Senator McCain, Please Vote No on the Bailout Bill when you enter the Senate and Shout Out No - in Thunder!
This is a bad bargain with the Devil for America! I have no dog in this fight. I have no money. My salary goes to mortgage ( saved and locked), utilities, kids tuition, groceries, my Church and charities, gas, and tons of taxes. I am worried that my kids will suffer for decades if this bargain is sealed.
Consider what your native Arizonans say:
First, Congress should suspend the mark-to-market accounting rule for mortgage-backed securities. This requires MBSs to be booked for the highly discounted price at which they can currently be sold, not the much higher price they are likely to be worth if held to maturity.
The bill rejected by the House would have empowered the SEC to suspend the rule. Instead, Congress should mandate it. This would provide virtually as much balance sheet relief as Paulson's proposal that taxpayers buy the MBSs.
Second, enact the House Republicans' idea for the federal government to insure MBSs. Paulson says it won't work. But he would have a hard time explaining why companies pay trillions for such private insurance but won't purchase more secure insurance from the federal government.
Third, have the federal government guarantee the refinancing of homes based upon extending the life of the mortgage for as long as it takes, even if well beyond the conventional 30-year period, to reduce monthly payments to a certain percentage of income. With such a program, no one would have to lose their home, lenders wouldn't have to take a hair cut, and, given the income requirement, federal outlays would be minimal.
This program relieves the credit crunch caused by artificially depressed MBSs as much as the federal government is capable of doing. It doesn't fundamentally change the role of the federal government in the private economy, as House Republicans fear. It helps homeowners, as Democrats want.
And it doesn't put taxpayers at considerable risk to bail out imprudent big-boy investors, as a remarkable coalition of independent-minded Democrats and conservative Republicans commendably called a halt to on Monday.
Absolutely! Chicken Little Scam artists are all over this bailout.
There will be no Depression.
There will be no Collapse of the Economy
There will be no Bread Lines
There will be greater scrutiny placed upon the louses who cheated the tax-payers and Empty Suit Obama who wants to provide them cover.
Strike boldly McCain! Say No in Thunder!
