Explaining the Unexplainable

Nearly every major economist in the United States warned that the massive bailout plan for Wall Street was a big mistake.

Yet our elected representatives in Congress voted in favor of it.

Granted, most of our elected officials are not economists. But would that not carry the presumption that one would consult the experts in a field about which one knows very little?

Apparently not if you are in Congress...which is not quite fair to say since many in the House voted against the measure, but not enough to prevent the Pelosi-Bush pork-laden bill to pass.

Defying the wisdom of economists across the spectrum in a broad sampling of colleges and universities, and think-tanks, the Congress voted to grant a pass to the worst offenders in the economic entanglement on Wall Street and essentially reward bad behavior on the part of FannieMae and FreddieMac.

The markets reacted by sliding downward, not upward. That is not unexpected, folks.

This is the America we live in today. If you are a small business owner on Main Street, nobody comes around from Washington to forgive all of your bad decisions, investment mistakes, and bad debt. But if you are a big wig on Wall Street, commit fraud and exhibit the most bumbling, befuddled, boneheaded decision-making on the planet, you get rewarded for it by Congress in the form of more money.

We have the likes of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Charles Rangel to thank for creating a culture in which this nightmarish scenario was likely to happen.

When the government begins using its own entities such as FannieMae and FreddieMac to pressure lending institutions to give loans to people who cannot even begin to pay back what they borrow, it is simply asking for a crash down the line.

This is why we are experiencing the present problem.

Democrats in Congress, along with Bill Clinton, treated the lending industry as a social program for the poor beginning in the 1990s. No matter that you laden the poor with a financial burden that they will never get out of short of bankruptcy. We can pat ourselves on the back because, 'We enabled the less fortunate to buy homes.'

That's great as long as they can afford to pay back the mortgage. But when you lend $300,000 to a family that can only afford $100,000, what does any smart person know will happen down the line?

But the bozos in Washington wanted to pretend that what would happen down the line is of no major consequence. What matters is getting the poor into those homes at any cost.

Thus, the advent of predatory lending that took advantage of people with no means to pay.

And now, instead of reigning in this insanity, the insane who run the asylum have decided to reward the insanity by creating more insanity.

This, my friends, is the way Congress works when we elect goons and incompetents to office.

Second Amendment News Roundup for 9/29/08

Focusing on guns, politics, and news of interest, here is today's Second Amendment News Roundup:

From Mike McCarville:
*The latest poll results from Rasmussen.
*But in Oklahoma, the race is not even close.

Glenn Reynolds has some interesting poll results from the state of Tennessee on the election.

Michelle Malkin reports that the House has rejected the Wall Street bailout plan on the first vote.

Gateway Pundit has more today on Obama's 'squelch free speech goon squad' in Missouri.

From David Codrea:
*'The Militia is YOU!'
*'Case Studies in Civil Disobedience'
*'Cause and Effect'--a MUST-read.
*'Viscous Animals'--you gotta see this one too!

JR provides guest commentary on the bailout fiasco.

Roberta X has a good summary of the September Blog Meet in Indy.

Nicki posts essential reading on the liberals' treatment of Sarah Palin's daughter.

The Bitch Girls comment on an ad the NRA is running that is critical of Obama. Obama, by the way, is attempting to get these ads banned.

Robb Allen has this little juicy item on Obama's problem with the First Amendment.

Texas Fred reports that this thing is about to backfire on Obama--the backlash has begun!

Breda has THE must-read of the day entitled, 'Can You Handle the Truth?'

Uncle comments on the database of ballistic fingerprints.

In case you missed it 2 days ago, Front Sight Press has an excellent read entitled, 'Girding for the Fight.'

Dr. John Lott provides the latest update on the gun ban at the Atlanta airport. GeorgiaCarry has gotten involved.

Western Rifle Shooters Association posts Mike Vanderboegh's latest chapter in Absolved.

The Rustmeister presents an anti-gun screed from a numbskull and then links to a sensible commentator who takes it apart.

The Smallest Minority has the quote of the day.

BAILOUT AGREEMENT: WHAT'S IN IT?

Congressional Democrats and Republicans have apparently reached an agreement on a bailout of Wall Street that deletes the most objectionable portions of the original proposal while retaining language on which both sides can agree.

At first glance it appears that House Republicans succeeded in getting nixed the Democrat/Bush administration proposal that focused solely on grants or giveaways of taxpayers' money rather than insurance.

The latest proposal includes an insurance program that the troubled financial institutions will pay to be part of. No taxpayer money at all will be used for this. We have House Republicans
and John McCain to thank for this concession.

The compromise plan also limits any salary boosts or bonus benefits for the CEO's of corporations that participate in the plan.

There will be no money included in the bill for ACORN--a corrupt liberal Democrat lobbying outfit that supports Barack Obama. The Dems had originally slipped this into the bill until House Republicans cried foul.

It goes without saying that the GOP had to make some concessions to get a compromise deal. Thus, the latest proposed plan includes an immediate infusion of 250 billion into Wall Street from the federal government, but this is greatly reduced from the original 700 billion proposed by Democrats and the Bush administration.

There are, of course, many more provisions in this bill that are too numerous to mention here, but there are 2 sources of detailed information.

For a complete summary of the main provisions, click HERE.
For the complete text of the bill itself, click HERE.

Needless to say, I still object to 250 billion dollars of taxpayers' money being given to Wall Street failures. But with Democrats in control of Congress, what can we honestly expect? Taxpayer money to them is like Santa Claus on Christmas. It rains millions all over the place, just waiting for them to spend.