tired of their free ride and ability to wreck havoc and walk away unscathed. We need to take back our country! Wasn't it Thomas Jefferson who said that the people should have a revolution every 20 years to keep the politicians honest?! I say, release enough money now to plug the hole in the dam and buy us time. Then we can work on stopping the hemmorhage in middle America and help the poor by sending those subsidies to us and our communities instead of Wal Mart, Pro Bass and the MAJOR LEAGUE sports teams!

I am glad that Congress did not give the Treasury away to the bankers who have done such a poor job at handling their responsibilities. The market lost most of that 1.1 Trillion Dollars BEFORE the House vote (over 600 points out of the eventual 777 points). This morning, the market started to go back up again. Investors apparently have more confidence in the market than the pundits give them credit for.
If there is to be a bailout of some kind, then it would be best if it rewarded frugality, honesty and success rather than wastefulness, deceit and failure. In my opinion, several of these bankers should be stripped of their ill-gotten gains and never allowed to own stock or work in the banking industry ever again.
Make no mistake: the American people are watching, and if Congress wants to treat them as if they are children then the American people will indeed scream and yell... and VOTE the bums out! If there is no Justice, then there will be change!

The problem with this whole situation is that the ones who caused it are apparently once again skating free with their lucre. How many multi-million dollar estates in the Hamptons and condos in Aspen and Miami Beach are all of a sudden going on the Market? I've been following the outrageous compensation packages that these borderlinge criminal, or at least criminally incompetant, ceos and other top executives get; even when they fail. Those that reaped the most should bear the burden of straightening out this mess;at least finnancially. I worked for many years in private industry at the ground level watching the big dogs reaped huge benefits while at the same time begruding the rank and file and lower management decent remuneration. Their claim is that a person should get paid what he or she is worth to the company. Well that's fine in principle but what is the ceo who costs the company hundreds of millions or even billions or runs the enterprise into bankruptcy worth?

It's great that the bailout for the Insurance companies, the banks and the mortgage companies did not pass. Those Democrats who are on the people's side like Kucinich, the Sanchez sisters, Maurice Hinchey and others helped to defeat this major theft by the Wall Street gamblers and the Lobbyists of K-Street.

The AARP and its Insurance Business Conflict of Interest are part of this whole pulling the wool over our eyes. That's why you are not fighting for Single Payer Universal Health Isurance.

Congress voted down the bailout proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson and the Dow dropped 778 points - surprise, surprise, surprise.

That bailout would have been a disaster. Yes, a bailout is probably necessary, but it MUST include these features:

1. Reregulation of the banking/financial industry with stringent enforcement provisions and a fully empowered and independent oversight group;

2. Stern penalties for those in the banking/financial industry whose blatant rigging of the home mortgage market allowed them to enrich themselves in trading the sub-prime mortgages and to buy foreclosed properties for pennies on the dollar - and return of those properties to the erstwhile owners with a government sponsored refinancing package that the average borrower can handle;

3. A 6-month minimum moratorium on foreclosures and aid to foreclosed and about-to-be foreclosed homeowners to help them get back on their feet (this should come off the top of the bailout package);

4. Elimination of balloon payments and the "doctoring" of interest rates in ways guaranteed to harm borrowers; and

5. A requirement that any bank/financial institution bailed out by the government - we the taxpayers! - pays back, with interest and with a reasonable time deadline, all monies advanced to them through the bailout.

I haven't looked, but I'm sure my wife's 401k has dropped significantly... so will we all have to work until we die? It's not fair to the folks that have worked all their lives and now have to watch retirement plans go up in smoke. I think the government needs to get the economy up and running again and then get into who is at fault and who should pay for it... If the banks invested poorly, then the bankers need to pay for that mistake, but if the governent looked the other way, perhaps we need to look into putting folks in jail.

I want to be able to have some kind of retirement with my wife...

If the big shots didn't receive such enourmous cash packages as they were going out the door the companies would not be in as bad as shape as they are. They were rewarded for making a mess of things and the taxpayers are expected to rescue them. They should sink with their company since they were the ones in charge.

The US main street lost more than the total allocation in 1 day by inaction, and it was a temp guranty not a fixed cost in total of 700 Bil Nobody really understands the derivatives that caused this and the pain that could happen for everyone if the system fails.

I agree with USA Today in its headline: The bailout stinks, but hold your nose and pass it. I belueve its absolutely nescessary.

As far as the government not taking action yesterday....... The plan that they had proposed was going to hurt the American public in the near future. They needed to have a back up plan though. If they had a back up plan or a couple of plans to add to the bail out once it was voted down the first time then we would have seen a much different outcome. They need to make is so that the rich don't get richer for closing up shop. I am extreamly worried about the American people because of what is going on. I am sleepless not only from the physical pain that I am constantly in to begin with but I am also sleepless from stress. The stress of all of this is making my pain 10 X worse than what it is normally. My pain is already 10X wose than the average person in the first place. My medication doesn't even come close to touching it anymore. My family is hit hard by this crisis. My husband is a new construction plumber in the state of Oregon. There has been a major slow down and my husband has been laid off for 3 months now and now this. There is no relief in site for us at this time. I am physically disabled. I am 35 years old. My husband has been laid off and his unemployment benifits are going to expire. We have 2 teenage children. We can barely afford to pay our bills because we are living off of my Social Security and his unemployment. In the State of Oregon you have to go through 4 years of college to become a Journeyman Plumber and then you have to pay to renew that licence and you have to pay for continuing education classes in order to keep your licence. He had to go through a lot just to get his plumbing licence and he has to go through a lot to keep it. Now it is going to waste because the housing market is so bad. He is not the only Journeyman Plumber out there going through this either. There are thousands in Oregon alone that are going through what we are going through. Many of them are loosing their homes because they can't make their payments on their loans because they haven't been able to work to make the money to pay their loans. I have spoken to many Plumbers lately and they are bringing up the fact that they are very stressed out too stressed out to deal with it. I am very disappointed with our governement right now. As soon as the bail out was voted down they should have went back to the drawing board immediately. They should not be taking any jewish holiday off let alone any holiday. They should be working their rear ends off trying to solve this crisis. They are working for the people and right now I don't care if it is Christmas or Thanksgiving they should be working to solve this and not wait until Thursday to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

I say split up that money to the American people and have them invest it in the stock market!!!!!!!

What Congress needs to do is make All Americans part of the PLAN! They need to help The General Public as well as Corporate America.

If I was in charge I would stop all of the Real Estate Foreclosures! I would neogoiate with the Property Owners to see what they could afford in monthly payments. I would then tell them the U.S. Government is now their Partner. The Property Owner would then have an option to Buy out the Government in specific peroids of time or upon sale or refinance.

The end result would keep the People in their Homes, Keep Values of Properties Up and Keep the Economy Moving!!!

The Government then could use the Profits down the road to pay back the American Treasury and reduce the deficit!!!

It is about time that "fat cats" on Wall Street who manipulate the market for excessive profits at our expense be somehow reined in.
Also, the practice of "earmarking" or taking advantage of taxpayers by secretly slipping bills by the public, should be outlawed. Legislators who try to "hoodwink" taxpayers by hiding their intentions to spend our money should be exposed. Make it law that every bill be processed singly, without any secret, attached or hidden parts. Those billions or dollars spent in hidden earmarks that are used to fatten the self interests of our "honorable" legislators would go a long way in helping those unfortunates who need assistance.
It is time for "transparency" in the spending of our hard-earned tax dollars.
Try convincing the limosine riding, $700.00 suited lawmakers and their lobbyists that things have to change!!!

It is time to protect the taxpayers, and allow us at least our beans and rice, and stop feeding the fat cats of Wall Street caviar.
Many have had to claim bankruptcy, and live on what we little we have, they should, too.
There certainly should not be the horrifically monstrous salaries and payouts for the C.E.O.'s and their ilk.
I have worked since I was 13 years old, and at 70 years old, living in an old, small house trailer, I should not have to worry about my great grandchildren paying off the debts that an irresponsible administration has given these irresponsible greedy thieves.
If this bill were indeed to protect health care, 401k's, teacher's retirement, it would be one thing, but it isn't.
Lost my dream?
It has been so long since I could even dream of a dream.

This is hardly the time for let their house collapse rhetoric. It's our house. Years of blame the government for everything and let the free market alone to do what it wants have led to this. We need to re-regulate commercial banking and enact laws that include those infamous credit swaps as regulatable securities. Markets work when rules are enforced not when there are no rules.

As a family that has a disabled army veteran with little pay, the high costs of oil and gas are a financial burden.

Something needs to be done now, congress doesn't care as they have plenty of money to pay for the higher costs of everything.

I oppose the proposed bailout plan because it is a continuation of our bad policy's..Let the chips fall, we are hurt either way (the people) so why add more money on top of bad, we need change and it will hurt but it has to be done please oppose this robbery without a gun by the politicans. It will encourage new ways of living without greed and corporate pork! I am actually happy they all took a vacation to get away from the fear-mongering and really think this out. OPPOSE! iT'S THE MIDDLE CLASS TIME, THIS IS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO STOP THE CORPORATE TAKE OVER OF OUR MEDICAL CARE AND OF AMERICA...THINK PEOPLE THINK! THEY WANT YOU TO BE IN FEAR AND IT'S THE BEST THING NOT TO BAIL OUT...

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. I'm also against the $700,000,000,000++ bailout being proposed in Congress right now!

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon -- that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Pay off credit card debt.

Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – It’ll be there for Junior.
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC.

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned
instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

The hit we take now without doing anything will take us decades to recover. A careful plan has to be crafted that will restore confidence in our country as well as overseas. We cannot, any longer, go it alone. If we try, we will face economic calamities far worse than the great depression. The world is interdependent and the sooner we accept this reality, the better it will be for all of us. We really should stop shouting at one another. I share the feeling of anger that swirls around. But let us not forget that we all went along with this ride. We elected representatives who did not pay attention since they reflected us; we did not pay attention either. There is no solution until we collectively decide to calmly, with as much intelligence and wisdom as we can bring, to resolve this fairly for the country. And in doing this, we should try to come back to our roots where we realize that big is not better, hard work that produces benefits to all people infinitely better than flash and be willing to work for our and our country's benefit and not look to the gaming tables of the casinos to take us on fantasy rides.

Our defined benefit retirement income is based about 2/3 on a variable unit value that sets the payment for all of the following year. That value is calculated by the portfolio value on SEPT 30! So don't tell us the vote yesterday hasn't already hurt us!

The market goes down, the market goes up. This has been the trend for as long as there has been a market. Let them take the hit. If congress wants to do something worthwhile they will help the strapped home owner[payment maker] with some bail out money. The big boys on Wall Street can manage for themselves. They've been raking it in for years.

BAILOUT NO! BUYOUT OF ALL CORPORATE ASSETS AND PROSECUTION AND INCARCERATION OF EXECUTIVES RESPONSIBLE, YES!

If the American taxpayers are expected to fund Wall Streets' misdeeds, then what we need to buy is all of thier assets, and let Wall street resolve thier bad debt. If that means the American public become the owners of these banks and other financial institutions that mislead and lied to the world, so be it! No Corporate welfare.

Sir or Madame,
The 'bail out plan' that makes up the body of this email has been making the rounds over the internet for the last week. Actually it makes a lot of sense. So please do not dismiss it as a foolish notion. I was shocked at Mr. Bush's suggestion and demand that the government do anything to help Wall Street. This is the administration that abhors government interference in any matters pertaining to the business community unless it is some of his friends. Let the market balance itself. Those companies that can not make it should file for bankruptcy protection, be closed down and sold off. The investors took the risk, let them take the hit. Maybe they will watch a little closer next time and demand more of the companies they give money to, hoping for a fat return. That said, the entire financial community should be tightly regulated and be accountable to the stock holders, the public and the government on behalf of the citizens of this nation.

I am sure that my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, which was operated by the same family for nearly 40 years, would like to have had a government bail out but instead was forced to close because they were no longer able to support themselves due to the increase in the last eight years for food, gas, employee health insurance, utilities and overhead.

What next? Will we have to bail out all the drug manufacturers regardless of the exorbitant amounts they spend on executive wages and non stop advertising compared to the actual amounts they spend on R & D. Or the oil companies because of false advertising and abnormal profits...the bigger they are the harder they fall!

When a company fails another company, not the government, will come in and pick up the pieces that need saving, serve its customers and make an acceptable profit. For the protection of its citizens the government should regulate what that profit should be and what is fair for all concerned most importantly the Nation as a whole NOT Wall Street!

Thank you for your consideration. I would personally request a direct answer to my suggestions.
Warm regards,

Howard Moore
4811 59th Street
San Diego, CA 92115
papaoso@mac.com

Subject: My Bailout Plan? (UNCLASSIFIED)

I like this plan! Very simple and I think it hits on some key
points....but it's too simple! It is just for the AIG bailout.

What if we apply the same reasoning to the 700 billion bailout of Wall
Street???

Idea worth considering.

I'm against the $85 BILLION bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of
giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a "We Deserve It" dividend. To
make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S.
citizens, aged 18+.

Our population is about 301 million counting every man, woman and child.
So, 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. Now, divide
200 million, 18+ adults into $85 billion - that equals $425,000.00 each!
Yes, my plan is to give that $425,000 to every adult as a "We Deserve
It" dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So, let's assume a tax rate of
30%. Everyone would pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25.5 billion
right back to Uncle Sam! It also means that every adult 18+ has
$297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife would have $595,000.00!

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00?

* Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
* Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads.
* Put away money for college - it'll really be there.
* Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
* Buy a new car - create jobs .
* Invest in the market - capital drives growth.
* Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves.
* Enable deadbeat parents to come clean - or else.

Remember this is for every adult U.S. citizen, 18 and older (including
the folks who lost their jobs, even the ones at Lehmann Brothers) and of course, for those serving in our
Armed Forces.
As an added bonus return to the Treasury, anyone with a previous year income of 1 million dollars or more, their dividend would be applied to the federal deficit.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it! Instead of
trickling out a puny $1,000.00 "economic incentive".

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult
U.S. citizen!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

* Sell off its parts.
* Let American General go back to being American General.
* Sell off the real estate.
* Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

We deserve the money and AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy idea, but can
you imagine the coast-to-coast block party?!

How do you spell Economic Boom? W-e D-e-s-e-r-v-e I-t
d-i-v-i-d-e-n-d! I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use
the $85 Billion "We Deserve It" dividend more than do the 'geniuses' at
AIG or in Washington, D.C..

And remember, my plan only really costs $59.5 billion because $25.5
billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam. Good idea?

The inaction should come as no surprise to those who have watched partisan politics become so polarized that little meaningful action ever gets done. As someone who worked as a scientist in the government throughout my career, and who had to assuage large-ego scientists to reach consensus on critical environmental issues, I know that the critical decisions are made in the middle, not at the extremes. The more we characterize others with "labels" like liberal or ultra-conservative, the more opportunities for concerted, thoughtful decision-making are lost. Perhaps establishing term limits is a viable approach; the logic of the simple premise I have made appears to be lost on those leaders upon whom we should be able to entrust our futures.

This is a fine kettle of fish. Everybody wants to bailout the companies that caused this problem. What about the innocent people who wanted their dream house and then, being on the edge of barely qualifing, have lost everything. Just think!!!If you buy a $300,000. house, just what would be the down payment, closing costs, real estate fees, home inspection fee ETC.. You pay for 6 mths to a year and then the interest rate goes up, as well as the payment. Most folks lost it all and the mortgage companies have the house and all the money and can start over again. Now we reward them. I feel that every loan, case by case should be investigated and the mortgage brokers should go to jail. I think we should freeze, no, do away with the ARM. I was in real estate for many years, and I never advised a client to get an adjusted rate mortgage. The real estate sales people should take the hit too!! They all made out but the buyers. Secondly, we should all a bounty of $1000 for every illigel immigrant who is turned into INS and sent back to their own country. Just imagine how much we would save in illigel Welfare payments.(most of them have fake I.D.) or a cousin's friend working for Walfare. And just imagine if we sent them back to their country when they go to our hospitals for free. $1000 bountie isn't much to pay, considering all the money we would ultimately save. Oh, yes. By the way. A vote for Obama is a vote for socialisum. Next thing, we will all be sharing the same apartment with 3 or 4 other families and begging for bread

Yes, we need to pass a bill, but we also need to take a long view and make substantial long-term changes that will help the economy (and us) over the long haul: create a HOLC, give bankruptcy judges leeway in renegotiating mortgage terms, or develop guidelines for mortgage workouts, to allow existing homeowners to stay in their homes; re-regulate commercial banks and financial institutions so there is a firewall between them; we, the taxpayers must have equity/ownership in the institutions that will benefit from federal dollars; the bad assets have to be priced transparently; all stakeholders - Wall Street, small banks/S&Ls/consumers/small business/Congress need to have a place at the table re: oversight of funds/management, setting good policy for the future that benefits all and not just a few.

I believe it is time to help the melting pot of American people and not the rich, minority, or illegal immigrants. Ever since Congress became controlled by the Democrats nothing good has happened. With the comments of Obama and the more I hear about him and the ones who are helping him, it is obivious where he got his money and I am sure what is going on is not affecting him in any way!!! I agree with many others, help the American people who are losing their homes, savings, and not the companies by bailing them out!!!

As a retiree I am certainly worried about my future. More than that I'm worried about this country. I have been reading the Wall Street Journal and think they have there on spin on what is going on. If this country wants to bail someone out let it be us little guys who are going to suffer for the mess of a few. They should go after all the $M's the CEO walked off with and send them to prison. I don't support a bailout even those it will adversely effect my life. My wife and I have a homeless person living with us for TWO years because of big corporations and there "all for me" attitude. If we are going to help anyone we need to help the poor and I mean poor.

Bailing out the rich fat cats on Wall Street is not an option! Let them pay for their greed and NOT burden the average taxpayer to bail them out!

THOSE GREEDY BUMS HAVE DONE US IN AGAIN. THINK WE HAVE TO SWALLOW THE BITTER PILL, STRAIGHTEN OUT THE CREDIT MESS AND AT THE SAME TIME FINE AND JAIL THOSE RESPONSIBLE. nOT AN EASY TASK, BUT LESSONS MUST BE LEARNED AND TAUGHT.

The bankers made their bed and they should be made to sleep in it.
If the government does anything it should renegotiate all the bad loans giving low interest rates and 40 years terms. The banks should be taxed to pay for it all.

If you were not able to pay your mortgage ...would anyone or the banks foreclose on you? You bet they would. So let them fall ...all of them. I'm not giving those crooks, thieves any more money. No more ...... enough is enough!

Stop your damn complaining people, u voted for Bush now pay the price! McCain is wrong for this country! Most people in this country are deaf, dumb & blind voting for another Republican!

Where is the individual accountability? The only person I heard tell the truth was Suzie Ormond who told people they were overextended and in homes they couldn't afford! It really upsets me to hear about wall street greed without hearing about main street ignorance.

We need a christian President and christian in the senate and house of representives.

Congress did the correct thing yesterday. I will vote against and work against any member that votes for the bail out bill. I say vote no and let them bail themselves out.

This cannot be carte blanche. There have to be rules, regulations, stipulations, punitive actions for those responsible.Where is the Banking and Insurance Commission? This didn't happen during one lunch hour.Mismanagement and incompetence does NOT warrant more of the same. CEO's have been raping & pillaging, the Government has been allowing massive outsorcing, NAFTA, and all the other c r a p that has brought this country to it's needs. If we do not proceed carefully, deliberately, we'll be flat on our faces. Stop all the attention to foreign interests, get the illegal aliens out, s c r e w China for all the trouble it is causing all over the world by way of their unethical immoral poisonous products.They don't have to declare war on us, just poison us one person at a time.Yes, there needs to be a bail-out loan like we do with arresponsible children, but there must be a PAYBACK> We are citizens and taxpayers, not the Mom & Dad to the financial industy!

I am not opposed to the fix (a better word than bailout because the U.S. should actually make money on this deal) but it is clear to me from the market response that the Bush administration has overestimated and overstated the extent of the pending catastrophe. Whatever the immediate solution, AARP should work to encourage America to become less addicted to credit. If you look at Europe, they do not have first, second and third mortgages; first, second and third car loans; four or five credit cards that are frequently rolled over to new cards to take advantage of introductory no-interest offers; not to mention that 3/4ths of European farmers don't have loans; that big box businesses there don't borrow for inventories but order the goods when the product is sold. Credit may produce attractive growth figures, but we should learn that those figures are deceptive.

There is only one decision that needs to to made. Do we remain capitalist and let the market place take care of itself, or do we want to become socialist and let the goverment take care of everything and everyone"womb to tomb".

They told us for years that "everything was hunkydory".."just peachy".."strong"...

and suddenly the whole place has burned to the ground and we need EMERGENCY help..

When were they lying? and why should we believe them?

If they were lying all along..(see Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson, Bush,), why should we believe them NOW??

If things were shaky and they did not take pro-active measures THEN, why should be believe that they even know what to do now?

This is the same crowd who has used the "throwing money at a problem" mantra when criticizing liberals, and somehow, now that is their only solution..

Were they lying, then?? or Now?? or both?

here is a fascinating video, explaining
how banks, credit and money really work:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

this was sent to me by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, www.Kucinich.us
who really understands what is going on from "Main Street" POV

Call it whatever they may.It is still socialism in any form. Let the Fat crocks on Wall st suffer like the rest of us pout of work taxpayers.Maybe we can outsource the goverment overseas and save us all the cost of their Gold healt care plan and a retirement many of us can only dream about.1 trillion dollars divided by the 3 hundred million would give us all close to 300,000 dollars. So let the goverment bail us out..

We have not a economic crisis,we a a political crisis,OUR congressists,senators,executive's people had converted the Capitol in a flea market,ALL they have recived millions from banks,farmaceuticals,oil companies,industries,etc,etc,etc,they have no moral for say them anything,,see?,it's simple.Democrats and Republicans are figthing for nothing,they have nothing fresh to say or show,THAT IS THE REAL CRISIS,God bless us.People must not pay to thieves.

There should be no bailout. That would be intervention that violates what free market economy is all about. I go with the distinguished economists who signed the letter stating this. Casino economics ruled the economic climate for so long, we have forgotten that the laws of economics will get us through this. it won't be pretty, to say the least, But look at Tuesday's market close--what is the reason for irrational panic? Believe me, this really is a bailout for Wall Street. Mr. Gecko, meet your maker.

To see what the "executives" earn and how they're protected with their Golden Parachutes is disgusting. How the rest of the world must be laughing. Greed got the best of this one. There are no excuses for the mess it got us into. In the end, the "little" guy is the one who pays.

Isn't anyone strong enough to correct this country's problems without bickering across partylines ? I'm getting a little disgusted with both parties while they continue to rape our resources and get us deeper into a decifit. Let's see less rhetoric & more solutions.

Wow!
I always get a kick when AAPR sends me something caused by the current administration.

Maybe if they hadn't backed "W" we wouldn't be in this mess.

LET THE BANKS AND WAL-STREET SUFFER, THE GAVE ALL THE BAD MORTAGES TO PEOPLE WHO THEY NEW COULDN'T PAY THEM ONCE THE INTEREST ADJUSTED. FOR ONCE LET THE HIGH ROLLERS SUFFER, NO=BAILOUT WITHTAXPAYER MONEY, IF YOU WANT AN ECONOMIC PLAN TO HELP SOMEONE, CUT EVERYONE WHO HAS A CURRENT MORTAGE AND PAYS ON TIME BY TWO OR THREE PERCENT AND WIPE OUT THE HIGH INTEREST CREDIT CARD THIEF BANKS AND MAYBE THE ECONOMY WILL START HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. LETS NOT THINK ABOUT THE FILTHY RICH BANKERS AND INVESTMENT RIPOFFS ON WAL-STREET.

I do not want to leave my grand children with this bail-out, and they can name it anything they want. If we pass this the value of the dollar will drop dramatically and we will be hit with huge inflation. Please do not let them talk you people into this. And at the opposite side of one of the other people who left a message I will be watching for those who vote for it.

First, the idea of giving each American a half a million will be 100 times more expensive than the proposed bailout. Do your own arithmitic, the web site giving us these numbers is trying to put one over on us. They moved the decimal point over two places.

Second, while Bush is the worst president in United States History, Obama does not have the answer. It will be higher taxes for everyone, especially us retired people!

Third, any baleout should have a limit of a quarter of a million for everyone in the company. Why pay millions to the idiots who caused the current problem.

Fourth, the baleout should be directly to the mortgage holders. These people are just as much to blame as the companies gone under, little or nothing down, sub prime rates, inflated property values. The government could buy the mortgages of anyone who is willing to extend the period of the mortgages and pay something like an extra $100 per month. This would cost the government dearly, but would pay off in the long run.

When they start building smaller house's so people can afford to buy them,when they really push for smaller better mpg car's I think then America will have learned that it's not the megga size in everything that we do,but it's to live within ours means

Our defined benefit retirement income is based about 2/3 on a variable unit value that sets the payment for all of the following year. That value is calculated by the portfolio value on SEPT 30! So don't tell us the vote yesterday hasn't already hurt us!

A plan is necessary. A hastily conceived, poor plan will prolong and deepen the chasm. I want "Main Street" protected. In addition, I would like to see the Credit Card Bill of Rights--recently approved by Congress--included in the provisions to protect citizens.

As soon as they informed the public that the passage of the finance bill did not go through, the markets should have been shut down.

This would have prevented the largest sell off since the great depression, and we would not have the multi billion losses facing us now.

In retrospect, where were the auditors in those finance companies who's responsiblity was to see that the people purching those high rate mortages had the income to meet their monthly payments.

75% of the morgages where made, knowing that the owners could not meet their obligations.

I am not one for many Goverment regulations, but when greed rules over common sense, no other alternatives are avilable.

where did congress get this amount from? how much of the total is pork barrell funds? why should we reward those who failed us? why don't congress set an example and repel the automatic paise raise, and cost of living expences they recieve every year?

What if the recent failures that we have seen the past couple of weeks are only the cockroaches that we see? There may be and most likely are a lot more coming. Are we going to bail them out as well. Let the market find its true value and we can move on from there. Our Government got us in this mess so I have no confidence that they could get us out of it.

I have mixed emotions about the bail-out defeat. The taxpayer's need to come out on top. And the corporate executives need to pay thru the teeth. It was proposed to cut their salaries to $400,000 (if the company accepted the bail out funds). That should be cut to-at the most-$100,000.
Let THEM pay the price for the mess they're in, not John Q. Middleclass.

And this needs to be spelled out in obvious and binding terms. No golden parachutes!! Thank you

It is amazing to me how many people do not have a clue about Economics; and how the world works.
Yet they vote...

The only action that should be taken is an investigation into the contributions made by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to all members of the Senate and House of Representatives. All members receiving contributions should NOT vote on the package.

Members of the Senate and House of Representative have been trying to rein in Freddie and Fannie since 2005 -- yet they have been blocked by the leader of the House and of the Senate.

If all the CEO's of these investment firms and banks were earning multimillion dollar salaries while they drove their businesses into the crapper, how about THEY all come up with some of the money, if the bailout is needed that badly? The only thing Congress needs to pass is legislation prohibiting golden parachutes from this day forward. These criminals need to be held accountable for their greed, not bailed out! I'm just glad President Bush didn't get his way and had all my social security money put in these crooks' hands, heaven knows that's what he wanted and then you would have REALLY had a crisis!

What ever happen to not buying what you can't afford.... Better known as save for it...
I keep hearing how business's won't be able to pay the workers if they can't borrow the money....does that mean all business's in the USA are running on credit...??
I believe we are being suckered into a big pay out to the banks and that is just all wrong...
We should just wait and not jump into something we won't be able o undo later...
This bail out will not save even one person from losing their homes...It will just help big banks and mortgage companies to do again what they did to cause this mess...
What kind of goverment do we have that didn't see this coming...???

The Politicians are really PUSHING IT we could loose control if this doesn"t work or is too late to help?

Thought you would find this an interesting thought.....
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Brunner [mailto:kbrunner01@sceinet.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2008 12:47 PM
Subject: WE DESERVE IT DIVIDEND:

Hi Pals,

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We
Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide
U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.

So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.

That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.

A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads

Put away money for college - it'll be there

Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.

Buy a new car - create jobs

Invest in the market - capital drives growth

Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves

Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who
lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( 'vote buy' ) economic incentive that is
being proposed
by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult
U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.

Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can 'never work.'

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion

We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in
Washington DC

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for a
laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

Picture, if you will, a large furnace in the middle of the desert. Into that furnace, we have been shoveling dollar after dollar to the tune of 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq.

Picture a million dollar smart bomb falling on Baghdad. That is a million dollars into the furnace in a microsecond of detonation. Add to that the millions of additional dollars in destruction, material and human life.

There is a direct connection to our financial failings at home and our destructive financing of war and destruction over the years since 9/11. Relax, we are merely witnessing the last throes of a dying era, the era of greed and lack.

May all beings be happy, may all beings be well.

SJN

No Bailout !!!!!!!

Take all of the money in the bailout plans and devide it equally amoungst all leagal US citizens that are 18 or older.
Refund 30% percent back to the government for income tax and let the people spend the balance as they see fit. The government would save money. The people would be able to make house/car payments etc. This would stimulate the economoy and in a short period of time this would maintain and create jobs and correct the current problems.
The next thing to do is to prosecute the people that created the problems and collect their bonuses and golden parachutes.
Some jail time and having to live like the average citizen would be good for them and also set an example for others that may be considering taking advantage of the public,

Why should we, the taxpayers pay for the dishonesty and poor judgements of brokers and financial big wigs who make millions of dollars per year? This is a fraud. We need to let the markets do what they do in a free market, come hell or high water. Every crook on Wall Street and elsewhere needs to be arrested and prosecuted.

when wall street fails we all fail,i don`t want to go back to when wall street failed,food lines,no jobs at all,people lost everything,people like me i work at a factory and live week to week,the medical and gas alone,that we need,keeps us from eating what we need now a lot of things need fixing,fast and now!! i don`t want americans to go through what my parents went through.read up on your history and neither will you.

I know that I am not alone. I worked and saved for 40 years to retire. Now when there are no jobs, and who wants to hire an old lady, I must find employment. The stocks went up today with the anticipation of the bailout or whatever they decide to call it because the word bailout upsets folks. Without the "bailout" the American people will find themselves in a depression and everyone will suffer especially the already poor, middle class and just barely scraping by retires. If something is not done I hope for an early death to escape, the stress has been killing me anyway.

When we look at deeper issues that need to be addressed, the American Dream, is just that. A Dream. Many young people make 8.00 an hour and housing is unaffordable 400K up to buy, you can barely rent a place for 1000K.

Interest on credit cards is up over 29% for many people and the average is 14%. If your late, tack on another 25 dollars, then your credit is ruined and the interest rate is raised. Remember, it only takes one time.

Savings interest is where is was in the late 60's and 70's less than 3%. When the prime dropped, the interest rates on credit cards didn't.

There is no more hope for our young people, unless you already have a helping hand. Education is unaffordable and the ability to earn a decent wage is out the door since NAFTA. Until there is control on the interest rates of credit, utilities, insurance, housing and education, the future looks pretty bleak. No wonder so many turn to crime and drugs. Wake up america. Its time we have our own boston tea party and put a stop to all the greed and corruption.

I agree with the previous poster about NOT bailing these greedy banks out. If anyone needs help, it is the "disappearing middle class". We work everyday, and pay our bills like RESPONSIBLE persons. Wall street created this problem, Wall street should pay for it -NOT the TAXPAYER

Something must be done to save the country's financial situation now. Then something must be done to prevent our current situation from happening again.

I want the house and senate to stop playing politics! NOW!!!!!!

While there is much blame to be spread around, I feel the major reason for the meltdown in America's financial system is lack of transperancy and opaque pricing. In fact, over the last ten to fifteen years, Wall Street created a shadow banking sytem and then, through erroneous pricing models, greed, and fear, ran it into the ground. We, the people of "Main Street" are being asked to bail it out. Since we have much to gain by doing so, I'm in favor of an appropriate "bailout". It must include penalties for those who took too much risk, and real reform of the "shadow" banking system. Why OTC derivatives are not cleared instantly on an exchange and marked to market twice daily is more an issue of Wall Street retaining huge margins and nothing to do with helping Main Street.

Loans were made that should not have been made to people that should not have been making that kind of a commitment. If they loose there home because they can't make the payment, so be it. If the Company that made the loan goes out of business because they made too many of those stupid loans, so be it. If the home owner is still making their house payments as contracted they should not loose their home. Help those people and punish anyone that it can be shown violated the law. The CEOs should be required to pay back as much of their as they can and still support their family.

Cement-filled galoshes instead of golden parachutes for CEO's and CFO's of outfits needing rescue.
Top pay in ANY corporate entity should not be more than 25 times the lowest paid employee.
Bankruptcy judges should have the authorization to dictate new interest rate/payment schedules for homeowners in foreclosure on their primary residence.
The federal government should take an equity interest in any rescued firm equal to the amount required for the rescue.
Send all lobbyists to Iraq and Afghanistan to lobby for peace.

So, the day after WE DID NOTHING the dollar is stronger against the euro than ever, gas prices are going down, and we don't have $700 Billion dollars of toxic waste debt (not to mention the concept that foreign banks would try to give us their bad debt via US branch banks and connections). Finally, for once in my life, democracy worked the way it's supposed too.

I believe Congressman DeFazio's plan has merit and should be considered by the leaders that are crafting this bill. At the very least, the provisions it contains would hold banks and companies to a standard and they could be prosecuted for criminal behavior. It is time due to lack of oversight to do something-- we failed to set standards once-- lets not repeat that mistake.

I disagree Congress needs to act fast. It needs to act prudently and respond with carefully thought out solutions that will get to the core of the problem. This problem has been in the making for a couple of decades and it will not be solved overnight. I think the only thing that should be done now is to increase the insured deposits at FDIC banks to provide liquidity. This along with the Federal Reserve Banks current authority to provide liquidity will be adequate until after the election. I am willing to bet it will also settle the equity markets down. Just buying bad loans is not the only solution to solve the problem.

These companies should be made to bail themselves out. I hope the FBI gets in there and the bad folk are arrested and put into jail, especially Nancy Pelosi, knowing about it letting it happen so John McCain will fail.

I believe Congress does need to pass a package which will prevent the collapse of our economy and that of the rest of the world.

We now need much oversight over financial institutions which have been given free reign for too long. Cut out bonuses and unreasonable executive salaries in industry AND investment firms, mortgage lenders and banks. But we can't afford to do nothing.

NO BAILOUT - NO WAY

LET'S HAVE ALL THOSE GOLDEN PARACHUTES BAIL THEM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PERHAPS WE COULD ALSO LOWER LOAN RATES AND ABOLISH ADJUSTABLE
MORTGAGES GIVING THE MIDDLE CLASS A CHANCE TO MAKE THEIR PAYMENTS
TO THE GOLDEN CHUTES!

Frankly I am glad we have not gotten in a hurry. This did not happen over night. It took years. It can be fixed a lot more simply than laying a 700 billion tax burden upon all of us.

Very simply do the following:

Change the Mark to Market rules which will allow home mortgage lenders to hold their loans longer and not foreclose. this could be extended for at least 6 to 12 months.

(note, if you lied to get a loan, knew you could not pay it off, sorry buddy, you do not get help, you took undue advantage and deserve no grace)

Delete the capital gains tax for a 2 year period to motivate those with money to pour it into the market adding more liquidity.

Raise FDIC insurance limits on bank accounts to $250,000, on mutual funds to $500,000

and
Provide FDIC insurance that Wall Street can pay for, require them to carry it and reform regulation and oversite on wall street

Finally,

Go to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and take away from them the pressure to make loans that do not make sense. Go back to this amazingly simple formula which is, lend money to those who can make the payments,do lend money to those who can not.

Place Morning Star or some type of ratings on bundled Mortgages that end up in Mortgage Backed securities, and have them rated- not blended, so investors will no whether they are buying best paper, medium paper, or questionalble paper.

America is a nation in which so many people expect something for nothing. The word "tax" is considered a profanity and a culture of me-first is rampant. There is far too little awareness of the commons.

Resentment about someone pointing out truths should not be a reason for doing nothing. John Boehner's accusation that House Republican votes were lost because Nancy Pelosi scolded Republican policies does not pass the laugh test. Yes, making a religion of deregulation has played a role in the liquidity crisis. On the consumer side, a willing suspension of disbelief is a useful thing when going out to the movies. It is far less useful when taking on a mortgage.

While there are many who have been hoodwinked by unscrupulous lenders, the appeal of something for nothing has been allowed to overrule common sense. Many people took on more debt than they could handle because they believed that the value of property would only go up. Failure is often the price of foolishness. And there are those whose ability to pay for their homes has been impaired by the unexpected traumas of unemployment or medical carnage.

Yet, the foibles and greed of some have caused us all a huge headache. But so has pure bad luck. The proper thing here is to act like grownups, clean up the mess and make sure it does not happen again. Where fraud can be proven prosecution should follow. And if we as a nation are offering a helping hand to huge financial firms, there is no excuse to give the back of the hand to smaller fools and to those victimized by circumstance. Sadly, we are all in this together and must share both the burden of the problem and the continued benefit of liquidity that the cleanup will ensure.

The political bickering while Rome burns is embarrassing. There is enough blame to throw around and that can come during all of the monday night quarterbacking that is inevitable. I have little sympathy for people that bought more house than they should have, bought investment property that didn't really go up in value like they "knew" it would, or borrowed money on such ridiculous terms that any idiot should have seen what could happen. So as much as I don't want to bail out Wall Street, we are beyond that now. This cancer has infected every aspect of our financial system and is touching everyone, rich, poor or in-between. Cut the crap, cut the carping and do your jobs. We elected you to look out for our interests. Stop pointing the finger unless you are looking in a mirror.

Hey people, this is a Global Crisis, not just a domestic tragedy. We cannot throw water on this grease fire and expect it to go away. I truly believe 700B usd will not even begin to end this so called "Credit Crisis." We sold all the sub-prime mortgages internationally and we are not the only ones suffering. Other Countries have failing banks, but we have the most that are in trouble. The FASB accounting standards that were enacted to try to start reighing in the financial mis-practices have done just that and sped up the problem because all these banks were now required to reduce their leveraged debts and to do that they have to borrow the money required and guess what, WHO wants to loan to a lame duck that might not be here next year, next month or even tomorrow to pay us back?
Please DO NOT force Congress to enact this BAILOUT process that most assurdedly will not even begin to mend this problem. Please encourage these Leaders to exhaust all means available, even studing the Swedish bailout of the 1990's. The Small Business's and the home forclosures-ees, should be the ones we try to help, not Wall Street firms.

Too few measures for real accountability, vague provisions on exec compensation, too many vague guidelines througout the proposal. There should be guarantees that taxpayers will be first in line to get their money back and participate in any profits.

I think we need the bailout, but only after appropriate changes are made.

You must understand that if the banks stop lending money that credit will tighten and maybe part of America needs this dose of medicine for our abuse of credit in the past 15 years. Yes Wall Street was taking advantage of Main St. but Main St. participated heavily in the situation we are in today. We can't focus the blame on Wall St. we are all to blame. Now we need to stop the bleeding and remove the threat of a long hard recession to a shorter less painful recession. Much oversight and transparency is needed or we will find ourselves back in the same situation and the bailout will cost 3 times the amount on the table today.
No where in this present bill is there any releif for the homeowner that can't make their mortgage payments so I urge congress to take a harder look at this package and do whats right not only for Wall St. but for Main St.
MAIN ST. WILL REMEMBER YOU IF YOU DON'T

The first thing that Congress needs to do is to approve the death penalty for anyone convicted of financial fraud.

Then, regulations need to be put into place to prevent this disaster from happening again.

Then, and only then, should Congress rescue Main Street. And not a penny to bail out Wall Street.

A bailout by any other name smells just as bad. Even I, ignorant of markets as I am, could see this disaster coming five or six years ago with the NINJA loans peddled over AM radio and elsewhere. The deregulation popularized by Reagan and adopted by every president since (even Clinton, to a degree, darn his eyes), that derugulation has finally killed the markets it was intended to stimulate. Well, stimulus is not organic growth. Stimulus in the end, kills. Stop stimulus. Build. Not more unnecessary and inflated-value homes. Build bridges. Build up clean water. Install solar energy systems. Plant trees. Those are jobs you can't ship oversees.

The government should take over the banks if they put up this kind of money into the bank bailout. The money comes from the people to ghe govenment so if the government gives money to banks, then the people should control the banks. They should reduce the saleries of the CEO's, the CEO make over millions per year and the president of usa gets $200000 a year but he or she would get to live in the white house but has to pay for the upkeep of the third floor of the white house. I believe the president get the car, airplane and helicopter and guards paid for and provided by the US government (the people) I am not sure what the congress members get. After the clean up of the banks, they should work on the health care and put caps on cost of medical care.

I don't want my tax dollars used to bail out incompetent businesses or those people who obtained mortgages when they knew they could not afford to buy that house. Let them find a way the same as I and most working Americans would have to. No one is going to bail us out. Put these CEOs in jail and take their outlandished salaries away from them. They are not worth their salary. The next downfall will be the credit card business. People are not living within their means and banks are thieves charging exorbitant interest rates.

I would like to see $7 million given to take care of the seniors who are living alone on social security, cannot buy groceries, medicine, or pay their utilities, buy health insurance and don't have anybody to take care of them.

How about we take care of the Americans who are homeless, hungry, ill, tired and just plain sick of the "American Way."

$7 million in the hands of the likes of Paulson, Pelosi, Barney Frank (aka Elmer Fudd/Mr. Magoo)....and all those in connection with the theft and fraud in the federal programs (fannie mae, etc.) ACORN participants.....there have been no practices in place to oversee the things going on and I blame all of us for that.

I worry more about the folks who don't have a 401K, who don't know anything about the Stock Market and don't care to, because they can't even afford to buy milk for their children. The average American who has about $20.00 in his pocket til payday, (14 days away), needs to have gas to get to work and food for his family. The most overlooked of our population should be taken care of now, we should not be paying anymore to the countries who don't even want our help, those who won't retain their democracy once we're out, and those who literally would stab us in the back as we hand them food that we desperately need for our people.

This U.S. is backwards, we have so many problems, they can't be fixed in a month, a year or even 4 years, they have accumulated with each president, regardless of the party. The party doesn't even matter, the Prez can't do anything without approval of the Congress (for the most part), and most of the Congress (the youngins follow the old-timers and do what they're told, including how to vote.

Until we see that we're in moral conflict for not taking care of our own, we'll get nowhere. Do I believe in the bailout ....HELL NO...and I'd go so far as to say that I'd vote for the party that sees to it that this bailout does not go through. The first thing that needs to happen is we weed out the parties who are responsible for the illegal goings on in Washington and elsewhere that are being hidden from the public. We punish them and then take responsibility for overseeing what happens to our $$$$$, if we don't we lose all the way around.

The federal government should make loans available for troubled financial institutions, but only with severe restrictions:
1. Institutions who request such funds must give equity positions to the treasury in return. These should be at such a discount that any firm made healthy through such expenditure of our money would eventually turn a reasonable profit for the treasury.
2. With such equity positions must come seats at the boards of directors of such firms and a share of direct management oversight.
3. Senior executives at such firms must forfeit any prior claims for "golden parachutes" and be denied any future arrangements of such kind. Executive salaries at such firms should be capped at $500,000.
4. The entire financial industry must be aware that many previous federal restrictions as well as new ones will soon be enacted. Such firms must cease and desist all federal lobbying efforts aimed at deregulation.
This crisis makes it clear that "private sector" is a mythical term. All giant financial institutions and giant manufacturing corporations achieve success only because of the participation of the public and its government. To believe that they should profit from the public without demonstrably caring for the public is niave and tragically flawed. We allow them to profit by being their employees, consumers, investors and financeers. We must expect to have resonable diligent oversight and to share fully in the prosperity of what are actually our companies.

AARP should be ashamed of itself for promoting the Wall St. bailout. The sacred "market" got us into this mess, let the market get us out. I am strongly opposed to giving authority to Secretay Paulson, the former (and future?) head of Goldman Sachs to pour money into the situation to bail out his friends. I wrote to my representative urging him to vote "no" and I have done the same with my senators. Action may be necessary, but this is not a crisis that has to be solved by noon tomorrow. We can slow down and come up with a sensible plan, not a scheme to preserve the financial status of the Wall St. bozos who have put the country in this mess. AARP's support for this is similar to their support for the prescription drug giveaway to pharmaceutical firms, resulting in the donut hole. AARP, don't make the same mistake again.

There needs to be a plan to salvage the mess our politicians and financial institutions have gotten the country into. Too many people were enticed into loans they couldn't pay to buy homes way out of their means. Now we will all pay the price. The managers and brokers who created the tools should lose their bonuses and parachutes along with their jobs. Many of the politicians should be replaced with people less susceptible to the enticements of big business and we all need to get comfortable with less bling. A bailout is wrong but it is also wrong to force people onto the street when fixing their mortgage rate can prevent it. It is also wrong to see small businesses shut their doors because they can't borrow money to meet seasonal slowdowns. Fixing this mess won't be fun but it can be done with cooperation and a little sacrifice by all. Maybe we should apply for foreign aid from some of the countries we have been supporting all these years.

No bail out for the banks! Let the multi-million dollar execs bail out the companies that they ruined. The government should focus on "rescuing" the victims of these preditory banks...not rewarding the banks for decades of bad behavior.

The greedy banks are getting what they deserve do not bail them out. Give the money to the tax paying senior U S Citizens. They can use the money to pay off their debts, and/or fix up their homes to be more energy efficient and add alternate energy producing systems. This will trickle down to the banks and help ease our dependence on foreign oil.

If something is not done fast, we stand to loose all that we have saved for our retirement. We have not spent money casually nor have we gone beyond our means in all the years that we have been married (40 years). We have saved even if it was only $10 a week. We will be needing the money that we have put away for retirment and now we look at what is happening - our money is dropping daily. We are afraid of losing most of it or loosing it all; medicare payments are extremely high and medicare pays not for much; we have even held off taking our social security at 65 - all in preparation for our retirement years. We stand to lose all our money and lose our dream that even my husband and I can live good years.
Please help us - this is making us literally physically sick! We should not have to be taxed for others mistakes but something has to be done quickly to get all of us back on the right track so we can live again. Remember we all are not wealthy and we are not able to stand losses at this point in our lives.
Thank you,
USA Citizen

Sure the market dropped yesterday, it lost 700 points....BUT it bounced back today to the tune of almost 500 points and will probably climb even more tomorrow.

Let the stronger EAT the weaker (basic business process) and keep the government AND MY MONEY OUT OF IT!!!!!

As said before, give the money to US and see just how much we can stimulate (and even recover) our economy.

We don't the politicians understand this? Because they are bought and Paid for by special interests, big business, and their own interests.

Keep the money flowing WITHIN the United states: "if you pay ME, I'll pay HIM, so HE can pay HER, so SHE can pay you......." or is that too complicated for our government to understand.

Michael Dalleska
Cincinnati, OH

NO BAILOUT. THESE DIRTBAGS SHOULD BE IN PRISON. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT US AT ALL. JUST THEMSELVES. I'VE LOST 70% OF MY BUSINESS BECAUSE OF THEM. NO MORE MIDDLE CLASS. GIVE ALL OF US ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY OFF WHAT WE HAVE LOST BECAUSE OF THEM. GIVE THE MONEY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. NOT TO WALL STREET. HOW MANY MILLIONS DO BUSH & CHENEY HAVE?

300 million american citizens. 700 billion dollars.
thats $700,000,000,000 divided by 300,000,000 = $233,333 for each american citizen. so who are we bailing out? seems like it is more than bad loans for each family, huh?

P.S. to the obama poster: why single out obama, if mccain is for this also. why not blame both. do you have a hidden agenda?

Pass the bill ASAP... It is disconcerting that those politicians who voted against the bill are only looking after themselves and there best interests. For those shameful politicians who make the excuse that their constituents are emailing and calling them and asking them not to approve the bill shame on you. I for one will not vote for you as you are either using this as a lame excuse or you just don't understand the issue at hand: it's likely the former. You need to spend more time educating people why this bill MUST be passed NOW. It is obvious that this bill isn't about bailing anyone out; we have had serious issues in our credit markets for more than a year that has caused almost no one to have the confidence to invest in bonds that fund everything from homes to cars, to college education to hospitals to cars to anything and everything where securitization of bonds has been a financing vehicle.

This is what happens when you let Wall Street run the country. The bailout will not fix this mess. It will only let taxpaying citizens become the bank for Wall Street.

I'm not in favor of the bail-out; but, I'm less in favor of my retirement going down in flames. We who are retired worked very hard, kept our noses above water, saved some money, invested it and now, because of years of systemic neglect and greed and without a plan to rescue those savings, we are at risk of losing those investments. Come on, get it done and then fix the basic problems. Incidentally, the name calling and finger pointing is pretty mature don't you think?

Although this vote could and may have some negative impact on my retirement plans, I am happy that Congress voted it down...All this bill would have done was bail out companies who sold mortgages to people who couldn't really afford them and now it is coming back to bite them in the rear...Jails in this country are full of people who got greedy and yet we want to reward these banks and Wall St for their greed..Not today thankfully.
I say we let this issue play itself out on the free market...Tonights evening news said we had a similar drop in the stock market back in the early 80's and it only took 6 months to turn things around, so why should we get all panicky now.
I am tired of mortgaging our childrens, grandchildrens and now probably our greatgrandchildrens lives..We need to deal with this now and get on with it.

The only bailout I'd like to see is one for the average hardworking American citizens, who always seem to get stuck paying for it all in the end.

It is obvious from the comments that most people do not understand the situation. There is no bail out, The proposed plan is to buy assets for 60cents on the dollar - for which Wall Street paid $1 and then after the market stabilizes sell them for more than 60 cents. It is unfortunate we are saddled with such an incompetent bunch of bankers and politicians.

My suggestion is that we revive the plan to add "None of the above" to every voter's ballot so that everyone can have a real choice.

I'm with CodePink. "Over my dead body". See that the bailout solution is a bottoms up solution that bails out people who are losing or about to lose their homes. Don't just bail out Wall Street. People are already mad about the economy, jobs and the war. Failing a bottoms up solution could cause massive changes in Congress this November. Also ending the war will save 12 billion dollars per month.

The bail out proposal arrived with several
suitcases full of lead in its baggage.

1. Bush, whose lack of credibility now stains
the fortunes everything that he supports,
supported and stained this one.

2. The urgency expressed by Paulson and the
principal architects of the bill was clearly
intended to generate hysteria that would
lead to public support. That calculation
back fired.

3. The fascinating disintegration of party
solidarity on both sides was an event waiting
to happen during any severe crisis. The
real fissures in our country are now crevasses,
and with them we attempt a rash fix on an
emergency. Some setups break in view of everyone,
because they are already broken where they have
intentionally been hidden from most.

These are just some of the ingredients, but the
central one for me is the failure of confidence
that the American citizens have in their government
in the wake of criminal deregulation and greed.

One does not allow bad surgeons to correct
their mistakes. What happened yesterday was
a calamity. It was also wisdom and a warning.
Americans may be fools, but chaos happens to
everyone, fool or not when a criminal government
is permitted to run its course unchecked.

Friends: Yesterday the House of Rep. voted the Bailout Bill down. A victory for we the people! Now we have to stop the Senate from voting it up. They vote tomorrow. Contact the Senate today at 800-473 6711 0r 202 224 3121
and say No Bailout!

This "Bailout" is all an excuse to privatize Social Security, Medicare and every other social program. Hence the rush act. Once they have the money they'll insist 700 billion has rendered the federal government too broke to continue to fund our social programs. They pulled the same thing with the Patriot Bill when they wanted to suspend the Constitution. They declared an emergency and Congress voted without knowing what they were doing. Well this time it didn't work…yet.

Call the Senate now! Save our social programs! Let's not fall into this final Bush trap!

Lila Garrett

**************
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It is a sad day when the citizens of a democracy are so ignorant of economics as to not know when an action is appropriate. Thus they barrage their representatives with negative demands. This plus simplistic ideology then lead the representatives to fail to intervene. The ignorance extends to the representatives, who don't seem to realize that they already live in a controlled capitalist system. A simple assist to the credit system does not constitute socialism. Would they have unbridled capitalism such as supposedly communist China has? They run rampant over energy, safety, environment, and property rights. If they cannot do this one thing, God help us on election day. Democracy requires an educated citizenry.

Hi everybody, I say "hang them all--every single politician who had a hand in this debacle --like Barney Frank and Harry Reid --yep every last one of them. After that, we can get a new bunch of fools in there that might be scared enough to behave for a few years.
I absolutely do not want any part of a BAILOUT or a RESCUE !!! Let the marke flow . The Goverment has never got the recipe right for this kind of a bake off and they won't now !! I will work as hard as I can to stop this idiotic nonsense and to punish any politician who does not help to accomplish it.

In a free marked economy if a greedy company fails because of bad decisions the chips should fall where they may. The bail out is a bad thing in the long run. The market will recover as it has in the past.
I am against the bail out!!!!!

Frankly, I question the wisdom of a bailout for Wall St. Something certainly has to be done, BUT PASSING THE BILL PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE ON MONDAY ISN'T IT!

THAT piece of legislation was more dangerous than doing nothing!

Please note that the Dow has recovered half of yesterday's losses, there have been no reports of people jumping out of windows along Wall St.,[o.k., so maybe the windows don't open anymore as they did in 1929, but there've been no reports of suicides!] and the sun still came up today.

Some action will have to be taken to help ease conditions, but things are going to get much uglier no matter what is or isn't done. Any "fixes" should be done in stages so that a minimum of stupid things happen in the process.
People of far more wisdom that I need time to determine the best course of action.

Bush came out and pushed the bailout bill. He probably mentioned that wmds were involved. This alone is a good reason to be against it.

So, we want the government to fix the problem they created in the first place? Please, give me a break. That is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

STAY OUT OF IT CONGRESS!

No-one likes the term bail-out. If there are plenty of ideas in the plan to help the average person ie: the people who were led astray in bad mortgages by the lenders, then a 'rescue' should be implemented. And the Republicans have to go along with cutting out such obscene compensation for the head cheaters at all the firms that are looking for help. I really think that there is truly a problem that will affect everyone in this country if it is not remedied.

As a senior who is now on my own and has very limited funds, this is all very frightening.

I believe that everyone should be held accountable for their actions. That the investment bankers, wall street giants, congress, business and a lot of individuals created the mess that we have because everyone wanted to make a quick, inflated profit with little or no risk of their own money. Congree looked the other way as many had interest in the firms that were making these crazy loans to start with. They did it without requard to who would have to pick up the pieces down the road when it fell apart. It was alomost like a pyramid scheeme and those are illegal, yet no one wanted to break the chain until they could get their part and get out. I think that congress needs to address the issue, but not without fines and penalties and even jail time for those who used the system for fraud and any other purpose to benefit their or someone's pocket book without requard to ethics or law.

I'm sick to death of this mess. Tell me, where are these billions for the bail out going to come from so quickly? Are they going to raid Social Security again? I'd rather see them pay SS back for their previous raids then bail out the greed on Wall Street. So we have to tighten our belts. Don't most of us have just about everything we could possibly need or want? There is much we could learn to do without. If you grew up in the 30's and 40's it was tough but we survived. We can do it again! We need to demand that our Senator's and Representatives listen to US and not the whining from Wall Street. I agree with Nelly.

This was proposed at the AIG bailout... Not my Idea, but seems like a great way to solve this problem as well!!!
I'm against the $85 BILLION bailout of AIG.. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a "We Deserve It" dividend. To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. citizens, aged 18+.
Our population is about 301 million counting every man, woman and child. So, 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. Now, divide 200 million, 18+ adults into $85 billion - that equals $425,000.00 each! Yes, my plan is to give that $425,000 to every adult as a "We Deserve It" dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So, let's assume a tax rate of 30%. Everyone would pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25.5 billion right back to Uncle Sam! It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife would have $595,000.00!
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads.
Put away money for college – it'll really be there.
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs .
Invest in the market – capital drives growth.
Pay for your parent's medical insurance – health care improves.
Enable deadbeat parents to come clean – or else.
Remember this is for every adult U.S. citizen, 18 and older (including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehmann Brothers and every other company that is cutting back) and of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it! Instead of trickling out a puny $1,000.00 "economic incentive"..
If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U.S. citizen!
As for AIG – liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate..
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
We deserve the money and AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy idea, but can you imagine the coast-to-coast block party?!

How do you spell Economic Boom? W-e D-e-s-e-r-v-e I-t d-i-v-i-d-e-n-d! I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion "We Deserve It" dividend more than do the 'geniuses' at AIG or in Washington , D.C. .

And remember, my plan only really costs $59.5 billion because $25.5 billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam. Good idea? I think so.

Housing failures mean no money in the safety nets and more people in the food lines at the food bank, more people at the community health centers and filling up the emergency shelters. If Washington would only listen to the folks on the very bottom of the totem pole, they might have a clue, because we have seen this for over two years now.

I am a 59-yr. old woman already living on disability, public assistance, housing assistance and food stamps, so what's the future for me and those also on disability. We can't very well work our way through this...we can't work any longer! Just keeping food in my cupboard is a luxury these days, and I can only afford 1/2 tank of gas each month to get me to the doctor. There isn't any common sense in the safety net programs or I could have a roomate and share expenses.

This is about greed and not having any adults in Washington. I say let's impeach the people who put us here, investigate the rest and make them do serious jail time, and get real with the way we do business, both here and around the globe. It's also important to pay equal wages for equal work, valuing women and their contribution to the economics of our country, and really, really terrible health care that put us here! When do we get to be heard?

Maybe its time for the American people stop expecting the government to bailout, automakers, airlines, and now the bankers who made the bad loans. Maybe its time for us to understand government is to big and its time for us to go back to some of the old ways, where people are responsible for their actions and not the taxpayers to bail you out. I say no bailout.

I have a visceral dislike for regulation. However, I believe that the only thing worse than regulation is No regulation. It's ironical to see the Bush administration admitting that the lack of regulation led us to this. We had the savings and loan crisis in the 80's which should have forewarned us of the need for oversight.

However, since the government dropped the ball, we now must do something.I can accept the bailout if there is oversight and the parties being helped give an ownership interest to the government. I also think there should be a limit put on CEO's salaries if they accept help from the government.

It is alarming that Paulsen waited this late to go public. As a result,We do not have as much time to structure a good bill as I would like.

The best use the government could give the $700 billion is paying back the debt it has with our Social Security System, and which really threatens our (present and future AARP members) financial future.

The idea of making retirees depend on the millionaires that run Wall Street has been just another way of fleecing us.

Let those who designed and approved the economic mismanagement that led to this crisis pay the piper. Otherwise, our country will be heading for an even worse disaster.

It is time to protect the taxpayers, and allow us at least our beans and rice, and stop feeding the fat cats of Wall Street caviar.
Many have had to claim bankruptcy, and live on what we little we have, they should, too.
There certainly should not be the horrifically monstrous salaries and payouts for the C.E.O.'s and their ilk.
I have worked since I was 13 years old, and at 70 years old, living in an old, small house trailer, I should not have to worry about my great grandchildren paying off the debts that an irresponsible administration has given these irresponsible greedy thieves.
If this bill were indeed to protect health care, 401k's, teacher's retirement, it would be one thing, but it isn't.
Lost my dream?
It has been so long since I could even dream of a dream.

thank god the congress finally represented the people and voted down this political scam. now the senate wants to try push this through again. this is bullshit!!!!!
what do we need to do, march on washington?????

As we all continue to vent at Congress, Bush, Obama, McCain, Wall Street, etc, are we not also complicit in what's gone on? Have we elected the right people to office who really serve our best interest, or do we vote for someone because we know the name and it's "easy" to stay the course. I know I have not done my best to really evaluate the candidate on a local or state basis - and I plan to do better. We continue to complain, but we re-elect the incumbents. We all share in the blame and, as such, we need to take some tough medicine now due to our indifference, complacency, and general "fat, dumb and happy" attitude. When small businesses can't get loans to make payroll due to a credit freeze - it's time to bite the bullet and allow for a cash infusion. Support the bailout, but be watchful.It's up to us to monitor how the money is spent. Although I feel I was duped once into supporting the Iraq invasion, I feel like this time, the goverment has cried wolf, and I can see the teeth bared and feel the hot breath of an ugly animal that needs to be caged again. Let's get this economic crisis addressed...and hope that the investment made gets us back to break-even.

Call me stupid... but, I don't understand why Clinton and his administration lifted so many lending regulations so EVERYONE could buy a home. Not everyone can afford a home or a car... that's just life.

I'm sorry - but, I don't want to bail out the lenders, banks and investors who made the loans to people who can't afford their homes.

Let's start to clean-up... If I were in charge, I would seize the assets of every executive from the lenders, banks, politicians and Wall Street rating firms. I want to see the executives in handcuffs!

Our entire investment system is based on GREED and a fast buck!

I am not for bailing out Wall Street Private companies without penalties. The unbridled greed of the money barons is the cause of this fiasco. While I have always acted fiscally conservative, I have had to pay dearly on my investments over the past eleven months because of their unbridled actions. Some kind of a package must be passed to control this situation but it must include severe costs to the power brokers that will make them think twice before they play the money game in the future.

So why should we trust the banks and lending institutions with OUR money when they have done so well with theirs!!!!!!! NO BAILOUT!! You can't borrow your way out of debt, I've been told that my whole life and seems I was told right! The only thing "loaning" them our money is they will prey on us to make more! Screw them!

The sleazy bankers, gambolers, speculators and others that bent or broke the law need to be "tried in a court of law". The sleazy politicans who broke the law need to go to jail. All of the "incompetant" politicans and CEOs need to be voted out or "downsized" (fired). Homeowners who were screwed need "bailout"
not the banks. When the crooked people are gone the remaining bankers can "work out their own problems". I have lost money in stocks and have been downsized out of my career job and got no help from anyone. I had "to suck it up" and start over. During the (good) Clinton years I was worth a million dollars. Now I have no idea I am not going to bother looking. My lifelong "secret" don't borrow more than you can "pay-off" in a year or better a month. I built my current house myself, it took me nine years. SO "in a nutshell" NO BAIL OUT WITH TAX DOLLARS. Hold the lawbreakers and incompetant accountable!

wALL sTREET WAS GREEDY AND NOW THEY HAVE TO PAY. bUT THE GOVERNMENT IS ALSO AT FAULT FOR POORLY ENFORCING THE REGULATIONS THAT WERE ALREADY IN PLACE. tHIS IS A WAKE-UP CALL THAT HAS CATAPULTED THE WHOLE WORLD IN TO AN ECONOMIC MESS OF MAMMOTH PROPORTIONS. nOT HAVING A BAIL OUT PLAN WILL DO NOTHING POSITIVE TO GET US ON THE ROAD TOWARD A SEMBLANCE OF RECOVERY. sOME RETRIBUTION IS CRUCIAL IF THIS PLAN IS TO BE PALATABLE TO THE TAX PAYERS.

I apologize in advance for what I know is going to turn into a long post, but I just ran across this article this morning:

U.S. Heading for Slump, With or Without Bailout

A bank-rescue package ``is not going to save us from recession,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. ``It will only prevent it from getting a lot worse.''

Or so they hope, as there's no firm evidence offered to support this assertion. I keep hearing the same refrain: "This bailout won't stop the recession, but it might stave off a depression!" Yet when I read what's going on in the country that's causing this financial meltdown: plunging home values (house prices in 20 U.S. cities declined in July at the fastest pace on record), and consumer spending has cut way back, it seems clear to me that the problem is not with the bank being unable to lend, but rather with the shaky foundation on which our economic expansion has been built.

Take, for instance, this quote: "Faced with stalling consumer spending and fading profits, companies are also starting to rein in their outlays and pare their payrolls. Industrial production fell in August by the most in almost three years as slower car sales prompted automakers to cut back on output. Data coming out Oct. 3 are expected to show that jobs declined another 105,000 this month, after an 84,000 drop in August, according to economists polled by Bloomberg News. Tighter credit is also beginning to take its toll on companies as earnings slow, making them more dependent on loans to expand their businesses."

Why would you need a loan to expand your business when demand is decreasing and unemployment is rising? Such examples that are being used to justify this bailout do not make sense. Financial analysts point to plummeting home values as the culprit, stating (with a straight face) that we just need to "put a floor under home prices" in order to stabilize that economy, but there is no such thing as a "floor" for home prices. Home prices rise and fall according to how much a purchaser is willing to pay, period.

But why do they want to "put a floor under home prices" anyway? Because they want the consumer to continue to go to the bank and ask for larger and larger home equity loans so that they can take that money and spend it on cars, furniture, appliances, televisions, landscaping projects, etc. This crazy rise in home prices was encouraged by lenders in order to provide the opportunity for the consumer to borrow more money to keep the economy stimulated.

But then we hit a glut. We had too much housing on our hands, real estate markets were flooded with condos and new single family homes and there wasn't enough demand to keep it propped up, so prices began to fall and BLAMMO! -- the consumer is no longer hustling to the bank to ask for larger and larger loans, which means that our economy, which is fueled by spending, is screeching to a halt.

The underlying problem is not that credit is tight -- the real issue is that we have no alternative engine for growth. Our entire economy relies upon ceaseless consumption, and ceaseless consumption relies upon borrowing. Once the consumer cuts back on spending, as we're seeing here, the whole thing starts to wobble and people begin tearing their hair out on live TV.

I'm not making a judgement against spending and consuming. I enjoy spending and consuming as much as the next person. What I am making a judgement about, however, is the bad financial policies that encouraged an international borrow and spend spree that was impossible to keep propped up.

When you read that this bailout won't prevent things from getting terrible, but WILL prevent things from getting horrible, ask yourself who benefits from the bailout the most? My answer is Washington, D.C. and New York City, precisely the very people who are on television and in newspapers screaming about how necessary this bailout is for our very survival. For their survival? Yes. For our survival? We're already toast.

The bailout will not solve the housing bust, and the housing bust is what got us to where we are now. You can't mandate housing prices, so home prices will continue to fall, unemployment will continue to rise (because the housing boom was responsible for our record low unemployment levels), spending will continue to decrease, businesses will curtail expansion, etc. until we reach a point where demand is once again supportable and the slate has been wiped clean.

The only thing that $700 billion dollars CAN do is temporarily prop up the stock market, granting the financial players enough time to dump their stock portfolios on whatever sucker will eat them before everything completely bites the dirt. It sounds cynical, but it's merely self-preservation in action. Big financial players have the means necessary to force a political solution, and they're using it. I fully understand. But I really don't like the misinformation regarding how Main Street is going to suffer a world of hurt if this bill doesn't pass -- that kind of hyperbole is designed solely to cause consumer panic and get this bailout shoved through Congress.

I mean, really, what kind of rationale is: "Do this or you'll be sorry!" That's the kind of language people use when they have no genuine solutions or answers at their disposal. Nathan B

Dear Congress:
What are you people thinking? I'm retired and after 40 years of working, I am watching my savings dwindle to nothing. You are forcing me back into the workforce to take a job from another younger American that needs it. DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM HERE? I voted for you to protect me and the rest of us hard working honest Americans. Your inaction and nonsolution is intolerable.

You are all probably smarter than me so FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX THIS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. DO SOMETHING NOW WITHOUT GIVING CONSIDERATION TO THE BANKS AND WALL STREET THAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE! HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE. HELP THE PEOPLE, THAT IS WHY YOU WERE ELECTED.

Why don't people like William Raines have to return some of the millions they received?

I've always just stayed put during the past financial crisis and I'm praying this one turns out ok. I'm not knowledgable about economics and can only listen to what is being said. One says the world will implode if we don't do the bailout and the next says to let the market work it's way through this. I'm retired and wonder if I have time to let it take its natural course. It would be my preference to not bail out but if it is indeed going to save us all, then that's the way to go. But who do we believe????

I think it is better to wait and craft a bill that makes sense, protects our money, does not reward those that created this mess, protects homeowners on the verge of foreclosure, invests in building infrastructure and jobs. Just passing a bill to bail out these firms without insisting on adequate oversight and regulation only creates a situation where this will happen again in the future. Today the market re-coup much of its' volume that was lost yesterday so I am not too concerned about the dire predictions of those who would have us pass a flawed bill.

Franks, Dodd, Obama, Pelosi, should all be made to resign along with the rest of the senate. They are all corrupt and I say NO BAILOUT!!!! Get rid of the crooks first and then maybe it wouldn't hurt so bad. Why give money to the ones that took it in the first place. No way should Paulson have that much power!!!

Both congress, the President,the two presidential Candidates, and Mr.paulson failed to come to a proposal acceptable to the public. I hope the congress men and senators work together to come up with a satisfactory resolution soon.

I do not think this is the right time to point our fingers on someone to worsen what it's already very deteriorated, our economy.
I have noticed that our candidates are ignoring the retired people. The people who worked very hard to make this country big.
At this age nobody who has worked hard during forty or more years should suffer for the mistakes other people made. I think that the increase in our monthly payments should at least match the cost of living, which has been at least in the order of 30 percent this year. Just buy gasoline, go to the supermarket, pay the utilities and compare with these same items from last year.
Thanks,

José.

PS.- 300 dollars stimulus payment does not ease the situation.

Absolutely NOT! Not no way, not no how!

The only thing this will do is delay the inevitable. As members of AARP, we're going to have it rough either way. The only difference is that after the $700 billion bank heist, we'll be $700 billion poorer.

Think of it like the young accountant in "The Producers." First we'll be in pain. Then we'll be wet, and in pain.

Good for Congress! Vote NO!!

Visit my blog for more, and links.

In response to Judith Martinez:

This probably was not a very good plan from what I've seen. If congress could be trusted to revise the plan in a short time after submitting Monday's plan and approving it to stabilize the market and protect the small investor (retirees, pre retirees, etc.) that might be O.K.

Regarding the speakers comments, it was a political move to access the blame to Bush and the Republicans. The Democrats are more to blame actually because Republicans tried to warn about the impending crisis years ago but the Democrats said they did not see a problem.

Let's face it, they are must accept responsibility for the mess they created.

This was just on the CNBC news. Under this proposed bill, foreign banks that have branch bank within the USA will be allowed to transfer their bad debts/trash to their USA branches which then will become part of this BAILOUT bill.

Unfreeking believable.

Call your reps to vote NO! NO BAILOUT!

For those of you in Southwestern Missouri

Senator Bond, Christopher S.- (R - MO)
274 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5721
http://www.bond.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm

Senator McCaskill, Claire- (D - MO)
717 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6154
http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/contact/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Congressman Roy Blunt - - - 7th District
2740-B East Sunshine
Springfield, Missouri 65804
(417) 889-1800
(417) 889-4915 Fax

OR at

217 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC, 20515
(202) 225-6536
(202) 225-5604 Fax

85,000,000,000 / 200,000,000 = 425

700 billion dollars would create alot of WPA's and CCC type jobs as it did in the 1930s. I'd rather see us train our young men and women trades and rebuild our national infrastructure then teach another generation that the way to wealth is to be a banker, land developer, real estate tycoon or a stock broker and gain huge bonuses for Ponzi pyramid schemes. Yes, the jobs aren't as glamorous and the salaries won't make them millionaires - but if we had concentrated on our manufacturing jobs and infrastructure rather then gone to China for cheaper labor costs, and Walmart for cheaper goods - maybe we'd still have a strong middle class and a very small welfare class.

Let them fail! I'm so sick of the way things are! Blow it all up and start over!

Quite frankly, I believe everyone needs to settle down, take a good look at their own back yards, ie: the huge gas guzzling suv's, mc mansions, homes bought with no down payment, large credit card debt, and on and on and on. We have become a nation of spenders, not savers, and now the time has come to pay the piper and I do not feel it is my obligation to help bail out the rich, the over spenders, and the others who have created the financial mess we are now in. Some of the loudest whiners have been those exact people who have overspent, overindulged themselves and believe it is the governments responsibility to bail them out. You created your mess, now live with it. It's called downsizing people and we have needed an adjustment for a while now, and for those who did not, could not, see all of this coming down the pike, pretty much deserve whatever mess they are in.
However, I do feel much empathy for those who did live within their means, saved, and planned for a good future. Yes, we are experiencing a downturn, but it is imperative we let the market take care of itself, and let the rebound happen of its own accord.. Currently, there is panic in the streets and many will use scare tactics and unreasonable thinking to create a gloom and scenario, enabling them to get what they want. Namely the current administration and the powers that be who are out to save their own skins and large pocketbooks.

This country was built on sacrifice, especially the sacrifices of the elderly,my parents, and I believe the time has come for our generation to pull together, stand up and be accountable for ourselves, and others, and to quit whining,toughen up and ride out the current storm. Spending 700 BILLION dollars to help out the irresponsible and the Wall Street,Mortgage Loan gang is not the answer. It is merely a "band aid approach" we will pay for ,and then some down the road.

I agree with David P. There are individuals with greater understanding of this economic crisis that recommend this course of action. Removal of the mark-to-market accounting regulation. This can be done on a temporary basis re-installed later, at no cost to the taxpayer!!! I believe this alternative should be brought into the light for the taxpayer.

Call write fax your Senators NOW TONIGHT

Filibuster this sneaky changed bill !

NO NO NO to this BailOUT/StickUP !!!!!!!
What part of NO do they not understand ???

Can you say unscheduled holiday ?????
They will use a bank holiday as an excuse to control derivatives.

YOU BOUGHT IT
YOU BROKE IT
YOU FIX IT

Newt Gingrich for President. He has the brains we are missing in Washington. Send Barney Rubble, his partner Nancy, and their friends packing. I have told my children it is time for a bloodless Coup in Washington and it is their vote that will make a difference. Those knuckleheads in Washington have forgotten WHO they work for. And we knuckleheads in the hinterland have forgotten WHO put them there! In Business we have profit centers and cost centers; Washington is not a profit center but they sure know how to spend OUR money! What if every congressman took a Lee Iacocca salary for one year until we get this 'Chrysler" type company back on it's feet? Next year they can collect on their stock options from the buyout if there is any residual profits.

Dear Congress and Wall Street.....this is a real big mess you have gotten us into with your dishonesty, greed and social engineering experiments. It is costing me my life savings which was mostly invested in my IRA and home. What I would like to know is where can I go to get balanced information and straight answers to my questions? I certainly can't get it from the biased politicians, news services and media sources because they all have an agenda. Not only do we get a distorted spin from out elected officials in Washington but the media only tells us what they want to let us know. Ethical journalism and honest government leadership are dead in America. Throw the bums out and lets start from scratch! We need a third major party which puts the American people ahead of special interests and large political contributors.

Ladies and Gentlemen of The Congress of
the United States of America. Now is not the time for the members of congress to sit on their collective asses while The United States of America slides down the tube because YOU All sit on your asses and contemplate your collective navals. We (the United States of America are counting on all of you to get off your asses and get us
out of this mess that ALL OF YOU have gotten all of us (THE UNITED
STATES of AMERICA) into.Show us that you are more concerned for OUR country than you appear to be.

A concerned ,angry citisen of The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

I am hopping mad about the financial crisis. It's not like nobody saw it coming. I certainly did with WAMU easels in the lobby hawking primary and secondary mortgages. It was all about the fees with no consideration to the viability of the mortgage. The problem is everyone was getting theirs before the music stopped. The problem began with the Democrats changing mortgage underwriting rules mandating lenders to set aside 15% of their mortgages for low income applicants. This social engineering in the name of helping poor people become homeowners was fallacious. You can't make what is, isn't. There is no free lunch, noble intentions not withstanding. In order to make the 15%, lenders were required to lower underwriting standards with liar loans, no down payment loans, low interest ARM loans. Then the party took off. The home builders wanted in and overbuilt, the Federal Reserve Bank artificially low interest rates created demand and banks lent for the fees to make their 15% quota for the unqualified. What made it work was the Congressional mandate to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae requiring them to buy the bad loans from the bank. Wall Street saw how much money was being made with low interest rates inflating housing prices and wanted a piece of the action. So Wall Street securitized the mortgages, both good and bad, and sold them as investments to hedge funds, pension funds and you name it all around the world. The connection to who was responsible as owner of the loan in case of default was broken. Leverage works both ways and it is worse going down. The problem is world governments bought the packaged loans for the same reason that it was government backed by Fannie and Freddie. Those foreign governments expect to be paid so our government can continue borrowing for its out of control irresponsible spending. As long as the Democrats act as the party of largesse with the help of closet Democrats like George Bush and continue to pander with class warfare for those voters who believe in a free lunch then this country is doomed. We need some tough love in our society and it starts with Congress. Throw all of them out and institute two term limits. We may lose a few good ones in the process but it will allow new blood to enter the system and keep the Congress current with people who come from the real world.

Take away the CEO,S golden paraschutes and send them to jail for fraud

The economic problem we all now face is not just the fault of greedy financial executives, lack of oversight by regulatory agencies or scam artists. The root cause of the problem is individual greed and people buying homes well above their income range, using every new credit card they received in the mail (which was weekly)and generally trying to "keep up with or be better than the Jonses". I paid my morgage and bills like most of you. My kids pay there bills and I don't support for one minute absolving people of their "crimes" or their debts. I think the government will have to intervene to bring satisfactory resolution to the situation, but I sincerely hope that the resolution they end up with makes those involved responsible for the debt they incurred and holds them accountable. Not one individual who was instrumental in creating the problem should be allowed to walk away unscathed.

The very FIRST thing congress needs to do is take the Bush Administration OUT of the equation. There are THOUSANDS of economists in this country smarter and less personally involved to get advice from and do this without Bush/Cheney/Paulson et al personal gain interest. In January, that crowd will be gone and this looks too much like another power grab before they go.
Second, they need to start a series of investigations and prosecute, to the full extent of the law, any law breakers in the passel of CEOs who've made millions and even billions and go back at least 8 years into their accounts. Also, they need to let the FBI investigation, already ongoing since MARCH to go on. The 777 points the stock market plummeted yesterday recovered more than 500 points today. Stocks plummeted in anticipation of the bill PASSING and recovered most of the way back because it DIDN'T.
Then, they need to freeze the assets of the CEOs and use THEIR money towards the bailout BEFORE TOUCHING A DIME OF TAX PAYER'S MONEY.
Lastly, those in congress, particularly those in the House, who vote for this bill with no accountability AND those who lied, Reid, Pelosi, Hoyer and others, that the bill contains accountability for CEOs when it CLEARLY DOES NOT unless they do this again in the future, need to be voted out of office next month, November 4. Either they LIED deliberately OR they didn't even bother to read what they were voting FOR, which happens a LOT with congress. This bill also gives the authority to Paulson, even though he goes with Bush in January, to indiscriminately spend this money AND MORE with, again, no accountability as to where and how he spends it or who he gives it TO. NONSENSE! Democrats need to stop caving to Bush lies. They did it on Iraq, they did it on FISA, they refused to hold Bush accountable for EVEN TORTURE AND ILLEGALLY SPYING ON AMERICANS, now, once again they say "Just Trust Us"? I say "NO WAY"!

I saw comments like this, and as stupid as it sounds
"why not" it will certainly stimulat the economy..tell me why it shouldn't be done

Here’s a plan lots of folks could get behind!!!

================================

I’m against the $85 BILLION bailout of AIG. Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a “We Deserve It” dividend. To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. citizens, aged 18+.

Our population is about 301 million counting every man, woman and child. So, 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. Now, divide 200 million, 18+ adults into $85 billon - that equals $425,000.00 each! Yes, my plan is to give that $425,000 to every adult as a “We Deserve It” dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So, let’s assume a tax rate of 30%. Every recipient would pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25.5 billion right back to Uncle Sam! It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife would have $595,000.00!

The people have spoken and it is clearly evident that the main street of America does not want to foot the bill for this bail out. However, our President and Congress think they can push this problem onto the taxpayer. This is not socialism, it is communism.
When America had to be bailed out in the first depression, it was done by creating jobs to get people to work. This bail out is to buy "bad assets" that fat cat CEO's and execs created. I believe the first thing that should have been done is to freeze all the assets of every troubled high flying business in this country. Then we should confiscate the money from the people who caused this problem and live by it's excessive bonuses.
VOTE NO TO THIS BAIL OUT
CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 HOURS
THE CONGRESS IS GETTING READY TO REINTRODUCE THIS BILL WITH OTHER EARMARKS. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN DEFEAT THIS AGAIN.

There are very distressing aspects to this
so called ecominic plan BAILOUT
It is totally unnecessay, easily acomplished with a FED
guarantee of just the worthless derivatives.
From any accounting point of view they should be
valued Mark to Market making them worthless.
The banking industry wants to change the acounting rules
to Mark to Mark ,, total insanity,, Mark to Market
determines the value of a business, Mark to Mark is how we got here.
Paulson will try or is trying to liguidfy the market
meaning the dollar has no chance and in 6 mo. inflation
will be rampant,, and this will continue for a long long time.
Inflation is their only way out,
I could go on forever, bottom line
the dollar will be devalued, gas at 7 dollars a gallon
and then everything stops.washington sends checks
and we are totally socialist.
And we know that don't work

I agree with William Chengelis (comment above). Why bail out the banks? Divide that money up between all American citizens who are 18 and over. I know the first thing I would do is pay off my bills and get out of debt. That would give the banks money because I would be paying them. It would help the taxpayers as well as flood the economy with money.

First, forget the politics - there is enough blame on both sides of the aisle to sink a ship. Then, dump the mark to market rule, and go with a 3 year rolling average. Raise the FDIC limits so small businesses and individuals have more confidence in leaving their money in banks. Recognize that not all "noble" ideas result in sound practices. In our efforts to ensure that all could have homes, zero down, option ARM mortgages were created. Just what incentive does that provide to keep people trying to make payments? And, let's find a way to cap exit bonuses, and limit rewards to management when corporations fail.

Presient Bush should call for a joint session of Congress to explain to the American people (majority of whom are ignorant about the economic fine-points of this crisis) what's at stake and how his rescue plan will work. I especially would like to hear about the fate of us who ARE already retired drawing income from pension plans that are tied to the market--some of this income is not annuatized and is dependent on the interest rate. Any of the politicians give a darn about us retirees who, for the most part, are unable to go out on the job-market for supplemental income?

WE need honestly and accountability. No bail outs for Wall Street. No more outrageous salaries and big perks for CEO's while workers lose their jobs and the company goes under. Consequences are badly needed for bad behavior. Let's help the real victims - home owners and those people who are looking at reduced pensions and reduced savings & no jobs.
For a president to ask us to support a $700 billion bail out with no regulations, no consequences, etc. is studpidity and an insult to the American people. We are too smart to hand over that money with no safeguards. Esp when this president and McCain were strong supporters of the "no regulations" for Wall Street that created this mess in the first place.

I say let the stock holders and CEOs bail them out and stop with all the sky is falling BS I think the out right bail out is the wrong thing to as it only rewards the people who cause it remember Enron?

No Bail out!!!

Sure the market is in a tail spin but it will recover. If we pay the scums that did this we all loose. The payout 1 trillion will cost us all more than just waiting for the market to come back.

Being retired, I would rather wait out the market. At least in a year or so the market will come back and I won't have the bail out money taken from me.

I am really upset about this "Pay the Criminals" plan.

Peace & Health,
Phh

My 2 cents is everyone that wants to let them all fail and do nothing is just not facing reality. I listened to Obama's economic advisor among others and guys....it's going to cost jobs and homes on main street so doing nothing is NOT an option. I spent my career in management,this is exactly the economic condition where we layed everyday people off. what I want to see is a whole lot more detail to assure me the execs at the failed companies make NOTHING and tons of oversight so the company lawyers don't find loopholes to continue their obscene profits and yup...ya gotta bail out the middle class too. Sorry Bush and company....but you guys made this mess and we're sick of seeing the middle class left to suffer. I want the health care and social security I've paid for my whole life and Washington keeps threatening to take away or in the case of health care...never gave us the care we deserve.

There is no way that we should pay to bail out the banks that have caused the problem by being greedy. They forclose on regular people and raise interest rates. Instead they should have let them stay in there houses at a much lower rate. But they just let the houses sit there and rot making everyone elses house values drop. Then when someone tries to buy one they play hard ball on the prices so you cant buy them that just being greedy and now they want the same average people to bail them out give me a break. hah hah If they want to get the housing market going lower the interest rates enough so people could afford to buy or refinance. They could make up the difference making less interest with the extra volume of the loan business and have people to be able to stay in there houses and afford to make there payments. Thats my take on whats been going on making less is better than nothing at all dont you think. SINCERLY ROBERT BAUCKMAN

The bill voted on yesterday was bad. Congress should act to put a moratorium on foreclosures, no increase in interest rates - freeze them at a low rate, and allow restructuring of the loans. No bailout. Paulson doesn't need to be in the picture.

So let's see the taxpayers are going to reward lenders who made bad loans by buying their bad loans and buyers who made loans they couldn't afford by renegotiating their loans, something the lenders who made the bad loans are not willing to do. What's wrong with this picture? Responsible taxpayers the people who didn't make bad loans or borrow money they couldn't repay will pay for all this. As usual, Congress has it backwards. This may be the biggest rip-off since the Teapot Dome Scandal.

The bail out should include legislation to pursue the officers and directors of these companies for the excess profits and compensation they received while leading these companies to financial ruin. They should be made to repay all such compensation paid over the last eight years since they obviously didn't earn it. At the very least they have breached their fiduciary duties to the companies they worked for or are guilty of gross negligence and mismanagement. Regulations should also be passed to prevent such excess compensation in the future. Additionally, not a penny of the bailout funds should go to the officers and directors of these companies.

Instead of buying bad loans, the Government should buy preferred stock in the troubled companies; this would give the companies additional equity capital to keep the credit markets liquid. The preferred stock would give the government preferred dividends and preference in liquidation over the common stock to protect the taxpayers. The preferred stock should include voting rights to remove or elect officers and directors of the troubled companies and control officer and director compensation. If I know this I know this there are people in government and Congress smarter than me who know this. Why are they continuing the proposed bailout efforts and not acting responsibly to protect the taxpayer from these mismanaged companies and people who have made loans they can’t repay? Come on Congress wake up and do what’s right!

Stocks come back big! Don't subsidize or just give the money to the home owners who can't pay their mortgages. Subsidize them.
Then they can pay back the bank. Greed is what is undermining America. Outsourcing jobs for greedy profit. Change values to respecting the common person's needs, not profit over people.

Sally, I agree with you about making jobs available. The Blue Ridge Parkway was built to provide jobs during hard times. Where are the illegals going to find jobs now? Will they all go back home or will we have to pay their unemployment? Let's fix another problem that costing us,,,,bring back the draft,,,break up the gangs. Let those drug dealers spend time getting a real education in life's values. Those hard working men and women who keep going back to Iraq need a break. We have way too many young people sitting at home doing nothing but getting in trouble. Maybe they will be strong leaders when they return. We sure do need them now. I just don't know who I would want to vote for today. We don't need to hear more promisses, we need to hear truth.

Shame on AARP for jumping on the "crisis", "melt down" bandwagon. There is no way any one should vote for this "bailout" scam.
The world will not melt down..Also AARP look at what the market did today so stop the panic.
The money for government comes from us, why would I not want to give that money to myself. Give every home owner 75,000.00 towards their own mortgage, let people start spending their money on other things and this economy(which is not all that bad)will rebound. It is not perfect but it is not a meltdown.
Sorry Nancy but Obama is not the answer from GOD.

It's hard to know who is the PIED PIPER...the politicians spewing scare tactics to create a "rush to judgment" in such a critical debate, or the media who has painted the crisis as a "wall street bailout". Neither am I convinced as to which is more irresponsible.

I'm not an economist. Neither are likely any of the contributors to this blog. I am the first to admit I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER...WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. And I find it ABSURD to see how many people here are so tunnel visioned as to think that hatcheting the "bailout" is the right thing to do. What I do know is that the debate is centered around a $700Billion economic rescue package. And while it was being rejected, the stock market (including the investments and retirement fund assets of many of the contributors here) dropped over $1Trillion dollars! It seems to me that NOT pressing for a recovery package is ALREADY COSTING MAINSTREET BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. And if Congress fails to come up with something that they can pass, the cost of NOT plugging the dam will shortly be considerably higher than the cost of plugging it!

I strongly urge Congress to put their heads together to create a package that protects the consumer as much as possible ... and then set about to CHANGING THE SYSTEM that permitted such a travesty to happen in the first place! The thought that there were so many legislators who believed that passing the bill was necessary for the stability of our financial institutions...yet voted it down because they wanted to appease a public who understands little to nothing about the proposal or the risk of doing nothing, but who was, after all, in a position to re-elect them to another term or not is an abomination.

I understand the absolute disgust with which you, and the hundreds of thousands that will read this, feel.

I feel it as well; this, to me, is a type of Socialism, and that would normally be unacceptable.

But we have to understand that this bill bails out those institutions from which 90% of the people, including home-owners, small businessmen, those who need the flexibility of credit cards, etc. will get their loans. If we let this ride I do believe, within weeks, everyone, including those just barely hanging on, are going to see a negative impact that most are just not considering.

Pass this legislation but, as Bill T. said, we need to pressure our elected officials to ensure that steps are taken to prevent this so our sons, daughters, and grandkids don't have to be sitting at their computers 30 years from now, addressing the same issues.

I'm talking pressure, ladies and gentlemen; we need to be at the forefront of keeping this movement alive.

I agree with the NO bailout. Use the money to bail out individuals who've lost, or are losing their homes. That would stabilize many homeowners, as well as their mortgage holders. Give some $$$ to tose who've been laid off, and-or terminated in cost cutting measures so they may pay some of their bills (after taxes on the money received). These are, to a degree, immediate returns on investments.

I imagine there are other ways to help jump start the economy via the non-connected citizens who, in many cases, are in financial trouble through no fault of their own.

> > Subject: BIRK FOR SECRETARY OF FINANCE
> >
> > I can imagine this idea working? it sounds just crazy
> > enough to possibly
> > work. That mean it likely will not be given serious
> > consideration. How
> > great is our bureaucracy!!
> >
> > I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
> > Instead, I'm in favor
> > of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It
> > Dividend. To make
> > the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000
> > bonafide U.S. Citizens
> > 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting
> > every man, woman and
> > child. so 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and
> > up. Divide 200
> > million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals
> > $425,000.00. My plan is to
> > give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a ??We Deserve It?
> > ??Dividend?.
> >
> > Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a
> > tax rate of 25% or
> > even 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in
> > taxes. That sends
> > $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam. But it means that
> > every adult 18+
> > has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife will
> > have $595,000.00.
> > What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your
> > family?
> >
> > Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
> >
> > Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads
> >
> > Put away money for college - it'll be there
> >
> > Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
> >
> > Buy a new car - create jobs
> >
> > Invest in the mark et - capital drives growth
> >
> > Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care
> > improves
> >
> > Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else
> > Stop all bankruptcies for at least one year. ?????.
> >
> > Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including
> > the folks who
> > lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
> > that is cutting
> > back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
> > We will even
> > treat real estate salespeople equally. And how about
> > lenders ? Yes each of
> > their employees will receive the same ??. And some people
> > might stop doing
> > what ever bad thing they were forced to do to stay alive.
> > If we're going
> > to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
> > trickling out a puny
> > $1000.00 ('vote buy' ) economic incentive that is
> > being proposed by one of
> > our candidates for President. If we're going to do an
> > $85 billion bailout,
> > let's bail out every adult U S Citizen over the age of
> > 18!
> >
> > As for AIG - liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let
> > American General go
> > back to being American General. Sell off the real estate.
> > Let the private
> > sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
> > Here's the rationale. We
> > deserve it and AIG doesn't. Damn ? that makes sense to
> > me. Sure it's a
> > crazy idea that can 'never work? OR COULD IT WORK ???
> >
> > Hey can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
> > How do you spell Economic Boom?
> >
> > I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the
> > $85 Billion We
> > Deserve It Dividend more than the geniuses at AIG or in
> > Washington DC . And
> > remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion
> > because $25.5
> > Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
> > Ahhh...I feel so much
> > better getting that off my chest.
> >
> > Kindest personal regards,
> >
> > Birk
> > T. J . Birkenmeier,
> > A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic
> >
> > PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's
> > either good for a
> > laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best
> > use $85 Billion!!
> >
> > You know this is the most profound solution I have ever
> > heard ?????..
> > BUT ?.. COULD IT WORK ??
> >

One set of ideas from another site---which seems to make more sense than the Paulsen plan or any of its derivatives:

There are several ways to help homeowners, restore balance to the housing market, and stabilize the financial system. First, give homeowners cash or a one-time tax break, requiring them to use it to make their mortgage payments. Second, have the federal government buy the troubled mortgages directly and write them down, paying for it with a future tax on the financial services firms once the industry rebounds. Third, require banks to renegotiate mortgages on terms that existing homeowners can afford by lowering the interest rate or the loan amount, and by turning "adjustable rate" mortgages into long-term fixed-rate loans. (This is better than the Bush/Paulson approach, which is to urge lenders to do this voluntarily -- a scheme that so far hasn't worked, for obvious reasons.) FDIC chair Sheila Bair took this approach in July when she seizeed IndyMac bank and refinanced subprime loans at affordable rates, rather than foreclose on borrowers.

Helping homeowners directly is a lot cheaper, more direct, and more cost-effective than handing banks $700 billion. It focuses on consumers, not lenders. It stimulates demand, but requires banks to provide home loans that consumers can afford. It doesn't reward banks and investors for their greed and mismanagement, but reduces the toxic mortgages that are now turning Wall Street banks into a house of cards. (Congress could limit help to homeowners with incomes under, say, $200,000.)

Senator Barack Obama and other Congressional Democrats had proposed one tool to do this -- allow bankruptcy judges to reduce an owner's loan amount or interest rate in the same way they now decide how much money most other creditors receive. (Since 1978, bankruptcy laws have prohibited judges from changing the terms of mortgages primary residences.)

The democrats said that they wanted this bailout to pass. But it has become very apparent that the democrats wanted this "bailout" to fail to blame this mess on McCain. 95 democrats voted NO. The democrats put their party 1st and the country 2nd. If we don't bail out this mess, how long would it take for this to work itself out? In the 1980's several hundred banks went under without the taxpayers bailing them out.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/30/18155/2039/370/615926 I agree with the plan outlined on Lou Dobbs. Let's try it out first. Wall street rebounded today and does not need taxpayer money. Let's help the home owners.

Where are they now????

Here is a quick look into 3 former Fannie Mae executives who have brought down Wall Street.
Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregulaties in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, " Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that "mistakes were made" and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company's books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years." Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion.
Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ . The Government noted, "The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner." These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits.
Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, "Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,"
On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004.
Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial am ount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.
Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor
TIM HOWARD? Howard is also a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama
JIM JOHNSON? Johnson hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee

IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS - HIS ADVISORS HAVE THE EXPERTISE - THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. Would you trust the men who tore Wall Street down to build the New Wall Street ?

The fox is in the hen house!!! You want us to bail them out when they are the reason for this $700 billion debacle? After Dodd, Obama is the second largest Fannie Mae and Freddie Macet recipient and you want him governing this country? His adviser is a former Freddie Mac CEO and received millions and millions of dollars for only 6 years as CEO. If he wins, you get what you deserve but what about those of us who have enough sense not to put him in office? Most Americans are so apathetic that politicians have been in bed with Wall Street and we did NOT do anything to stop them. Now you want us to leap in and save their fannies? We could put this bail out money towards encouraging small business ownership, entrepreneurs and a strong health care system. Wake up, people!

I feel that what the Bush administration was attempting to BAIL his high flauten buddies!!!!!!!!!!! Peope with money that have been riping off the tax payers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When Enron went down...... there were investigations & people were prosecuted! That should happen, NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

And also, Bush should be prosecuted?????????????

We are paying millions, if NOT more for the war in Iraq,....... that country had a 79 billion surplus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why are WE paying for it???????????????????

USA needs to STOP being so generous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We don't even take care of our own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Children are hungry HERE !

Jobs are lost! And difficult to get assistance, unless YOU are an immigrant!!!!!!!!!! That sucks! I was born here....... haven't worked in a couple years. I'm over 50....... yet employers prefer to hire kids or illegals!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The politicians decided to stick it to the middle class again. The Golden Parachutes have been the ruination of WallStreet. I certainly don't want my tax dollars supporting someone that has used the system for thir own finacial gain. No BailOut

Joyce Greer
REPLY TO M STANLEY
I LOVE your suggestions. It really makes sense to me. BUT....there is so much greed in this country=====that inflation would kill us.
The Bible says that we will always have the poor with us. And I might add=====we will always have the greedy.
Just imagine, all that money out there. All of these wonderful American Patriot's doing their share to save this country. Just imagine what would happen. $100 for a loaf of bread. $100 for a gallon of gas. Got the picture. I LOVE your ideas, but I don't hold much for the honestly and trust in our "fellow Americans".
Back to square one!!!!!!

you are absolutely right it is time or even past time to do something about the economic we find ourselves in.
I am not convinced a bailout is the thing to do. Why should we the taxpayers bailout companies that took a risk and failed? Let them face the consequences of their greedy actions. These companies and their CEO's should be facing stiff fines and the dismanteling of their goliath companies and the laws that were enacted to prevent monopolies need to be re-enstated and enforced. Our elected officials need to put the welfare of the nation ahead of special interest and their own re-election needs!

I don't believe anybody has a sure answer to this financial crisis. What I do think is that it's better to risk doing something than nothing. So I guess, for once, I stand with the administration.

There's too much to lose for the satisfaction of stiffing Wall Street (financial markets in general) for their crimes and irresponsible actions.

Let's not risk another Great Depression . . . if there's anything we can do to lower the risks.

The Dow may have dropped 778 points but the following day it took back more than half. Doesn't that mean anything?

Well, surprise, surprise! A national economic crisis! And no one saw this coming? It would be good, once more, to look at who's been in the presidential chair since 2000: the commander-in-chief, the "decider," the "compassionate conservative," and his cronies, appointees, and so-called advisors. The Empire Builder and his regime have bartered, outsourced, spent, fought, and deregulated this country into near bankruptcy. Our national consumerism orgy is finally on the brink of collapse, and now the administration who got us into this are yelling for the American taxpayer to bail out the greedy buyers and corrupt lenders, speculators, banks, and corporate CEO's. All of us will pay the bill (literally) which is now "overdue." No one seems to have any good answers about the "bailout," and the Congress and Senate have succumbed to a posture of helplessness and powerlessness. If you think I'm angry, believe it. Be very careful for whom you vote in the coming election. Our future, and the future of our children, and generations to come are at stake.

The bailout deserved to fail. I am extremely frustrated, because this matter has become so partisan and Republicans are getting blamed by so many in the media.

Here is the cause of the current problem, all Democrats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o

ACCOUNTABILITY
I remember the S&L bailout, and how the bad debt was isolated and bankers and individuals were prosecuted for fraud, etc. Please hold the people referenced in the youtube.com video accountable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Raines .

Our respresentatives in Congress must remember one thing....they represent the American Taxpayer!!! We need help in staying in our homes!! Since homebuilding is about all that is remaining of our once strong manufacturing sector, our represntatives MUST make us part of any expenditure of taxpayer dollars.Afterall, we'll be the ones paying and our grandchildren and their children!!!

Jason White

We have no assurance this bail out will work. All we hear are the pious wishes of those who will benefit most by it. To me, it seems more like "throwing good money after bad."

To finance this rescue, the government will need enourmous sums it does not have. It can raise this money only by 1) greatly increasing taxes, 2) borrowing it at high interest rates, since we are already in hock up to our eyeballs to China and other unfriendly lands or 3) starting the printing press in a reenactment of Weimar Germany.

I am not convinced that the payout of $700 billion is needed. We need to let the market work out its problems using the tools already available to them. All the bailout will do is give the people who created this mess a way to get off the hook without suffering any loss. I think a plan to help those individuals who are having difficulty because of bad judgement on their part encouraged by bad advise from a lender should be helped but nothing more. The drop yesterday was fueled by a kick in of computer selling and the recovery today was because of the large drop yesterday. I suspect people sold in bad segments of the market yesterday and put it back into more sound investment options today. The runup was also a lot of computer buying. We need to let the price bubble collapse on housing and with the market suffering it will also bring down the price of oil. In the long run I do not beliee we will have a depression but just a recession that was brought on by greed and the greedy need to be punished. If they are not I will be voting not only NO to those who voted for the bill but HELL NO as was expressed yesterday by one congressman about voting for the bill. It is beginning to look like it is time to have a Boston Politician Party and start dumpong everyone who comes up for election. Having some of the most corrupt members of the party stand up and tell us that we need this bill does not offer much confidence. For those who believe that credit is stalled, it is not stalled for companies with good strong credit histories. I still see signs on the local banks encouraging people to stop for mortgage help in buying a home. The Sky is Falling Attitude is getting to be old hat. The emporor is not wearing any clothes in spite of his effort to tell you how nice his clothes look. No to the Bailout.

I'm not sure what we should do, but I do know our Country and those of us not in McCains' tax bracket are in deep trouble and the people we have chosen to lead us should work together long enough to figure out a way to save us and not allow people who make millions of dollars a year running these companies to continue to make more money than most of us will ever see. The people I know are lucky to make ten dollars an hour. Maybe these people should learn to eat, live, and find health care with the same amount of money we have.

dreams? lost dreams? i am hoping to stay alive as a retired person with almost nothing to go on - maybe that's a dream!

'Nearly one-third of home owners who bought in the last five years owe more money than their home is worth.' (quote from the AARP letter that sent me here) - how many home owners are in the house in question (how many of those were bought for speculation purposes)? just a question . . . (is that quote about owner-occupied houses? or all houses?)

i think the solution is to make 30-yr mortgages into 40-yr mortgages, or whatever is required to make it possible for those who have been paying their mortgages faithfully to be able to continue to do so (at the level at which they've been paying) until they fulfill the obligation - i understand the time value of money and see the necessity of extending the mortgage long enough to allow for that

i am disgusted that the lenders have not been making any kind of arrangements with borrowers . . . and i also understand that the reason, in general, is that the lenders are nowhere to be found - the local people who deal with us poor schmucks are not the lenders - they are just little cogs (getting big commissions) in a big system that involves cutting up mortgages into various sizes and shapes and repackaging them to be sold to people in Norway and China and who knows where else?

i am disgusted that we tried to sell the American home-ownership dream to people who didn't qualify - you have to work yourself into a dream . . . always have . . . always will . . . (unless you come into a huge windfall, which i guess happens, but not to most of us) - i am reading distressing newspaper stories here in Silicon Valli about people who were actually lured into a deal to give someone a commission - and the person who got the commission actually was giving the people a check each month so they could pay the mortgage until they 'could refi' - the refi was not a real possibility . . . these people were strawberry pickers, two families in one house . . . now without a place to go! - i have no idea how to solve problems like that! there is no solution

stories like that are extremely sad and i have to believe there is a special place in Hell for the people who lured others into deals that were not deals

i saw the dot-com bomb here where i live - and then i saw, with ever-widening eyes, the spectacle of people jumping into houses if they had any money left, as the next golden egg scam . . . i was amazed - i didn't understand that a scam was behind the 'investment' - now i understand, alas

b

Vote NO for this 700 Billion Dollar Bailout.
The people in Washington, DC and the greedy banking institutes created this mess making loans to people with no money down, no qualified monies the way it was done in the past. Now they want the taxpayers to rescue them form the mess they created. NO WAY. I would rather loose some money now and write it off than burden our sons and daughters down the road. Let them sink and just wait for things to level off.

I know that everyone is unhappy about the idea of "bailing out" Wall Street, but the consequence of not acting could be even worse. Like it or not, we are all impacted by what happens to the market.

Also, for the person who blamed Obama for the bailout, McCain is in favor of the bailout as well.

Let's get the fact right!

Instead of giving wall street control of 750b why don't we do everything else promote liquidity. The first thought is to give money. Why not change the accounting rules, etc, first and see what happens.

As much as i hate to say it, if you got in over your head by borrowing money you should not have then why should the rest of us pay the price.

I am against this bill.

I am astonished that there are so MANY AARP members so stupid about economics as it works today. They will be caught up short when their kids do not get a pay check at the end of the week and the place of business they work at or own can not get a loan to buy products or pay their employees. What a joke this country is. Maybe somebody should do a cartoon to explain the fix we are in and why it must be tackled NOW!!!! You people think the $$ you put into the bank is put in a separate drawer with your name on it - well that is not the case. Your money is there to make money and it is used to oil the wheels of business. SHAME on all of you for your short-sighted selfish mentality. This is NOT a bail-out for Wall Street it is a RESCUE of Main Street. Maybe y'all should fill up you spare retirement time with some courses to get y'all up to 21st century speed.

My suggestions:

Change the NAME from "Bailout Bill" to something more representative in that "bailouts", per se, may not be needed or at least only be partially needed. A $700B Bill does NOT mean taxpayers are liable for that amount.

Those backing the bill need to EDUCATE folks with simple talk about how Wall Street and Main Street are locked together in this issue. It is NOT an us and them issue rather it is a complex issue that ordinary folks cannot get their arms around without simple explanations.

No Bailout!!!! I am from upstate New York. I went to Kirsten Gillibrand's website to see what she had to say to why she did not vote for the bailout. She said it better then I ever could have. I agree with her completely. There are other ways to take care of the future of our country then to tax the taxpayers. We all need to take a deep breath and start over.

Deregulation of the financial markets gave some folks a decade or so of prosperity until it got taken too far. The cost will be felt for a long time - most painfully by the people who never got a lot of the benefits.

I agree with the folks who are against rushing into a suculant 700 billion dollar dose of Wall Street Welfare. I don't agree with the government giving help to corporations although I am sure it will happen. ANY help that comes from taxpayer dollars needs to have PLENTY of strings attached and oversight like they haven't seen in decades.

A bailout will help in the short term, but to determine the bottom line for a long term solution, we must look at what caused this financial crisis. Credit is the result of insuffcient cash to sustain a middle class standard of living for ones self and there family. After 28 years of privatization, the middle class cost of living is beyond many families income. I can remember when $30,000 a year was upper middle income, and today it is border line between low income and poverty. Run these figures through your calculator and see if you can determine the cause of the financial crisis and what should be done.
Middle class standard of living for a family of 4 = $130,000 year
Medium household income in the US = $ 45,000 year
Annual household debt = $ 85,000 year
Fed Solution = More Credit.
Aren't we fortuneate to be Americans?

All the wrong people (politicians) are attempting to solve the problem they created. I believe our leading economists should solve this economic mess.

A little history on Deregulation

Once upon a time, a politician took campaign contributions and favors from a friendly constituent who happened to run a savings and loan association. The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off.

That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan. While he was courting McCain and other senators and urging them to oppose tougher regulation of S&Ls, Keating was also investing his depositors' federally insured savings in risky ventures. When those lost money, Keating tried to hide the losses from regulators by inducing his customers to switch from insured accounts to uninsured (and worthless) bonds issued by Lincoln's near-bankrupt parent company. In 1989, it went belly up -- and more than 20,000 Lincoln customers saw their savings vanish. ...

But the savings and loan crisis mushroomed. Eventually, the government spent about $125 billion in taxpayer dollars to bail out hundreds of failed S&Ls that, like Keating's, fell victim to a combination of private-sector greed and the "poor judgment" of politicians like McCain.

The $125 billion seems like small change compared to the $700-billion price tag for the Bush administration's proposed Wall Street bailout. But the root causes of both crises are the same: a lethal mix of deregulation and greed.

I will never be able to talk / say it loud enough to be heard in the whole United state.

Brothers, Sisters. You have not seen any thing yet.

The American People do not believe in God any more.
Read GENESIS 18:22-33 ANS 19:1-30
Is it not what is going on now same sex marriage.
And, and prostitution? Thos people were to be stoned.
The millions of unborn murders.

It is all approveded / suported the the United States Government.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

IT IS FORBIDDEN TO PROCLAIM "GOD BLESS AMERICA"

WE EXPECT GOD'S BLESSING ?

Common since(if it hadnt already been breed out of us) would say that instead of bailing out a few of the worlds wealthest with 700+billion dollars divide it with every legal adult citizen in The US.place a 25 yo 30% income tax on it and where you think all this money would go,housing,medical autos commodes bank accounts,investments,credit repair for all those who have lost everything already education system,and yes stocks but for the first time in human history can you imigan how many people for the first time would be able to buy stock in America and yes the vary banks and investment groups would end up with it except they would have to earn it instead of having it dumped in their laps and talk about enstuting compution.Just use the common since that god gave you and do the math.

These greedy Republican money hungry people won't let it pass unless the captial gains tax is rescended and the business tax is reduced to 25%. Neither one of which will benifit me or anyone I know

To all democrats and republicans supporting the bailout: Support the bailout of working woman and man with an education for our children, health care for all Americans and keep the jobs in USA. Tax heavily all corporations taking jobs outside of USA. It’s time for all American working people to raise our voice. Well Read my leaps NO BAILOUT PLAN for the corporations. And I’ll vote this time.

Costas

Where do all the idiots come from? Everyone who is against the rescue plan now before congress are most likely the less educated and ignorant of our group. They are the ones who are going to suffer the most when we go into a depression, have 20% unemployment, no credit available and their houses are worthless. They should ask themselves what they are going to do when their credit card companies cut off their credit and still demand that they pay their outstanding balances. I guess they will start to understand when they all have to start filing for bankruptcy.

This is exactly what the house wants. They want us to go down. We'll be open our eyes one morning, and the depression will be facing us. Everyone can see it coming. The Congress needs new people in there. GET RID OF NANCY POLOSI once and for all. Everything has been going down ever since shes been in there. THANKS FOR NOTHING CONGRESS. I'm sure you are all thanking us for making you all rich. Obama can say what he wants, promise what he wants, but he'll NEVER get my vote!!!!

In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N.
Gregory Mankiw warned that the government's 'implicit subsidy' of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.
Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no 'concern about
housing. How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The NewYork Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were 'under heavy assault by the Republicans,' but these entities still had 'important political allies' in the Democrats.

Now its time to pay for it.

The much-maligned bailout will probably become enacted. Members of a by and large gutless Congress suggest they'll hold their noses but vote for it anyway. Their reasoning? Something must be done.
The premise is that doing nothing will hasten recession. And recession is unacceptable.

But that kind of thinking is a big reason we're now on the verge of a financial meltdown. By taking a zero-tolerance policy toward recession, Washington has dangerously juiced the economy with monetary steroids for more than a decade.

The painful truth is that recession may be precisely what's needed to restore economic health. Yet the bailout attempts to avoid this crucial reckoning – which may make things worse.

It may seem odd that avoiding slowdowns could have side effects. Recessions, after all, cause real damage: job losses, higher levels of business failures, and falling tax receipts.
However, just as seemingly healthy measures, such as taking vitamins, can cause damage if done to excess, so did the Greenspan-era Federal Reserve take recession avoidance too far. It helped feed the excessive borrowing that is the root of our current crisis.

In the wake of the dot-com crash, the Fed went way beyond past fixes and lowered the funds rate to 1.25 percent for nearly eight months, then an extraordinary 1 percent for a full year.

At such low levels, consumers who save lose; they are better off spending or borrowing. And they did both. Private debt as a ratio to Gross Domestic Product skyrocketed some 50 percent in five years. Similarly, the savings rate plummeted to zero.

But the Fed was overly permissive even earlier. By 2001, the "Greenspan put," the idea that the Fed would be quick to cut rates to prevent a stock market decline, was part of the vernacular and investor conditioning.

This was a radical departure, since the Fed had never seen the stock market as part of its job description.

In the 1990s, the central bank recognized the benign effect of cheap imports on inflation but failed to adjust interest rates accordingly, leaving them too low. In fact, the increase in the private debt to GDP ratio steepened starting in 1996, and the savings rate has been falling since 1992. Greenspan was famously obsessed with data, so his ignorance of the implications of these trends is incomprehensible. It is tantamount to keeping an athlete on steroids even when he is showing clear signs of distress.

To be sure, this easy money policy isn't the only culprit in today's crisis. Lax regulation failed to keep tabs on Wall Street's excessive risk-taking and byzantine financial products.

But even as they work fervently to beef up regulations, policymakers today are repeating the Greenspan error of trying to avoid recession no matter what. The ugly fact is that there is no painless way out of our financial mess.

John McCain and Barack Obama weren't willing to admit this in Friday night's debate.

Mervyn King, the head of the Bank of England, has been more forthright, telling the British that their standard of living will fall. No US policymaker has been so candid. And Washington appears determined to minimize the immediate damage of Wall Street settling its debt, no matter the long-term cost.

The bailout bill is a classic example of expediency over effectiveness. It will purchase dud assets at above-market prices. It does serve to recapitalize banks, but it rewards the worst offenders and does nothing to restore trust. Even though Japan is the poster child of how not to manage a banking system crisis, this is a page straight out of its playbook.

By contrast, the most successful approach is to let asset prices fall to discover the extent of the damage, take over failed banks, recapitalize them, and later sell them back to investors. That's according to a new International Monetary Fund report that examined 124 banking crises in the past 27 years.

This approach is harder on the economy in the short term, usually leading to a two- to-three-year deep recession, but with a strong growth rebound after that. Too bad the US doesn't do recessions; the idea of a painful purge is deemed to be beyond the pale. And getting religion later doesn't work: the Japanese later recanted, forced banks to write down bad loans, and injected public funds, but today, 18 years after the country's asset bubble started popping, they remain stuck in a deflationary trap.

American attachment to instant gratification is strong. So is the pressure to pass the bailout. But left unchecked by self-restraint and honest reckoning, both forces may lead America to repeat, on a grander scale, the same sort of error that got us in this financial mess in the first place.

First of all there needs to be a few things done. The first being changing the "mark the market" accounting practice needs to be suspended. Without that the "poison" debts will be overstated by Poulson's assessment. Secondly there needs to be a move by the Feds to make "loans" to the affected credit markets to bolster the lower credit depots and help everyday businesses secure their necessary loans. Finally any monies agreed upon by this bailout bill be totally for debt bailout and no earmarks allowed for any other entities other than the administration of overseeing body for the dispersion of bailout funds.

No earmarks!I realize the democrats want to fun their own subsidies like ACORN, a politically charged and in many cases purvayors of illegal voter registration among other felony convictions. To gain non-partisan approval this is imperative.

What I'm offering here is a work-up rather than a bailout. It's not my own program but a combination of a few ideas I've read and heard. In this program the Fed makes loans of the magnatude of the billions called for by the bailout however the government doesn't take possession of the debts but only administers the repayment by the affected companies.

Just be glad that the president didn't get his way on privatizing social security or we'd all be in trouble now. I say no bailout using taxpayer money, this is just another sham to transfer wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich. If you're smart you'll get your money out of the market and watch from a distance as the crooks on Wall Street get what they deserve.

I cannot listen/watch the news anymore. I am just sick of hearing the parties squabble like little children. They never miss a chance to dig the other at the expense of the US citizens. It's always a "witch-hunt" rather than "how can we fix it." I have no respect for any of them anymore. I have lost so much of the tiny portfolio I had. Should the market improve even a little in the very near future, I am cashing out and putting it all in my bank. At least I'll earn a little instead of losing a lot.

The truth is the citizens of the United States are being conned by Barny Frank and Paulson.

Barny Frank has received millions of dollars from Wall Street and the investment bankers. Paulson made 70 trips in seven years to mainland China peddling derivatives to the Chinese Central Bank when he was the head of Goldman Sachs. This financial bailout is not about America in any way shape or form. It isd about foreigm banks and Soveign Funds

The Administration and Congress have felt compelled to do something about the "financial meltdown," so an inefficient and inequitable "bailout plan" has been rushed through the legislature despite harsh criticism from the right and left. That's unfortunate. Both presidential candidates were stalling by qualifying the plan. Whichever candidate had had the courage to reject outright this proposal would have had the better claim to be President.

Do not be fooled. The $700 billion (ultimately $1 trillion or more) bailout is not predominantly for mortgages and homeowners. Instead, the bailout is for mortgage-backed securities. In fact, some versions of these instruments are imaginary derivatives. These claims overlap on the same types of mortgages. Many financial institutions wrote claims over the same mortgages, and these are the majority of claims that have "gone bad."

At this point, such claims have no bearing on the mortgage or housing crisis; they have bearing only on the holders of these securities themselves. These are ridiculously risky claims with little value for society. It is as if many financial institutions sold "earthquake insurance" on the same house: when the quake hits, all these claims become close to worthless — but the claims are simply bets disconnected from reality.

Follow the money. Average Joes and Janes are not the holders of the other side of complicated, over-the-counter derivatives contracts. Rather, hedge funds are the main holders. The bailout will involve a transfer of wealth — from the American people to financial institutions engaging in reckless speculation — that will be the greatest in history.

Rescuing financial institutions is not the best solution. Yes, banks are needed to provide capital to businesses. But it is not necessary to spend $1 trillion to maintain liquidity. If the government is to intervene, it should pick and choose which claims to purchase; claims that are directly tied to mortgages would be a good start.

Let financial institutions fail, merge or be bought out. The faltering institutions will see their shares devalued and will be likely to be taken over by stronger institutions — as has already started happening. This consolidation of the financial sector is both efficient and inevitable; government action can only delay the adjustment.

The government should not intervene. It should leave overleveraged financial institutions to default on their derivatives obligations and, if necessary, file for bankruptcy. Much of the crisis has arisen from miscalculating the risks involved in a large book of positions in these derivatives. It is only logical that these institutions pay for their poor management.

Rather than bailing out Wall Street, we propose that the government should buy up the actual mortgages in question and do nothing else. The government should not touch any derivatives; that is, claims that do not directly tie into the actual mortgages. If money becomes too tight, then the Fed can certainly increase its loans to financial institutions.

Let the poorly managed, overly risk-taking financial institutions fail! Always remember that Wall Street and the real economy are not the same thing.

Stand up and say no way and demand an FBI investigation of Paulson and a congressional ethics investigation of Barney Frank. The facts in both cases to be made available to the entire population of the US. Then we can take up any remaining financial issues in America but not before

Ralph Dreifus
BS Acc MBA CPA

When all the ARM’s started rise in payments to the point that a large number of home owners were defaulting, I would have thought that those in the large institutions (including Freddie and Fannie) could have seen what was happening (because of the creative financing) and should have offered all these homeowners a low fixed rate in order for many to stay in their homes and prevent the houses going back to the mortgage companies and causing prices to fall so much. I believe this would have decreased the burden on the financial institutions as they would have income from many of these properties. This would allow the financial institutions to buy time in order to straighten out the mess they created. I also believe that all bonuses should be denied to the top management of the corporations involved (the ones making finicially unsound loans, that is probably just about everyone).

I hopefully have not lost $$$$$ in what little $$$$$ I could manage to save. I really feel we need to go with the Economists. I have felt so sad that a lot of people have lost their pensions, life savings, jobs, homes that I have been physically ill the last two weeks. Not to mention these latter years of my life are not going to be the time for travel as physically I am disabled from working as an RN for 35 years. The Economists whom include the finest in the country and three Nobel Prize Winners amongst them seem to advise that we should not bail out Wall Street and Big Business......things are still going to get worse......we have lived in a "false" sense of monetary security for a long time. Truth has been hidden from us from a lot of places. Yes, hard times are here and they have been here for 8 or more years with no regulation in Washington and the bubble has still not burst!!! I feel in listening to the economists we will get through this time faster. I am not a businesswoman, I have had little time to even learn about the stock market, tho I know what little I have saved is still there. I am just a Mom, a Grandmother, a retired RN. I PRAY AND CRY EVERY DAY FOR AMERICA AND IT'S PEOPLE WHEN I MEDITATE. I retired as an RN who worked in a small community hospital over a little over a year and a half ago. I have seen on the front lines of our health what the greed on Wall Street and Big Business has brought to our health care system. Check out what the economists have to say. I learned of this in watching the debate in the House which I stayed up through the night to watch as there is an 8 hour time difference between Hawaii and the East Coast. Aloha! Namaste!

As angry as it makes me to shoulder the burden of the mess that shady lenders and STUPID borrowers have created, I am an American first, and an individual second, and I must back the solutions that will be best for our country and its economy long-term.

Make no mistake, I am in no way sympathetic to anyone that signed up for an adjustable loan, an interest-only loan, or any other STUPID loan. People borrowing money to buy a house should be buying a house to LIVE IN, not to PROFIT from it. If you plan to live in a home, you can easily make it through a period where your home is worth less than you paid, but if you are DUMB enough to sign up for a loan that will get more expensive the longer you have it, and do not have a guarantee that your income will keep pace, YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
Borrowers should not speculate. Only those with capital they can afford to lose should consider sepculating in anything, be it stocks, games of chance, or houses.
No sane person would take their rent money and go to Las Vegas in order to double it before they have to pay rent, so how is it different to sign on the line for a home loan that will cost more than you can afford?

We must all now bear the burden these IDIOTS have saddled us with, in order to calm the credit markets, replenish the cash reserves of banks, and make it possible for individuals and business owners who manage credit responsibly to keep America working and surviving.
The FOOLS who can't make their home mortgage payments because they have signed up for more than they could afford DESERVE TO LOSE their homes and live on the streets.

I would prefer to see the bailout limited to certain institutions which had purchased the securitized mortgage products, not bail out the brokerage firms and financial institutions that created them. the problem is not new. It started with Paul Volker refusing to submit to the then Clinton administrations efforts to put everyone in a home. Greenspan agreed and ordered the banks to reduce their reserves and lend expeditiously on orders from President Clinto who signed the order. That gave the banks and lenders freedom to offer home loans to anyone with a pulse....almost anyway. But the borrowers requirements were relaxed and then came the ARMs where borrowers could state their own income and get into a home with little or no money down at sharply lower interest rates than the prevailing rates. And here we are in a mess and I have no pity for the lenders or appraisers, just for the poor homeowners who will lose their homes. The only way to treat is very simple, those without jobs will lose their homes. Those with jobs seduced into these 1.5% loans and have been paying them religiously should have a moratorium declared on any rate adjustment for at least three years. The only hope for the unemployed at all, is to expand the unemployment benefits. But let the guilty insitutions drown in their own paper.

Our do-nothing Congress should get off their duffs and do
something. If this bill is not good for the American people
then come up with something that is. This sitting around
and pointing fingers at one another is another example of
the ineffective leadership that we have now. While all this
political one-upmanship is going on, Americans are suffering.
This is not just bailing out Wall Street; this is helping the
American people. DO SOMETHING; quit pointing fingers and name calling. Congress is a joke, and it's not funny.
Americans are fed-up.

Bailout?? For who?? the big shots that don't need the money in the bank. What happens to those of us that don't have that kind of money and we were counting on our TSP's and savings account. Just make sure all of those senior executives don't have a dime left in their retirement accounts. There should be some kind of law that those people need to be penltlized for losing money for their companies, not getting a commision for doing nothing. You can bet that when we screw up we get punished not promoted or given a hand out!

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes (everyone lives in glass houses here) have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:

Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while
working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to
stand up, speak out, and fix this mess for all Americans.

NO MORE BLANK CHECKS. PERIOD.

Remember Medicare Part D? AARP rammed that one down America's throat, doughnut hole and all. Now AARP is stumping for Hank Paulson's "gimme all your money, or I blow up the banks" bailout.

Yes, we probably need some type of action--but a bad plan, like the one that was rightly rejected on Monday, will be worse than no plan. What the House failed to pass this week was a giant giveaway to the robber barons who created the crisis, with largely voluntary oversight (another huge part of what created the problem!), no CEO salary caps, only limited (and, again, voluntary) caps on "golden parachutes," and sweeping authority for the Treasury Secretary--former chairman of Goldman Sachs. Paulson even admitted that he pretty much made up the $700 billion (that's $700,000,000,000.00) figure--who knows if that's how much is needed or not?

What we need is a new "New Deal," one that will bail out some, but not all, of the troubled financial institutions AND put very strict regulations back in place. That was what was done under FDR during the Great Depression, and it worked--until the Reagan era, when the neocons started dismantling the necessary regulations. We need a plan that will rein in the robber barons and also provide relief for mortgage holders in danger of losing their homes. What we DON'T need is to sit back and let the banks rob the people.

No more blank checks. No more free lunches for Wall Street. America can't afford it.

Some thoughts:

A rush to do something, rather than a thoughtful discussion and consideration, usually leads to a bad decision...... and a very bad result!

There should be thoughtful consideration of other economic actions rather than the bailout that was defeated in the House yesterday. The gov's should have only limited involvement in this process to help the credit markets. Explore those options that appear to be suggested by Republicans rather than Democrats.

Obviously both parties are not pleased with the plan since 95 Dems and 135 Rep. rejected the plan as structured.

Lost a trillion $ yesterday on paper and today we gained back 600 million. What does this mean.... perhaps we should be thoughtful and figure things out before we jump to conclusions. If it takes a week + to put a good bill together - take it !

Finally, my favorite movie character George Bailey in 'Its a Wonderful Life' calmed everyone who was in a panic by talking common sense, patience, and providing a solution that involved a limited response by people. Perhaps we should be more like George.

Two words. NO BAILOUT!

The House did the right thing!! The stock market dropped 778 yesterday but rebounded today – up 485 point almost everything it lost yesterday (Typical stock market ups and downs). Why should the public bail out the market, we should be fixing the problem at the source, fixing the regulatory systems. What is needed now is a full investigation, informing the public who, what and how the problem started and what is going to be done to fix it and not throw 700billion at it and hope it goes away. Then and only then, should we be talking about funding a “recovery” plan.

The first thing that must be addressed, before any talk of a fix, is what happened. What caused the dislocation in the first place. Economists of all schools are unanimous in their opinion that the incredible amount of cash and credit pumped into the economy by the government to stop the LAST crisis is what led directly to this one. The question then becomes, will doing it again make things better?

The answer is obviously no. It can only temporarily stop the fall but will bring on a worse one down the road. You can only run through this cycle so many times before the failure is so huge that you plunge into a depression of staggering proportions. The answer is to break the cycle now while it is still possible to get away with just a stiff recession. It will certainly be painful but no where near as bad as the next, and much worse, inevitable crisis.

The ultimate fix is to once and for all end the economic policies that lead to such dislocations. Right now, every dollar you deposit in your checking account is being loaned out to several other people. All of you are trying to spend the same dollar. When the unavoidable crunch occurs the government just injects more money via the Federal Reserve. End these policies and you end the cycle.

Remember, the government has NO money. Only those funds that they have gathered from its citizens and others via tax, borrowing or plain printing. In the end, government handouts only come from you and your neighbors.

Barry: We agree that many homeowners owe a terribly burdensome debt which they lack the resources to retire. We agree that the government needs to step into the gap in many area to a greater degree than it has till now, home mortgages being only one. But your tone and some of your phrasing "...now is not the time to finger-point..." "...election year considerations..." has a recognizable (terror and the sky is falling) ring first sounded by some of the people who's political and economic philosophies got us into this mess to begin with by their unfettered belief in the self-correcting nature of capitalism's excesses. Unfortunately, the nature of human rapacious desire is unfettered excess leading to disaster not self-correction. No one has been able to justify the figure of $700 Billion in 'relief' as being enough, too much or even accurate.Right now it's just another 'best guess.' The figure that has been mentioned in the U.S. for outstanding mortgages currently in danger of or actually in default is nearer to $270 Billion ... a huge figure but not as large as that requested to 'cover the crisis.' Is the 'extra' to be used to reline the pockets of those poised to rework, redefine and re-manipulate this situation? Let's give cooler minds that chance to reexamine what is at stake here, and establish carefully crafted oversite and accurate controls to prevent the fearful economic trough from becoming a feeding trough for the still greedy and selfish interests always attracted to large sums of available cash. Care, consideration and moderation is demanded, not a headlong rush to the brink. Edwin Gardiner MD

It appears many comments are for "sticking it" to the bankers and Wall Street. Have you all forgotten who is "Wall Street" ?

It is our 401k, or IRA's, our Bank CD's, Pension Funds etc throughout the US. It is not a group of people in $2000 suits raking in all the money. It is you and I. So who do you think will suffer in the long run? It will be you and I.

Wall Street and the Banks are not the ones to "Stick it to". You may as well take out a gun and shoot yourself in the foot. The ones that caused this mess were the financial CEO's, the leaders of all these financial institutions. They are the ones, who through GREED, got us into this mess, and they are the ones we should "Stick it to". Let us pass regulations to prevent this from ever happening again, but let us not get even by helping to destroy our own investments, our savings and our countries economy.

I, like most of you, find it very hard to have the government get involved, but unless they do, we have a very grim picture ahead of us. I dont think anyone would relish another Great Depression, but if we allow our government and ourselves to remain inactive, we can and most likely will, be victims of another depression.

Well NO Action is an Action!!!!!...It Speaks volumes. Our Country is finally taking a stand. I am so Proud. We need to let the old system of corruption collapse. This is an exciting time of reformation. Finally we have the wake up call! The people are going to take back their power, on their own timeline not a timeline that's being dictated under a crumbling administration.

I am glad that this plan was defeated, and I have written my (Democratic) Congressman to thank him for his "no" vote. I am not sure what the solution is to the present crisis - I have read so many opinions that my head is swimming - but I am sure that I don't want $700 trillion of our taxpayer money used to buy up Wall Street's bad debt. I surely do not favor a "yes" vote just because Bush and Pelosi say so. Having this "solution" rammed down our collective throats just does not seem like a good idea. I would prefer to see a calm, nonpartisan discussion (if such is possible any more), even if coming up with a solution takes a few weeks or a month.

Let the banks fail they created the problem and will again given the time and chance.Take the houses from the banks only houses nothing else the banks need help with.Even with the houses they need to take only ones that people can pay off not the ones that they hung out to the people that had no down payments ,the banks can keep them,they can also keep the ones they over priced to screw people.If by chance congress does help make sure those that were creating the problem let them go elsewhere to work not ever at a bank again.fisrt remeber why the banks did it. They loaned to the developers, now the developersd need to repay the banks but no one is buying .The banks and loan companies decide to let people who can't afford it buy any way so they can get the money back from the developers.Only the develpoers needed more agin so it went round and round, now they are all caught and want congress to give them our money not the money they have saved.

During the last five years or so I watched several friends buy a house with minimal down payment with terms that were borderline to criminal in my opinion.In spite of my protestations they signed on the dotted line opening them up for the debacle to come.

Without even blinking an eye these three individuals refinanced their homes each time the interst rates lowered,losing any equity they had in their homes.Both bankers and mortgage companies assurred them that their homes were safe and that the rate of rising home values would make them a great value.Those companies actively sought out their refinancing making it sound too good to be true.

Well,my predictions came true,the values dropped so far that they all owe more than what the houses are worth.

Why should anyone bail these bankers,mortgage companies or home buyers out?The writing was on the wall but everybody did a thorough cleaning to avoid discovery.

That small businesses operate on no or very little capital reserves is not the tax payer's responsibility.Capitalistic greed and irresponsibility ruled the day all too long.Now it is time for a financial correction.

The party was a wild one with financial leaders swinging from the chandeliers.Home owners kept up with the neighbors.Their children were denied nothing.Now we all need to pay the piper.Our country has the lowest rate of savings of any industralized country.Our average credit card debt is around $10,000 per family.Let us all wake up and correct our own monetary crisis.

The events over the past week amply demonstrate that the financial fortunes of Wall Street and Main Street are inextricably intertwined. No one wants to reward those who caused this debacle (which include our elected officials), but if we must "bail out" the culprits in order to save our economy, so be it. The legislation should be passed for the benefit of all.

I'd like to see the lawmakers do something about the Credit Card purveyors, who start a person off with a low interest rate, and then at THEIR pleasure and without default or over-limits, increase the interest rate to as much as 30%. Seems to me the people who need credit most are the ones treated worse. I just don't use cards now. Have a gas card which I pay off each month, no balance carry-over.

If they want to help someone, why not re-negotiate the mortgages and let people pay a reasonable monthly payment. I know a number of young people whose monthly mortgage payments are more than my Social Security check, which is my total income!

Too bad we have to bail out the rich sobs who milk the poor suckers who fall for their spiels. So sad.

Thanks for letting me vent.
Lee. (Aurale Huff in Texas)

I don't know enough about the markets to know if the bailout would work as promised or not...but I do know that a $700 billion infusion of capital directly to small business and consumer credit lines and to the country's infrastructure would do two things: accomplish what the pols claim to want, the unclogging of credit to Main Street America; and create something of real lasting value for the American people. But I dream. It's been a long time since the government was motivated to act for the benefit of those it was intended to serve. And yet we keep on voting for them. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

I believe there should first be accountability to those rich thugs who made the bad choices. I think all of the CEO's personal assets should be liquidized to help pay for their greed and desire to get middle americans by the throats. Remember, it is your money they are playing with and since they gambled a bad game, they need to suffer the pain in their own pockets as far as it can go before anyone Loans a bail out. The loan should have interest, penalties and a time limit just like ours do and why should they get multimillion dollar severance packages for a major screw up on their parts? Between those few things, the amount needed would be drastically cut. I would rather wait a little longer for a solid plan that protects the people's pocket books in the long term than see and expensive bandaid put on a major slash requiring serious repair anyway. Why waist the bandaid that will fix something for a short time when a more aggressive procedure will be needed to fix it permenantly either way. In the mean time we middle income people will suffer the most when we can barely afford to live as it is.

The current crooked plan by Bush and Paulson to bail out Paulson's crooked Wall Street cronies is a sell out of the American people.

I see even AARP is naive enough to believe Bush. How soon we forget the phony WMDs Bush used to justify his Iraq War. Bush is great at creating a "crisis" in order to frighten people into belieing his lies and scams.

Act in haste, repent at leisure. We're going to repent this scam, but at least I will know I said NO to everyone I could.

Congress needs to take the time to do it correctly. This bill has more loopholes than our roads have potholes. The new leader of the country will not be the president, but the Sec. of the Treasury.

What AARP should be doing is to provide members with information on how to become a Master Gardner. We're going to need it.

Makes no difference what I think. Congress will sell us out to the highest bidder. And they are selling out my children and yours even onto the tenth generation. Unless, of course, you're one of the Wall Street crooks because you'll have our billions shifted to Dubai and live in one the deluxe Dubai condos.

I am not an economist by any means, but I realize that the immediate issue at hand is not bailing out Wall Street(although the Wall Street did not help the situation by any means), but rather making the credit markets functional again.

The critical issue is that the credit markets are basically frozen now. They need to be in a position where they are able to loan money they haven't been able to loan recently.

For example, many small businesses, (which provide the majority of jobs in our country), rely on being able to get lines of credit, loans for equipment to expand their operations,etc. College students rely on loans more and more, the general populace relies on credit to buy houses, cars, etc.If these 3 sectors of our population can't get credit, as they can't now, then unemployment will soar then the dark clouds on our economic horizon will soon be overhead.

Hopefully, our Congress and the president will get their act together, work together without politicizing this crisis, and provide a viable solution to the situation. I believe at this point the infusion of the 700 billion dollars into credit markets (banks, etc) is the most logical solution presented so far. If there is another solution I have yet to hear it.

What ever happened to being responsible for your own actions? It was the greed of these bankers and sub prime lending companies that created this "crisis" Banks have always said we can lend you more but as an individual you should know your limits. To me this is fraud and the CEO's should be charged as such. Enron people were charged with "cooking the books" the way the investment companies and banks have tied these mortgages into the securities and now it is hard to say who owns what and how much. The S&L fiasco saw charges made and prison terms. I believe part of the "great debate" is just for show and it (Wall Street financeers)will get their money and it will just be another nail in our coffin as we wind our way down to a third world nation. I don't really belive the FDIC will have the money to cover all the accounts that will need to be covered either, so the Fed will print more money that it can't back and what money out there will hardly be worth the paper it's printed on. If it such a credit crisis why do I get 6 or so new "preapproved" credit card apps. each week with no interest etc.
I guess I'm just a bit cynical; though the idea of giving the money to the people does sound interesting. However, how many of the lottery millionaires wind up broke.

They need to give us the money instead. It is us and our ancestors that paid taxes and it is our money. Give us at least $100,000.00 each and watch us pay off our houses, Cars, Credit Cards and invest + free up credit and then we will go out and buy new cars and new houses and actually have equity. We will all sleep better and live longer! We have been giving giving giving ~ time for us to get back! Give it back to the people that have paid it in!

PROBLEM SOLVED ~ THAT WAS EASY!

So much talk of bailing out the mortgage holders who could not afford the loans they were taking in the first place. I don't want to bail them out as much as I do not like the recovery plan on the table. It takes air, fuel and substance to make aa fire. The tiers of the current economic problem are similar. Take away any one of them and our economy would not be in the shape it is in. Those would include a democratic congress who, instead of offering another "program" left it to Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac to hold mortgages that were less than secure to give lower income families homes, then you have a liberal democratic congress who would not heed the warning of President Bush on the troubles at Fanny and Freddy and the legislation proposed by Senator McCain to increase the regulation and oversight, lets not forget President Clinton who caved in changing the regulation of easing lending practices, and then there is the greed of the financial institutions who "knew" that Fanny and Freddy had the backing of the government with them making it easier to hold risky mortgages and finally there is the American populus who took the mortgages that they could not pay back or would have difficulty doing so. Lots of blame to go around. I don't want ot bail out anyone. But, congress must act to shore up our economy. If not we will all be complaining that the government took our jobs. P.S. The plan will include a payback to the American government thus we may actually make money on the deal. There should be no earmarks on this money and any overage should go straight to decreasing the deficit.

Let's just say if people has listened to McCain in 2005 when he wanted something done about Fanny May and Freddie Mac, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

If the stock market "lost" $1.1 trillion yesterday, then it
"made" 485/777*1.1 = 687 billion today!

"Is the cost of inaction just too high?" We believe that the answer is "Yes."

I believe that this did not happen in one day, and therefore
it certainly doesn't have to be addressed in one day. Please
Congress, take your time, study the problem, and make
an informed action.

Don't join the panic, be a part of the right, tempered solution.

I would suggest going to Angry Bear, Calculated Risk, Naked Capitalism, and Economist's View for great information.

I retired five years ago after a 40 year career as a senior officer in a regional commercial bank (no sub prime junk). I was pleased that my retirement looked solid enough that I could help the kids and grandkids out without any worries. I am still OK financially but have seen a big reduction in my worth in the last few months in this volatile market.
There are many to blame but I focus on the leaderless white house and the partisan house and senate leadership for these current economic problems. Barack Obama does not belong in the white house. His inexperience and liberal "advisors" who embrace tax and spend strategies would exacerbate our problems dramatically. So elect John McCain and go after all those self dealing, get rich quick investment bankers who want to get away with stealing from the American taxpayers. They need to pay for their outrageous deeds!

Hi Pals,

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm
in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It
Dividend. To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000
bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/-
counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab
at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals
$425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve
It Dividend. Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a
tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam. But it means that
every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.

A husband and wife has $595,000.00. What would you do with
$297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college - it'll be there
Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the
folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed
Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do
it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic
incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out
every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American
General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate. Let the private sector bargain
hunters cut it up and clean it up. Here's my rationale. We deserve it
and AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party! How do you
spell Economic Boom? I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to
use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses
at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, my plan only really costs $59.5 Billion
because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards

there is a bit of a hard shot to call. I do know that some of these CEOs should never get such a large secverance package as they do. I submit to you, would they be for giving the employee a decent, if any severance pay? I am thinking not likely. the high price of a CEOs buy out/severance or other separation pay is, often outragious.
we need to be a lot more careful about racking up excess credit at any leval. it was great that such generous credit terms were once the norm. however, over extending one's credit at any leval, will lead to bad news. one down side of the high credit limits is the price of 1 false move, this can result in unfair credit practices. we must work together to get america's credit paid off. individual and corporate credit. If more co. would wait until they have cash in reserve before capital expansion, this would help a lot. the lesson to be learned here is allways use credit wisely and only when it is absoloutly necasary. above all, before using credit everyone should ask very honestly can I pay this off? how can I pay this off?
will I have enough income for the entire ride of the loan? Map out a payment schedule and look at whether it can honestly be met thru out the loan.
A lot of Co.s and peaple don't do this, and can get into trouble.
now we need to help peaple get loans paid off ASAP. interest will add up big time.

My concern is for the people with annuities and other investments. Protect those and let the banks deal with the mess their greed got them into.

As to congress, I will vote against any incumbent, regardless of party affiliation, until we get some real leadership in those positions.

Everyone should be concerned about what has been taking place. I am very angry and dissapointed that our Government allowed this so called bail out to be voted upon. Now the Senate is going to try and push it tomorrow with a few small changes. I keep hearing 700 billion, but what will this do, where will it be placed to insure we responsibly utilize this money to achieve what our Government sees to be a huge financial crisis. They don't have enough anwers,nor have the considered alternative plans that I have heard from many sources that would not need this bail out! Our Congress may have acted for the wrong reasons, I honestly don't care! I would rather have additional time to look at options and get some answers. If we allow fear to dictate, we might as well hand over savings. Please don't be fooled. Let them know you want accountability! Demand answers to questions, not excuses. Mistakes are made when we react without rational discussion. All I continue to hear from our so called Leaders is " its complicated" but we need to act. If you were making this decision in your own household, would you accept the terms provided in this bail out?
Christy Pinyerd

12 Republicans did not like what was said!!!! WHAT??

I think that the vote went the way it should have. We, the taxpayers do not need to bail out the rich bankers who want to screw everone of us they can. Ifthey could take your last dollar, and leave you with nothing... they would do it and be happy about it too.

Let them live like the rest of us for a change!!! If any of those bankers had to live as I do, they would most likey elect to committ sucide.

The money that I have invested in mutual funds is my retirement money. Over the last few months, I've seen that money diminish by $45,000. Where's my bail out??? It is obvious that something must be done -- & most people seem to agree with that assessment. The debate centers around WHAT should be done. This is not a time for partisan squabbling or showboating. This is a time for all of our government leaders to come together and formulate a plan that will turn this economy around. The economic viability of this country hangs in the balance. Fix the problem.

People have lost their homes; their life savings; their livelihood. We need help -- yes, the "average" American citizen. Help us maintain our own economic stability. For those who have lost everything, find a way to "bail" them out.

Put politics aside and do the job for which you were elected.

None of the proposals being considered in Washington do a thing to solve the problem. At best, they only try and treat the symptom.

Was there greed in the big Wall Street investment firms and investment bankers? Yes. Did a lot of banks make loans they should not have? Yes. But those who borrowed more than they could afford to repay are also to blame. As are those who have been living too long on credit card debt well above their means. So the American public is as much at vault as anyone.

While I hate the idea of bailing out people who made really stupid financial decisions, that is the only way to prop up the real estate market and propping up the real estate market is the only way to solve the problem and avoid a financial disaster.

Problem, I don't think the baffoons you people continuay elect to public office (its not me, I don't vote for them) have a clue how to go about it.

How about a trickle-up Bailout instead of trickle down.

Perhaps the biggest fault of the bailout being debated (possibly passed by the time you read this) is that it is based on the idea that the relief given to Wall Street will trickle down to hard-hit working class folks on Your Street.

Who knows? Given that the underlying problem of crazy predatory mortgages and lending practices, and the housing bubble are not fundamentally addressed, then the bailout could just as well not avert a meltdown. Most people you talk to don’t have much confidence that the bailout will slow foreclosures, unemployment, or declining incomes.

But what if the bailout went the other way? What if taxpayers bailout themselves and then the benefit trickled up?

How could you do it? What if everyone who has lost a home to foreclosure in the last year, or is in foreclosure, or is behind on their house payments, got a bailout directly from the Treasury? This would be a direct injection of liquidity into the financial markets. Banks and lending institutions would receive an infusion of cold hard cash from their victims, er… customers. This would immediately stimulate consumer spending also. It would free up stressed incomes for working class families and right the injustice of the unfair and predatory lending practices used by the big finance boys on Wall Street. If this works then Congress might want to extend it to car loans and other big loans – this would inject liquidity into the auto industry instead of the $25 billion taxpayer bailout to auto already passed by Congress.

I can hear the rightwing now. How can you reward those who used poor judgment and borrowed over their ability to pay back? Well yeah…. Isn’t that the “principal” that is already enshrined in the Wall Street bailout? Not to mention that the housing bubble that got us into this mess began with risky, predatory loans. But now increasingly the crisis involves conventional loans, overwhelmingly by folks who have faithfully paid their mortgages. Wouldn’t millions of people getting a several thousand dollar bailout do more to free up spending and money circulation than a few dozen big lenders getting billions to put in their bank vaults?

This could even be extended to health care. Instead of a bailout of insurance vampires like AIG, or silly schemes to give tax credits for private purchase of insurance, why not pay the full premiums with no deductibles and no co-pays for every person in the US. (Might be called single payer) Then, working class families (the overwhelming majority) again, would have more cash to circulate and consume – billions in liquidity. And corporations would shed billions in healthcare costs thus freeing up huge amounts of capital to invest in creating jobs and Greening their industries. Congress might then realize that the predatory “middlemen” of big financials, like private insurance companies, don’t really play any useful purpose anyway – and could be allowed to go out of the healthcare business.

Not only would $700,000,000,000 probably be enough for a trickle up bailout, it would probably also calm world markets faster, because it would get at the root of the current economic crisis. And it would promote goodwill and a better image of America. It would show that even under gigantic state owned capitalism with all it’s vast inequalities, it is still possible to fight and win humane, logical, people-helping solutions.
I can hear my conservative friends now, “This will only lead to even bigger public programs. People will start taking about nationalizing the big oil and energy companies, nationalizing the banking system, free education and childcare, and on and on.”

Well yeah……

I received the same email as "M Stanley" (Subject: New Bailout plan Someone sent this to me and it sounds like a good idea). I would like to go a step further. How about the 'big wigs' the CEOs, etc. that received large monetary retirement benefits pay back the debt. People DON'T need that much money!

The focus on this iisue is idiotic. Like the John Kennedy famous quote "........, ask what you can do for your country.", people need to focus on financial responsibilty. We're in this situation because of greed. But our Presidential candidates believed in an "economic stimulus rebate". With well over $6,000 as an average credit card debt, how can we say to people, "here's money, spend"?!!!
We need leadership that restores the word SAVE to the American vocabulary!

I'm sort of surprised to read all the negative responses to the bailout program. I thought my opinion was in the minority. Will we have time to get our voices heard? There have been some pretty heavy handed "scare tactics" used, but I don't think mail street is buying the program. I would like to see wall street clean up their mess, and let the chips fall where they may. If the government lets the crooks off the hook, they will just come back another day to do it all again. I think I can survive just fine if the whole manipulated money markets tanked.

Just pass the d... thing and get the world back on track.

Congratulations to all House members who voted against this bailout.Congress needs to demand proper accounting and regulatory policies of all financial institutions that receive a penny from taxpayers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at are the root of mortgage problems and should have all congressionally-conferred sapecial rights repealed NOW! It should have happened in the 1980"s but because they are cash cows to many politicians like Barak Obama, Barney Frank and Senator Dodd, calls for their reform and regulations have been voted down.It is time to have them privitized and out of reach of taxpayers money! The FDIC should be raised. The limit of $100,000 has been there since the 1980's and never indexed to inflation. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act should be repealed. It has not helped with out financial stability- in fact it has caiused problems with it. I do not agree to government intervention with salaries of CEO's. Boards and shareholders should be held reposnible for CEO follies that apprrently have been permitted by them to exist. Government intervention in helath, education, social security etc has been the problem with their ills..we do not need anymore of this!
Allow the free market to operate to solve problems.
It would be irresponsable to have allowed this "bailout" to be passed as it was written.

I made my first ever post and it was rejected with the following AARP comment:
Comment Submission Error
Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:

Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time. Please try again in a short while.

Obviously AARP will not accept comment which are contrary to their biased opinions.

The news media has for years put the spin on what the politicians are doing to and for the citizens, and when it comes time to tell what is actually happening and how it happened, no one is listening. How can so many tales be told about any given situation and all of them be the truth. You can blame the current administration for everything, but you have to look much further back to get a true picture. This county is in a "not in my back yard syndrom" and has been for so long, that when you are "in my back yard" nothing can be done about it. You cannot legislate morality nor ethics and we don't have very many in D.C. with any.

Funny, this is AARP's website and they are upset because the bailout plan - to call a spade a spade - didn't pass the House. Interestingly, the president of AARP is a big lobbyist in Washington, he hasn't just represented AARP over the past 30 years.

I am proud of the lefty Democrats and righty Republicans who forged a strange coalition to vote down this rash and expensive bailout. Too much, too fast, too little oversight of the "regulators" who let this situation get where it is while benefiting both from the run up and, potentially, the collapse and bailout.

It's no coincidence that Warren Buffet is advising Obama to support the bailout while he invests $5B in one of the potentially failing companies who stand to benefit from either direct assistance or from being in a position to scarf up some of the debris at pennies on the dollar.

The American people need to be bailed out, not the financial insitutions who took advantage of lax oversight to get us in this mess. We need plans to relieve foreclosures, loosen up the credit markets, and institute serious regulation of companies who will survive in spite of their past exploitation of loopholes.

I sincerely hope Barack Obama sees the need for more tax payer friendly solutions to the financial crisis....it's important that he do so and articulate the true situation to the tax payer, voter, consumer, American.

I agree with the comment by M Stanley on 9-30-08 8:32 pm
It sure makes more sense than anything else that I have heard so far.

Frankly, I don't see one person in office that isn't responsible for this is some way. Do you remember the stupidity and favoratism toward the credit card lobbyist when they wanted the new Bankruptcy laws passed? Well, they got their way and all the big banks where right behind it because WE, the consumer, was so irresponsible and so uneducated about money and credit, yet they just kept sending out those offers and raising those limits and making "credit" seem like the best thing since sliced bread! Well, here we are, and it all ties right in with the current failure, they made their beds, now let them lie in it! AND I do mean lie in their own deceit and manipulation of this country's economic and financial mess.

So let's make it a law that all these Senator, Congressmen and high and mightly politicians that get PAID to represent us MUST punch a time card just like most blue collar workers in this country AND make every meeting and every vote mandiatory! OR they don't get paid.

THE SOURCES OF THE PROBLEM ARE
1. THE MONEY SPENT(WASTED) IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN, NOT TO MENTION ALL THE OTHER SPOGES THAT SOAK UP AMERICAN'S MONEY.
2. TRICKLEDOWN ECONOMICS.
IT SEEMS THERE IS LESS AND LESS TRICKLING DOWN.

Our government has essentially deregulated the financial institutions. They have written laws which does away with guaranteed employer provided pensions. They want to privatize Social Security. Now they want the American workers to make decisions about our own retirement and invest in this financial market which is run by crooks?

Congrats to Congress for not rushing into a solution to problem that has been brewing for years. Congress typically enacts laws for "good" reasons that inevitably cause more problems than they solve. Witness the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and its "improvements" which helped foster the climate for nonproducing subprime loans.

Let's hope some of Congress actually read this bill's reincarnation before voting on it.

sorry these folks did it to themselves, they knew they could't pay for houses when they bought them, shame on them for wanting hard working people's money to bail their butts out, same with stock market people

I think we need good law in forcement working for the "People" As I think it would be hard to find a elected or appionted person in government that that shouldnot be arrested tried and executed for treason.

Thank God that the 'Rescue Package" failed. Premature action can be immediately dangerous. How can so many people believe that those men and women who created this fiasco are the people who can fix it. They have been generating this mess since the 90's and refuse to accept the responsibility for lying to the people for all that time. Anyone who thinks that they are thinking about and protecting the little people needs to go out and buy a bridge. If this were truly an emergency, why did the congressional leadership wait so long to vote on it, and why did the democratic candidate for president bushwhack the republicans in the white house meeting.
I'm not sure that there are very many politicians that can be trusted in this affair, but I am certain that it is not the leaders of the House of Representatives.

Plain and simple. I am disabled. I thank God my accident happened on the job. I rely on workmans compensation for a paycheck. Our beloved government DENIED me any benifits, yet BILLIONS are spent in Iraq. Our men and women in the Armed Services get BS care when returning. Shame on our govenment. These men and women should get the 5 star treatment. Wallstreet crooks should be the ones evicted and fined for the mess they have put us in.
THIS MADNESS OF POLICING THE WORLD HAS TO STOP. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, TREAT THEM AS GOOD AS THE WALL STREET WUSSIES.
IT IS NOT UP TO US TO BAIL OUT WALL STREET. I AM SORRY FOR THOSE WHO WILL LOSE THEIR INVESTMENTS AND RETIREMENTS. BUT, YOU DID READ THE FINE PRINT WHEN YOU INVESTED. ALL THE YEARS OF RECORD PROFITS, NOW REALITY HITS HARD.
Bail out the hard working Americans who are losing, or have lost their American dream. There HOME! The Hell with wall street. Beg at times square for your next meal. You executives are not Gods.

Not one dime for Wall Street banksters. Careful study should go into the justice of the situation. When companies go bankrupt, someone comes along with the money and buys them. Let the market function, and don't give me that crap about the depression coming without the bailout. It's coming anyway. This bailout bill will make no difference at all. The best thing they could do is give the 700 Billion to the taxpayers, and let them sort it out.
There is going to be a period of adjustment, like there was 1929-1941. Face the facts.

1. Cox, Paulson, and Barney Franks must be removed from their jobs.
2. Eliminate the Marks to Markets legislation
3. Remove the capital tax

WE DO NOT NEED ANY BAILOUT / RESCUE BILL.

LET THE FAILURES FAIL. Items 2 and 3 will create liquidity in the market almost instanteously.

When I make a bad dissison I have to pay the price. These big wigs that made billions of dollars should also have to pay.
Take away all their luxary houses and cars and make them live on the equivlant of welfare.
This was private busniss and the goverment has NO place stepping in.
I am tired of paying (and my grandchildren paying) for their screw ups.

As I said on another place tell President Bush that if he wants the American public to bail out another business than pull everyone out of Iraq and he will have 10 billion more a month to pay for it.

hey' big dog's get' your money from some where beside the bailout or go broke !! bush and congress has couse me enough trouble.

The government created this mess by basically guaranteeing the debt from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So, with that guarantee, there was nothing to stop them from taking huge risks. Then, in the 1990's, the Community Recovery Act was modified to require mortgage companies to give mortgages to families that would not be able to afford it if the rates went up or housing prices fell. The government also takes over failed pensions from companies going into bankrupcy. So, now I am expected to trust the government bailout plan to solve a problem the government created in the first place? I don't believe that for a second. Why does the government not take immediate steps that will not cost us much money like:

Work directly with the bank and borrower to refinance loans to a manageable amount and a decent rate for those that have a realistic chance of paying back their mortgage.

Immediately fire the SEC head who did not enforce the laws.

Pull Mark to Market accounting regulations so holdings are valued at current market prices.

Drop all Corporate taxes for one year.

Make the CEO's pay be based on realistic performance goals not goals that can simply be achieved by cutting costs.

Increase risk insurance premiums and reserves to 10-20%.

How dare AARP say this is not the time for finger pointing. Deregulation and the Republican agenda got us into this mess and we need to strongly point our collective fingers at their foreheads and say NEVER AGAIN.

thow awat tillions to save billions.
sounds like a logical goverment project

Six years ago I had medical problems and was off work for 10 weeks and then the company that I worked 26 years for, Consolidated Freightways, Filed for bankruptcy and went out of business after 76 years. Really the just started a non-union company and the child ate the parent. Long time union and non-union employees lost their jobs.

I had used all my savings because of illness and finally had to sell my home and move back into an apartment. The mortage and credit card companies showed no mercy and instead of trying to help me the actually made things more difficult for me.

I know that many of us have stories like this, and I ask the banks where were you when I needed help????

Oh now I remember, you were busy trying to fleece me and every one else that has had similar dificulties!!!!

I say send them to jail or maybe they should be drawn and quartered like in the old days?????

NO to the bailout ! NO NO NO !!!
Let the people who caused the problems pay. They can give back their exorbitant salaries, perks, etc. They screwed it up ....it should be up to them, not the taxpayer.
This bailout is a bunch of CRAP.

Fine those responsible for this mess, make them return their record breaking bonuses, make them be responsible for their actions. The middle class are for the most part acting responsible and paying their bills, don't make them pay for this mess.

I think this thing needs a fix, but it needs a lot of study for the fix versus just throw these billions at it. For sure the CEOs should not get a nickle of bonus for the past year or coming year until they pay back the money. The loan/insurance deal really sounds like the more practical resolve. Nancy Peolosi needs to quit trying to blame Bush. From all I read this mess got started via the Dems back years ago anyway. She can't speak a sentence without trying to play her Bush hate ticket!!!! What a way to lead!!!!!

When CEO's that break these company's can leave with millions in severance there is a serious problem! I have been self employed most of my adult life. Any mistakes I made I paid for never no hand outs or free passes. This America and we need to be responsible for ourselves, our deeds and actions.
I believe this will help more Americans than it will hurt. For one the price of oil will plummet and be affordable for us again. The banks will require a down payment as collateral no more free passes on speculations!
The housing problem was only a small part of the bail outs. Even La Raza was getting part of this? They are a terrorist organization as far as I am concerned. To dish out this much money with virtually no accountability?? I sure hope we are not that gullible. We are becoming more and more socialistic all the time? It must stop.

We should worry about the seniors and their health costs. Who cares about so many other things, like the bail-out plan, why should we as taxpayers pay for these wall street guys that make a ridiculous bons every year!
Worry about the eonomy health care, gas prices are so out of sight, that this is the biggest joke of the year!

What has bothered me is that the very people who got us into this mess in the first place are the ones who now say they are working on a plan to fix this?

Why, in 2004 and 2005, did they claim that all was ok with Freddie Mac and Fannie May when certain republicans said something needed to be done. Why did a bill McCain penned or helped to write concerning regulating these 2 never even make it out of committee. They hit the nail on the head years ago. Now some of these very same people who used to be ceo's of Freddie and Fannie and made millions off of them are Mr Obama's economic advisors. What a joke!

Why is Barack Obama 3rd in line for receiving the most campaign contributions from Freddie and Fannie?

I read a lot of investment emails from various places. Not a one say this bailout is a good idea. They all say to let the capitalist system work. If a bank fails, it fails.

When we were nearly foreclosed on 3 years ago, no one was there to bail us out. We did it on our own, and at the last minute were able to get a high interest rate arm to save us. After a year, and directly after bankruptcy we were able to refinance into a 30year fixed rate mortgage. Everyone advised we get an arm, because we could just refinance after a couple years after our credit got better. No way. We did not want to HAVE to refinance. I am so glad we did not follow their advise. I listened to those investment emails I get who said the housing bubble was going to burst. Looks like they were right.

I am absolutely opposed to the bail out. Let the chips fall where they may. This bail out plan will only create a false economy in my opinion!! What will prevent a collapse of this false economy down the road? I don't believe that ANYONE knows for certain what the future holds with regards to the economy. So no bail out and certainly NO Obama.

The AARP supports bailouts of people that do not have the right to be bailed out. Compassion? Let we the people help those who truly need help. Individual responsibility is not AARP's mission. Big government bailout of irresponsible people is AARP's mission. The NEA will see to it that kids are kept stupid so the AARP can be their shepherd (read Doctoral WOLF) and having the rest of the country of responsible citizens bail them out. AARP in bed with the government? You bet! Government funded propaganda.

Did any of you ever hear of Frank Raine's? Obama's adviser.

When I bought a home, I needed 20 percent down, and if if couldn't afford a 30 year fixxed rate mortgage, you couldn't afford the house. The people who are underwater now have financed their selfish lifestyles with mortgages they could not afford. It is not the business of the government to bail them out. Nor is it the business of the government to bail out the failed banks who handed out the money. Fannie Mae and Freddie have been forced by congress to give mortgages to millions of people who had no business owning homes. Conservatives warned of the coming failure of these institutions in 2003 and they were ignored.

One thing I have learned; that it, that it is much easier to assess issues when one understands the issue and those past decisions which created the issue. To me sufficient evidence has been given that the cause of the current crises lies with our legislators, and particularly those who refused to listen to to the findings of the agency set up to monitor Freddie Mac.

I believe that any bailout needs to to include provisions to change those past bills which forced banks to grant mortgages to those persons or families who cannot afford them. As much as we want to help the poor, it makes little or no sense to do it at the expense of destroying our economy.

Effort to pass the proposed bill needs to include (1) legislation to assure that those who monitor and find problems with the system are listened to instead of being brushed off as has been done in past; 2. that banks and mortgage money lenders stop underwriting mortgages to people who cannot afford it (the amount of the mortgage should not exceed 25% of a family's gross earnings; 3. that earnings of chief executives should not include incentives; 4. that the bill include a provision that any profits gained by the government from future sell offs of properties be dedicated soley to paying off the amount included in the bill and for nothing else. With respect to #4, there is nothing worse than for our legislators to have free reign in determining how any such profits are used.

I think we have all worked and struggled too hard trying to be honest and pay our own bills, college loans and mortgages. We should NOT bail out a system that recklessly handed out loans and now cannot collect on them. We did the honest thing and this is not our problem. NO BAILOUTS!

As a part of the normal business cycle, it is necessary to periodically have a recession. The govt. should stop trying to manage the economy through manipulation of the money supply, and let the economy and the market system work things out.

Let those who live by the free market die by the free market. Then and only then pick up the pieces as necessary. Then regulate the h*** out of whatever is left. They tell us companies need to borrow to meet their payrolls and daily operating costs. Why? Because Wall St. analysts and investors demand such stupid practices. We pay for it with higher prices and they live high on the result. Businesses should put themselves and their employees first. Let Wall St. fall.

'Congress's inaction'? what do you want Congress to do? i want Congress to string up the guys (gals? i think all are guys) with the golden parachutes on their own personal golden strings! give us, the victims, the money - b

Please, I am tired of Sen. Obama being blamed for years (and years) of absolute government neglect; head turning; indeed encouraging all that has gone on with criminal/white-collar corruption/financial screwing American public.
Considered Plan of action: Yes
Bailout: NO
Wall Street and Las Vegas have much in common!

One previous writer starts "AARP should be ashamed of itself for promoting the Wall Street bailout." I think AARP should be ashamed of itself for its continued fence-straddling on this and other issues. I believe that AARP is becoming more a marketing vehicle than much else and this blog to stir up concern about something is pointless. AARP sold its soul to the current administration on prescription meds and has never had the guts to push back after we all got hosed.

I understand that this is not really a problem with the stock market but rather the people and institutions that finance the economy. We have become a nation of individuals who have been encouraged to spend. Not just the money we have but to go to the money lenders so that we can buy something more, something larger. We have a large group of people who are staggering under credit card interest rates of 18 or 20 percent and higher. This is behaviour that is absurd and yet it is encouraged by our cultural leaders, who most often profit from it, of course. It seems most curious to me that we have been warned since Greek mythology to avoid averice (greed) and yet we Americans have made it the primary motivating force of not just our economy but also the lives of most ordinary people. Therefore should anyone be supprised that we find ourselves in this difficulty? And where in the entire educational system of this country do we find courses for young students who are taught the basic fundamentals of personal economy? Ever wonder why?

I am for a bail-out if it does affect the entire economy. This is not to say I am not madder than hops. I think if any corperation that does take taxpayer money should face severe restrictions. We are bailing them out and they should pay. Also, are you listening American politicians, I feel the tax situation ought to be a reflection of paying off the national debt. Listen up both republicans and democrates. I am tired of all the finger pointing and stalling while the national debt increases

This is from Dave Ramsey's website--sounds much better than going into debt for $700 billion dollars. Copy this below and send to your Representatives and Senators! Take action, don't sit around and belly ache about it!

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:

Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while
working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to
stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

No bail out.

I vote to pass it already!!! The US comes to the aid of every foreign country anytime they have big needs .... why should they do less for our own countrymen???? I say use the FOREIGN AID HERE AT HOME WHERE OUR OWN CITIZENS NEED IT and let the rest of the world start paying for their own problems. They sure are not helping us with the oil prices so why should we ever do anything for them???? What country passed a billion dollar bill to help us pay for reconstruction of hurricanes or anything else for that matter. We always GIVE AND NEVER GET. So start giving here at home and the hell with the rest of the world. Maybe then they would learn to respect us!!!!!!!!!!!!! The money blown on foreign aid should be used for health programs for every american and seniors SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR MEDICARE....much less being forced to pay for it even before they earn enough years to collect social security checks. I lost over $40,000 in the stock market the beginning of this century and have never recovered a penny of it..like most seniors out there. We need the aid they spend on foreign countries RIGHT HERE AT HOME. Why are our congressmen blind to our own pleas but rush to any foreign pleas that fly over the ocean. Help RUssia???????? What have they EVER done to help us???? I am just sick of all of it!

AARP should stay out of it.... and NO BAILOUT!!! Find someone that knows about money - outside of the Democratic congress that only knows how to SPEND our money.... They do not have a clue how to fix it - just throw money at it just like all their social programs that don't fix anything - just keep everyone dependent.

Aarp should be pushing for the passage of H.R.219 to keep Congressmen from helping themselves to Social Security Funds then saying it is going broke and the tax rate must be raised and the retirement age must be advanced .

Our elected representatives, both Republican and Democrat are acting like a bunch of two-year-olds. They have to do something to try and restore the credit market. They were elected because the voters believed they had the wisdom to resolve problem and lead the nation. Republicans or democrats, once elected, they need to be members of congress. We listen to the individual members ridicule and accuse the other party members of everything. They were not elected to verbally assault the other party. They are indeed members of a political party, but more importantly they are obligated to represent their district, including the voters who did not vote for them

Has our two-party system become a two gang system. As the best example, Pelosi is supposed to be speaker of the house. Instead, she has become a vindictive gang leader using her power and position to derail the political system by creating the most adversarial environment I have ever seen in government. Her destructive influence should cost her her seat.

It is irresponsible for AARP to contribute to the scare-mongering attempts to stampede the American people into this Give-Away, that won't work anyway.

The Treasury has been having secret conference calls with those it intends to give sweetheart deals, while hiding inflated values sold to taxpayers.

Check out the Bailout Alternative Offered by Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, that would cost nothing.

One thing that people often forget is that the stock market crash of 1929 did not turn into the Great Depression overnight. The unemployment rate was still only 8.7 percent in 1930. GDP lost 6.4 percent in 1931, but the bottom fell out only in 1932, when GDP plunged by 13 percent. So it took three years for the damage to the stock market to ravage the banking sector, and eventually for the air to come out of the real economy. In the meantime, government did far too little. Those of you who advocate doing nothing may be able to get a job selling apples on a street corner.

Take a look at Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio's proposal at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/30/18155/2039/370/615926

I agree with his proposal, along with a jobs and infrastructure repair and replacement program. Trickle down doesn't work, so let's do a trickle up plan! That will help most of the people who truly need the help.

Investate, Find the people who are ripping us off in these companys and put them in jail. Also Take the crooked ones out of congress ,etc and put them in jail.

Dear AARP

Isn't it amazing what a difference a day makes to all of you and your "educated" analysis of what has happened on Wall St. and with Congress. The smart people saw to it that the market made a significant rebound. Other members of Congress saw that this so-called bail-out was putting money into the pockets of the people who caused this problem, several of them have come up with logical alternatives. Instead of reacting, perhaps people like you should sit back and listen and think about things for a while.

Let the markets take care of it. Let them go down the tubes for that is the natural result of their greed and arrogance...let them suffer the consequences of their actions just like the rest of us.
It is absurd for us to bail them out...first the airlines, the automakers and now the banks...what's next, the oil companies? I say NO WAY! It is nice to see people getting mad as hell! It restores my faith. When the banks fail, someone else will fill the vacuum and form new ones based on sane operating principles and we will rebound. Don't let them sucker you into this one.

I cant trust Pelosie-the person who is suppose to be a referee to the representatives in congress--Pelosie. She ought to be removed. Think of it, if Mccain or obama or the next vice president dies, who do we get? PELOSie. Thats frightening. As far as my senator, who is the idiot Reid, he too should be removed. He or any of those idiots in control dont represent the people. I am struggling to pay my mortgage, eat and pay for my meds and they want to help out somebody who made a stupid deal. And where is the help for me. If they bail out these banks, its just unfair. The bailout is nothing but a way for leftist groups like Acorn to be tagged(pork) on to our bills. If not this bailout, it will be the next. Reid doesnt listen to his constituants, nevada is vertually alone while he deals and wheels in the senate for his own gain. I see that Obama is nothing but a opportunist trying to get elected. And if he wins we are heading for a nation that we wont recognize. He should have been running for ambassador the way he wants to help other countries by charging us more taxes to cover it. Chavez will be laughing and so will the idiot radical muslims who want us to be defeated.
MCCAIN would be better than Obama, even though someone is gonna tell me he got kickbacks also. For sure I know Obama did. Paulson, should have been fired, along with Frank.

2 Chronicles 7:14
IF MY PEOPLE, WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME, WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND PRAY AND SEEK MY FACE AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, THEN WILL I HEAR FROM HEAVEN AND WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN AND WILL HEAL THEIR LAND.
ITS SOUND ADVICE!!!!

I failed to mention what is for me the
scariest issue in this crisis, that so
few people are equipped to understand its
mechanics, including most in Congress.

Yesterday a vote was taken that was driven
by guesswork and panic. What AARP writes
here about consequences of inaction is
indeed frightening, does echo Paulson's
warnings. Are we to believe this? After
the hysterical hype that let to the 2nd
Iraq expedition, we Americans are very
likely to laugh when Bush or anyone associated
with him cries Wolf. So there are the
twin demons for me here. A real wolf
heralded by proven liars, and a Congress
of clowns who lack the skills to remedy
the threat. It's worse than that. The
threat is a chaos theory threat. It has
its own weather patterns, which nobody,
no computer can predict, out guess.

Now what?

With several politicians in the pockest of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it is no wonder they would not do anything previously! Stop the bail out NOW!!!! Let these suckers sink and let the housing market take care of itself. Close our borders and stop sending jobs out of our nation. Nafta was the biggest boondogle ever devised. It will be the downfall of our nation. Since they have opened free trade across our borders the value of our dollar has fallen, jobs have disappeared. What more do we need to see happen before we wake-up?

I say no to bailout Wednesday and/or Thursday also. I like M Stanley's idea, however it is nothing more than a dream to equalize the classes. Pay the banks back for bad management and bad judgment? No. What goes up must come down. That's been the law of nature, and historically it has never failed. Overspending by us all, and boy it was fun, has to come to a halt. Time for a re-balancing. Put the funds into infrastructure and jobs. Get a grip on spending. The politics of blaming Nancy Peolosi for the failed vote is bull. No one affected that many votes except hopefully the American people. I say the banks got themselves into it, let them get themselves out of it. The strongest and most well managed financial institutions will survive and frankly, that's where I want my money to go. McCain looks bad for having tried to pass the plan, Obama looks bad for now trying to pass the plan after hearing so many Americans are against it. So the stock market crashed. I think that is a sad scare tactic to drive the vote for the bailout. More manipulation by "money". Who can we trust? How 'bout Lou Dobbs for President! Better yet, if I ruled the world.....

I also got an e-mail like M Stanley, and it doesn't sound so crazy to me.
If that 85 billion went to the citizens the economy would come out of its slump while the idiots in Washington figure out how to fix this so that it never happens again. Oh, and meanwhile housing prices would increase again because there are no longer three houses in foreclosure in one block.
Lets divvy it up among the people!

No bail out or call it whatever. All CEO's from all these troubled companies should give up their bonuses & salaries and put that money into helping American families, who are in trouble. After all, what good is $80 billion anyways? If you own a business and you get into deep trouble, will the government bail you out? Do we really want the Federal Government putting its political noses in something else that it knows nothing about? Let these companies bail themselves out and lose their jobs, bonuses, etc. They don't care about the American working families, why should we care about them?

I personally think that instead of giving money to the one big shark it should be helping the citizens that have added to the list of potential homeless persons and that will boost the morale and lives of the ones affected .Giving it to the companies to fix the economy will only fill the pocket of the already rich and so it really is just politics.What happened when it was the topmost speeches were booming on and on about the people coming first? Face it this virtual world has become so real for the ones involved ,if you pinch them they do not feel but if 1 point goes down in stock everyone is up in arms to battle it.

Please no bailout without transparency, regulations and preferred stock to cover taxpayers contribution to any bailout.
There should also be a $250,000.00 cap on any bailed out company's management from the CEO's to all other execs for annual salary. No bonuses, no golden parachutes. Stop the greed. The Glass-Steagall act should be reinstated as part of the bailout.
There has to be regulations and controls so this doesn't happen under the next republican president as it has under the last to republican presidents.

I wish there was a way President Bush could be arrested or sued for what has been done. The banks want help, but no one will help us when we need it. I'm loosing my 401k. What am I going to live on. Bail us out, not wall street.

I am so happy to see that many people are as opposed to this ridiculous "bailout" as I am! I am no economics expert, but even I know that if you blow up a balloon long enough it is going to break. Now the spoiled brats want us to buy them more balloons. No way. No "bailout". Our legislators need to be strong and keep the the corporations from further rotting our country. They have polluted our air, ruined our food supply, and made us slaves to health care. And we fell for their carrot on a stick mortgage schemes, so we are not blameless either. . . It is time to stop the insanity!

Let's put together a bill that ensures taxpayer equity, has no pork in it, has a solid team to Manage the issuance of funds for the devalued assets, and finally put in a method of taking the foreclosed properties and giving our veterans the ability to come home to a nice house.

It is amazing to see how the Republican Conservatives wait until the day of the vote and then act like they knew nothing about it. I watched an elected Congressman bark out how he believes in the Free Market and no government intervention. Amazing! They will stand on a lost principle and argue that the Market will take care of itself. They seem to have forgotten, 1929 , the Depression, WW2, Korea, the 50's, The Vietnam War, Long Term Capital, The Asian Contagion, The Savings and Loan, the Keating 5 (of which McCain was one of the Senators reprimanded for his involvement in this matter!), and now this mess. These were ALL SOLVED by Government intervention.
Milton Friedman spoke about letting the Market work it out. Unfortunately, it does not work in this day and age and especially in a Global Economy. We needed regualators five years ago, to watch and warn us of this event. Most experts saw this coming for years. Robert Shiller was warning about the housing bubble long before it imploded and I do not recall seeing any of the supporters of no government involvement arguing to slow this trend down. We have a country now that is ruled by people who have one concern, "how do I stay in office?" Instead of doing the right thing for this country and its people, explaining why this is necessary, they are arguing why we do not want government in our markets!" Until this mind set is changed, we are doomed to repeat this bubble until the next bubble comes along.

Forget the bailout. Let the market correct its self..

No No bail out We need to give our money back to our citizens. We can not afford to live as it is but we are to give to wall street I think not. However some of us that have retirement money invested for us will loose that so should we say tough crap to ourselves when we did not cause this situation or do we find a way to help America financially and still let be strong.

Listen, if the brokers would not have started falsifying documents with artificial earnings and the appraisers would have stopped granting every appraisal for the loan amount, this wouldn't have happened. The banks were only the blind merchants that took over the servicing of the loans and they didn't know the homeowner from Adam....but the broker did! Banks made a lot of money from crooked brokers. I am glad the bailout didn't happen and i wouldn't even want it with the new additions of the FDIC being raised to $250,000.00. There is positively nothing in it for we the taxpayers, we the veterans that defended this country and we the people that have been paying taxes all our lives striving for the American Dream and only to find out it was a nightmare. We're all going to lose our homes. The answer is very simple I think:

With $700,000,000,000.00..........If a homeowner has a home worth only fair market value he should be able to refinance at the fair market value and the difference lost should be absorbed within the $700+ and held till they sell at a profit later on then pay the government back as interest for holding the balance of the original loan.

THAT'S WHAT WE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE VETERANS, TAXPAYERS, FIGHTING TO KEEP OUR HOMES WANT.

This would bring things back to normal. Then the regulations should oversee it and assure it will never happen again.

I agree that bailing out the very people who created the crisis we are facing is in fact ludicrous and irresponsible. The funding should be used to forestall foreclosures directly, aiding the people in danger of losing their homes. The Government should should purchase all foreclosures and reset the terms of the mortgages.

Congress did the right thing, evan 40% of the liberal democrats voted against it. It will only be a disaster if they submit and pass the same bailout!

I agree with the initial AARP statement. Congress msut act NOW. The bill should require oversight of those in charge though and there are a few changes that need to be made but we cannot do nothing.

I WANT NO BAILOUT FOR BUSINESS OR ANY OTHER BIG WIG

The LIBOR rate will now force me to lose my home and go into bankruptcy. CONGRESS needs to Force all LIBOR arm mortgage agreements to switch to the FED RATE so that at least there is some control by the fed and some immediate relief to the homeowners that have hung in there this long. My payment is scheduled to adjust from 8.25 percent to 11% in about a month, from 3,700 per month to over 5,000 per month. The original contract was 520,000 with 20% in equity which is likely not there and the house cannot be sold in this environment as there are plenty of better bargains out there after the foreclosures happen rather than before. They are not addressing the problem, stop talking subprime like it's the problem, every adjustable rate mortgage is now a problem, demand for housing will be there, but the money to buy it won't, thus the negative spiral will continue, and there won't be a need for bankers, morgage brokers and real estate agents, just Lawyers. this is just an attempt to plug a hole in the dyke with Katrina coming just around the corner.

It' not worth it! My comments will fall on deff ears. Shame on America!

The markets must be allowed to adjust; a bailout of Wall Street would just feed the same international financial sharks who created this crisis in order to consolidate their holdings and build their empires. Some executives should be fined and even jailed. Warren Buffett, et.allii, are grabbing up companies at bargain prices and bragging that the government will cover their investments. Instead of corporate bailouts, programs to support the economy should be aimed at job creation and stopping foreclosures (already tested and proven by the New Deal). We must stop wasting our human and monetary resources on war and invest in education and infrastructure. See Ross Perot's website for some great analysis. http://perotcharts.com/home/

The fault here lays on several doorsteps, primarily on all the weasels, theives and scoundrels in Washington, why would any sane individual even begin to think these idiots could solve any problem? It also lays on the doorstep of the owners. If you buy a home, it is up to you to make sure that you know exactly what you are getting into, if you don't understand it and it goes bad, well tough luck, do like I do, suck it up and move on, my bad. It to lays on the financial institutions for writing what they knew was bad paper. They knew that the loan was a bad deal yet they wrote it anyway. Now they want to spread fear and panick so that the government will come in and bail them out. They want the taxpayer to bail them out at a ratio more like 75 cents on the dollar versus the 10 cent on the dollar the property is worth in foreclosure.

Let them all wallow in the swill they created, not me and my tax dollar.

THIS SUGGESTED PLAN HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE TABLE:

The Common Sense Fix

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country,

but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support

any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following threestep

Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

a. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance.

Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the

world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

b. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two

things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a

6% fixed-rate mortgage.

a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the

balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a

chance to keep their homes.

b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or

the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of

foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable

for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that

encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while

working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and

ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and

executive team members as long as the company holds these

government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming

executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

c. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III

bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down

bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on

failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

a. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock

market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in

the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

b. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping

the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the

economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement

investments that go up instead of down.

This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to

stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

LET THE BILL DIE!

The markets have already been "healing" themselves.

The California housing market, where this all started, is already on the way back.

The problem here is the "affirmative action housing" rules promulgated by a Democrat congress during the Clinton administration and kept on course by the Democrats in Congress for their own benefit.

Maybe this is a way for the market to adjust and maybe wean us all off of the 24.99% ridiculous interest rates by the credit agencies in this country. We've become too dependent on EXPENSIVE credit. We need to all go to debit cards and cash, except for modest purchases and credit limits at 10% or less.

As they say: "No pain, no gain."

I keep hearing that we sent a sign to pass the bailout package, by dropping the DJ by 500+ points yesterday. I lost confidence because I thought they WOULD pass the bailout package, and was inclined to sell also. When they didn't pass it, I regained confidence and was inclined to buy. I'm not convinced that the answer to the economic hole the government put us in with Iraq is to throw another $700billion into that hole.

If I could really believe it was a prudent investment - and I can imagine how it could be - I'd be for it. And when I say investment, I don't mean subsidy.

Why do I want to give money to the people who caused this mess? If people like me are suffering, how is money going to high-priced financiers going to ease the suffering? Congress did the responsible thing.

As to acting now and fast -- sin in haste, repent in leisure. We are already suffering and this is a complex and tough issue.

One good thing -- it's nice to see Congress at work rather than at play. And a lot of their jobs are on the line this election. We do have a BIG say in all this.

Yesterday, the Dow went down 700 points and no one died. In fact, today, it went back up a bit (actually, a lot) It's becoming clearer that the powers in Washington are trying to frighten us. No one is explaining exactly what will happen if we do NOT bailout Wall Street. I say let the free market correct and punish those who made this mess and those who have used wall Street as a Casino. Then, we need to impose some long needed regulations. If the government needs to spend any money at all, let's spend it on Main Street - Let's provide National Health Care. Let's help people with their mortgage payments. After that, let's fine those who have abused the system for profit.

I agree with a few seniors that a bailout for the big money grubbing banks, with their out of sight interest rates, is not the thing to do. I've been downsized, then pushed into a forced retirement without a pot or a window. Now I'm barely existing on my Social Security. Add to that my heart disease and lung cancer. The politicians are putting so much money into their own pockets, let them foot the bill for our economy. The most absurd quote that I've ever heard was the famous Kennedy speach. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. We've died for our country and politicians, we've been paying for the illegal aliens, we've been throwing money to other countries, we've paid in blood and taxes. Its time for our country to take care of its own. Give it back to our people. I often wonder how many children and men and women have died today because the powers that be, didn't help with medical care, food, clothing, housing, etc... God help and bless us all.
Unless Obama changes that too.....

I say that we need to look at taking care of our home people and quit sending money to countries who do not want us in their countries and take the Billions of dollars and get down to business at helping our own people... What a mess Wall Street has gotten us into and with the help of the present administration.... I don't think that we can ever come out of this....Let's hope.....

The Congressional Leadership was trying to ram this bail out down our throats before we had a chance to really understand what it is all about.
Thank God some level headed people said wait a minute let's not turn this mess into a totally Governmental Socialistic free give a way program. I have faith that good well prevail and checks and balances will be installed to oversee how this money will be used. I would like to see the GAO investigate the leadership who got into this mess. There has to be accountability and a break a way from all this political correctness positions that got us into this situation to begin with,

Make Wall Street and both Democrats & Repulicans accountable for their irresponsibility. They all knew how this was going and they did nothing. klutzy9

LET THE BILL DIE!

The markets have already been "healing" themselves.

The California housing market, where this all started, is already on the way back.

The problem here is the "affirmative action housing" rules promulgated by a Democrat congress during the Clinton administration and kept on course by the Democrats in Congress for their own benefit.

Maybe this is a way for the market to adjust and maybe wean us all off of the 24.99% ridiculous interest rates by the credit agencies in this country. We've become too dependent on EXPENSIVE credit. We need to all go to debit cards and cash, except for modest purchases and credit limits at 10% or less.

As they say: "No pain, no gain."

A rescue plan of some sort is deperately needed. Most people who are retired with pensions are dependent on a Pension Fund from their ex-employer. Some of these funds are down 30%. This puts their retirement in jeopardy. Others are dependent on payouts from IRA's or 401K's they like wise have seen a loss of 30% of their life savings and retirement income. Social security may be all they have left if some form of rescue plan is not put in motion very, very, soon. The 30% loss could turn into a 80% loss. The unemployment could go from 5.5% to 35%. I would much rather keep my job, and pay more taxes, then not have a job at all.

This is just another way to funnel money to the big companies. Bush and many others think this world will be run by big corporations via the big eight. Look at the meetings they have all the time. If the financials really were so stressed why arent they selling the homes, cars, etc. for less money on the dollar to make up for the red ink they are carrying?? If you need to make money you sell more to make up for the losses. The airlines was the last great tragedy and why are they functioning now. They filed bankruptcy and are doing business. We wont question the quality lol Why would the banks stop doing business??? Their buddies on the hill are paying for them to go back to business as usual. They should be in jail for knowingly putting people on the streets. But big brother is covering their debts. Why else would they attempt to work togethor. They lefties appear to be on the boat because if the Righties help push it thru you can always blame it on them. We are not in as deep as they say. Dont be fooled by the scare them and then pick their pockets gambit. Think of Iraq. Scare them and pick pocket every month. Why would we stop someone from taking Irans nukes out??? It wont happen without us being scared and our pockets being picked.

We need a miracle to get the country back on track. I am not for the tax payers having to foot the bill and I am against any of the wheels in these organizations getting any money at all. I think they should forfet any money they have coming to help with the bail out. We do need to do something but there needs to be people to police how it is done. Many people knew this real estate inflation was going to blow up and they let the lenders keep bleeding the people. There needs to be monitors on the real estate market too.

The FINANCIAL crisis is so severe that every Representative, irrespective of party affiliation, should be fired - relieved of his seat, if he did not vote for the Rescue. There is tremendous need for approving regulatory guidelines on the financial markets instruments, but most of us DO NOT PERCEIVE, that even the most liquid Money Market Funds carry very short tem investments secured by Government Agency bonds, which are worth way below par. Hence your most liquid money investments may be worth less that 100 cents on the dollar. The Rescue Package MUST BE APPROVED IMMEDIATELY, to preclude CATASTRY. Then past regulatory problems must be rectified.

Ihor Shust
Huntingdon Valley, PA

The situation is not good for any of us. The whole economy is suffering and will get worse if the congress dosn't get moving and provide some supervision and relief. I'm not saying just throw money at this, but if it's possible to buy the loans and get the money back eventually... I say go for it.

Congress,
Get with the program

No bailout for Wallstreet. How does giving Wallstreet banks more funny money help solve the problem? If the banks don't want to loan money out ... let it ride for a while. Loans are how they make money. The ones that don't loan will fail.

And yes, unfortunately, some overpriced homes will drop in value to something more marketable that our children can afford. Let the market take care of itself!

AARP only used the one day drop in the market in their byline. It was tragic and significant. However, the two-day average is a 280 point drop. We have no idea where it might go. But giving help to all people who got into the unusual mortgages is not right. Many are good people who were led to make poor decisions. But, many others were people who fabricated income and obtained outside loans to obtain a 80% or 90% mortgage loan when in essence they obtained over 100% total. Mix in the investors who scammed the mortgage industry with fraud and you have a group of people who should not be rewarded. So, if we give money to the buyers, how do we regulate and who do we reward? It can't be everyone! And bailing out a business that performed poorly is just as equally not right. Perhaps the increase in the guarantee on money in our banks is good. But throwing good money after bad is a poor solution.

I too hope this bailout bill does not pass. There are many other ways to deal with this crisis then throwing $700 Billion at it. We need to take our time and consult all the experts and not make rash decisions. I don't think anyone in Washington knows what to do about this issue. I think they feel like they have to do something even if it is wrong. If the president and congress have the powers needed to force lending companies to give out the credit necessary to keep businesses going. They can raise the FDIC amount of protection. They can force lending companies to work more with people to prevent more foreclosures. They can manipulate things anyway they want. They do this all the time whenever it is convenient for them. Well now is the time they need to manipulate the economy in ways that will make things right for the average American. I don't believe all the gloom and doom propaganda if they don't rush to pass this bailout. This bailout plan is nothing more gimmick to make voters think they are doing something just prior to the elections.

I was glad to read the majority of responders here realize that some problems can't be fixed by throwing money at them. That's what got us in this mess in the first place. Pushing mortgages on people for little or no money down with interest only payments (or less), knowing that these people could ill afford to even keep up the home, let alone bear the payments when they started to inflate, is criminal. Then, when the banks realized they had a bad debt, they bundled it up, put the best "apples" on top and alot of rotten ones underneath. Now, they want the taxpayer to pay for this? I think not!

My husband worked as a fraud investigator for a mortgage lender for seven years after he retired from federal law enforcement. He could look at an application and know when it was fraudulent. Once, the VP of the company begged him to sign off on a particular application that my husband (and the VP) knew was a bad loan. He told the VP that he could sign for it, but that he (my husband) would not put his name on it. Then, shortly before he left, the company decided to use a software program to ID bad applications. That company went out of business about 2 years after it went on the NY Stock Exchange.

My point is, this did not happen overnight. Alot of CEO's are now retired with their golden parachutes, enjoying the money that the taxpayers are now being asked to underwrite. No, no, no. What's wrong with you AARP?

Letter to my Congress "Persons"
We, the voters, have one, simple mind on this-you (the Congress) have not considered the alternatives and there are many.

You have ignored 200 degreed economists who say this won't work.
You have IGNORED Nobel Laureates that say there NO EVIDENCE that this is necessary AND will not work.

Yesterday,the stock market was a warning, we DON"T trust congress with our future economy.

I thanked you yesterday for your integrity in voting "NO" on the
bailout. This bill is an insult to the intelligence of the America
people.

I ask you to vote NO again on this bailout. If, indeed action needs to be taken, time and sound judgment needs to be implemented, to devise a new plan.
This is just unsound thinking to pass this bailout, and will end in disaster. Until a sound solution can be found, (which this Bailout
is NOT) Vote NO on this proposition!

Sincerely,
Barbara Cox

The greedy mortgage lenders got away with it because the Democrats forced them to give loans to people that could not afford them. The mortgage/bank Execs obliged and raped the system with Golden Parachute and big $$ stock options (by the way, just about all of them were high level Democrats at one time, mainly Clinton era). Any time the government gets involved, and they initiated this by forcing subprime loans on Fannie & Freddie, the system gets screwed up. Now they want those who screwed it up to fix it. If it is truly going to hurt us, guarantee the loans that go bad (not all the subprime loans), but make the banks/mortgage companies pay it back with their own loans over 10 years. Let them work like small business does!! No government agency will ever bail out a small business.

I failed to save early and made mistakes and had some health problems that have sent my debt load up. I'm still making all my payments and my work as a home inspector is a little slow. I live in one of the better real estate markets in the country at this time. That may all change tomorrow as loans are getting much harder for even "good credit risks" to get. I actually went to my Congressman's office with 6 other people and said we did not want to bail out Wall Street. Now, I know we need to do something, however I and many others think we've had enough of this 20 plus years of trickle down economics. We need to start at the bottom and work our way up if we are ever going to get this economy back on the right track and rebuild the middle class. Send the fat cats to the St. Thomas or Bimini. Cut their pay and put our money where it will help us.
My vast wealth has dropped 46% since July...

Tired of lazy people not working. Tired of working hard and getting low petty salaries. Tired of inflation overriding cost of living. Tired of people getting scared which was once a great system. Tired of businesses shutting down. Tired of people not using their brains and only complaining and not helping the situations which people as a whole should be able to rescue. Tired of the government rollercoasting with our money in which we who work 40 hours plus a week and us only getting a small percentage. Tired of a congress who takes more days off than I personally have seen since the age of 16. Tired of college education being high, doctors and medicine high, utility rates high, mortgage rates high, CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES high, vehicles and car insurance high, and groceries HIGH! Yet we spend much money overseas helping those folks but yet the government can't help AMERICA! SINFUL indeed.

NO NO NO NO NO! No bail out period. I would rather wind up on the sidewalk with only the clothes on my back than give those idiots one thin dime.

They screwed the people of this country and lined their pockets for so long and now they have to run to us for a loan that they themselves would laugh at.

DON'T THINK SO!!

My final word{s} NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!

I think the American people have paid enough already, with the gas and everything else that has gone up. Why should we have to pay to bail out banks and etc?? Let the government loan the money to americans that need it for their homes and families.

First, I say no to Henry Paulson's plan, no to him being in sol charge of it and no to him having anything to do with it.

Place our highly intelligent economists in charge if... there is to be any kind of bail out.

No Risk to the American taxpayers.

Let’s get this straight.

If my business of thirty years would go belly-up, would the government of the United States of America come with devalued dollars in hand to bail me out?

On the other hand, any of the millions of American business just like me.

This is the backbone of America -- small businesses.

I do not believe the statistics have changed from the years gone by where one in five small businesses fails.

Remember the old cliché?
Only the strong survive.

Well let that statistic and truism ride its course.

In my humble opinion, the strong will survive and NEVER make the mistake again.

Allow these arrogant highly paid investors and CEO's take the hit and go down with the ship just as many of us have had to do.

Let's also get a handle on Washington.

There has to be an outlaw on lobbyists’.
It only causes favors owed and continued greed in the elected officials that we trust to have integrity and an incorruptible degree of character.

Next, we must have term limits in these elected officials.

Instead of serving their country most I feel are going into public service seeking power and a blank paycheck with all of the trimmings.

No more career politicians.

Next, I believe we must have a way for the American taxpaying citizen say when their representatives deserve a pay raise or not.
Let democracy work and eliminate the 'good ole boy girl' network.

I could go on; however, it would raise my blood pressure to its limit.
Thanks for reading my rant.

Dave Powell
Florida... Indepen