U.S. banking firms, particularly in the mortgage industry, chose to offer mortgages to high-risk home buyers. Home buyers chose to take on mortgage payments they were unable to afford. Now, according to President George W. Bush (R), you and I—the American taxpayers—should rescue these companies and individuals from their own reckless decisions.
Thankfully, many members of Congress—conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat—are drawing a line in the sand on Bush’s plan to spend $700 billion of your dollars on rewarding bad decisions.
The best course of action the government can take to stabilize the economy is to stop interfering. No rescues, no bailouts, no Mommy Government fixing all Americans’ mistakes. Bad decisions have consequences, and the best thing to do is let those consequences take their course. Yes, some businesses will fail. Yes, some homeowners who overextended themselves will lose their homes. Sorry guys; you reap what you sow. Maybe next time you won’t offer 1 million dollar mortgages to people who make $30,000/year. Maybe next time you’ll read the fine print and refuse to sign a mortgage that you can’t afford.
The government has no right to redistribute your and my hard-earned dollars to the very people and businesses who created this ‘crisis’. A 700 billion dollar hand-out won’t fix the ignorance and stupidity that led to these economic troubles, nor will it have any benefit for the vast majority of us who are actually doing just fine (because we made smart decisions). I don’t know what kind of ‘conservatism’ President Bush thinks he is practicing; a 700 billion dollar bailout of private businesses sounds more like Roosevelt-style economic interventionism.