The Bailout

Yesterday, the United States Senate passed the , what I like to call, "No Banker Left Behind" bill. I hate to say that the most rediculous thing isn't the fact that the government is giving Wall Street more money that 99 percent of America will ever see, it is the things they had to add to get the "public servants" to vote for it. "Provisions related to film and television productions," "Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the ExxonValdez litigation," and "Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children," don't sound like they have anything to do with the "economic rescue plan." Things like that make me furious. Why is it that these idiots can't just vote on one matter. Why do you take something as important as the economy and throw in things like child wooden arrow makers tax exemptions. I realize that not everybody liked the bailout, me included, but how many votes did they win over by adding in provisions for movie makers.

Now to the money issue. I don't know if people realize what this bill is going to do. A snippet of the wording of this bill says:

"The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation, the following:
(1) The Secretary shall have direct hiring authority with respect to the appointment of employees to administer this Act.
(2) Entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code.
(3) Designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Federal Government, and such institutions shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Federal Government as may be required.
(4) In order to provide the Secretary with the flexibility to manage troubled assets in a manner designed to minimize cost to the taxpayers, establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase, hold, and sell
troubled assets and issue obligations.
(5) Issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities or purposes of this Act."

This sounds a lot like the bill that the Senate and House passed to give G.W.B. full reigns to the military in Iraq. Yeah sure we have given the President the most executive power ever and we are giving his Secretary of Treasury complete control over our economy. So lets just give the next President the complete and total control over the entire country. I worked with a guy, Gary, not that long ago that said that if you slowly give more and more power to the President, there is nothing to keep them from pulling a Hitler. I think that if these people continually give more and more power to the executive branch and its goons, that we will end up being run by someone who does not have the best intentions of our country in mind. The only thing that is keeping us from being run by a Hitler, is "The right to a well maintained and well regulated militia." Now we are also about to elect someone to the presidency that is probably going to try to limit or eliminate the types of arms we would need. I do have hope though. Like I said previously, the Congress and the next President over the next 4 years will more than likely do a worse job than the "guy I'd like to have a beer with" did over the last 8, and everyone will finally get their heads out of their asses and realize that the more you injunct the government into the market the more it gets screwed up. Fannie and Freddie are prime examples. That is why I am voting for Bob Barr, because he is the only person running that understands that the government can't fix these problems.