No Bailout for Banks!
Are you outraged to hear that yesterday Congress voted to approve a billion-dollar bailout of the banks and financial institutions that engaged in reckless lending practices and helped create the housing market crisis?
Are you doubly outraged to learn that the $41.7 price tag quoted by the Congressional Budget Office is more likely to be around $400 billion, and could reach as much as $1.4 trillion, according to Standard and Poor's?
This is $1.4 trillion that will be paid by you and me and our children. Why? Because our representatives in Washington have decided that the taxpayers should pay for the mistakes of those who bought into the housing bubble, and the financial institutions that enabled their frenzy.
This bailout will only encourage more of the same. When people -- and in this case, massive financial institutions -- know that they will be rescued from their bad financial decisions, what incentive do they have to make good ones?
TOMORROW -- yes, that's tomorrow, Saturday July 26th -- the US Senate will be voting to approve (or not!) this outrage. Let's send them an unequivocal message that this bailout is unacceptable! There are three things you can do right now:
1. Call your senator TODAY, and let him or her know that they will not be getting your vote in the next election if they support this bill. Remember, the vote is tomorrow!
2. Sign the petition
3. Forward this message to everyone you know who is as outraged as you are.
Are you outraged to hear that yesterday Congress voted to approve a billion-dollar bailout of the banks and financial institutions that engaged in reckless lending practices and helped create the housing market crisis?
Are you doubly outraged to learn that the $41.7 price tag quoted by the Congressional Budget Office is more likely to be around $400 billion, and could reach as much as $1.4 trillion, according to Standard and Poor's?
This is $1.4 trillion that will be paid by you and me and our children. Why? Because our representatives in Washington have decided that the taxpayers should pay for the mistakes of those who bought into the housing bubble, and the financial institutions that enabled their frenzy.
This bailout will only encourage more of the same. When people -- and in this case, massive financial institutions -- know that they will be rescued from their bad financial decisions, what incentive do they have to make good ones?
TOMORROW -- yes, that's tomorrow, Saturday July 26th -- the US Senate will be voting to approve (or not!) this outrage. Let's send them an unequivocal message that this bailout is unacceptable! There are three things you can do right now:
1. Call your senator TODAY, and let him or her know that they will not be getting your vote in the next election if they support this bill. Remember, the vote is tomorrow!
2. Sign the petition
3. Forward this message to everyone you know who is as outraged as you are.
We the undersigned are outraged that Congress has voted to approve a billion-dollar bailout of the banks and financial institutions that engaged in reckless lending practices and helped create the current housing market crisis.
We are doubly outraged to learn that the $41.7 price tag quoted by the Congressional Budget Office is more likely to be around $400 billion, and could reach as much as $1.4 trillion, according to Standard and Poor's. This is $1.4 trillion that will be paid by taxpayers and by our children. Why? Because our representatives in Washington have decided that we should pay for the mistakes of those who bought into the housing bubble, and the financial institutions that enabled their frenzy.
This bailout will only encourage more of the same. When people and institutions know that they will be rescued from their bad financial decisions, what incentive do they have to make good ones?
We urge you to do the right thing. We urge you not to reward reckless behavior. We urge you not to punish those of us who behaved responsibly and did not participate in the housing market frenzy. And most of all, we urge you not to vote to give billions more to the very institutions that contributed to this mess. We urge you to vote NO on the housing bailout bill.
Sincerely,
This once great Republic is becoming the laughing stock of the world. The middle class people who have payed the bills in this country are being wiped out. Soon we will have too groups, the poor and the rich. Who then will pay the bills? The Federal government has gone into the paper business, they print worthless laws and worthless money on very expensive paper. I say No Bailout, let the banks fail. We must suffer the pain now and let Fannie and Freddie die. This bailout will make things worse for the working person in the long run, and will not help those people who are loseing their homes. Who knows what the final costs of the bailout will be? Some estimates are as high as two trillion dollars. This bill does the nation a great dis-service. Vote against this bill and for responsibility. When in a capitalistic economy was business suddenly not allowed to fail?
NO BAILOUTS!!! The government has no right to commit us to this! Not Congress, Not the Senate, not the Judiciary and not the Executive. No right! We demand that the government works for the people and upholds the Constitution every member swears to uphold when they take office!
It is unfortunate that many families are finding themselves in this housing disaster. Buying a home is...for many ...the biggest investment that they will ever make. Education should be manditory before buying and before signing any papers the loan officer has to sign off that any questions have been answered and understood by the buyer. The lenders, mortgage companies and all involved with the buying process need to take responsibility for THEIR MESS and come up with a resolution to resolve their problem. I am a taxpayer and do not feel it is right or my responsibility to pay millions of dollars for the rest of my life, the lives of my children and those of their children. It is not right or fair and our government needs to do their job and protect and serve the people. These are private companies not federal so why are we bailing them out? They do not share their profits so why are we paying for their bad business decisions?
The tax payers shouldn't have to pay for mistakes of corporations.
WITH THE PROFITS BANKS MAKE YEARLY I FIND THIS BAILOUT A WASTE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY,WHAT HAVE THE BANKS DONE WITH THE WEALTH THEY HAVE CREATED,STOP SAVING THE RICH AT THE EXPENSE OF THE POOR.
"Socialize the losses, privatize the profits." If I start my own business and it fails, who is going to bail me out? Don't bail out these banks.
Please consider the long range implications of this bailout instead of the short-term band aide.
We must suffer the pain now and let Fannie and Freddie die. This bailout will make things worse for the working person in the long run. Dont trade out liberties and our money to appease the bankers.
There is no fairness in this concept whatsoever. If this bailout passes, the costs will be placed on our children's backs, and they had nothing to do with creating it.
Not holding those who are responsible, accountable for their own mistakes and bailing them out with the taxpayers hard earned money will only encourage these financial institutions to keep on the same path and rely on the govt. to continue to bail them out at every crisis. Why should I have to pay for their mistakes? Hold those responsible, accountable!
I pay my own debts. Please don't force me to pay for these greedy financial institutions and foreign investors in their bonds. They got a higher interest rate to compensate for RISK. Now let them take their lumps.
Reform the Community Reinvestment Act and toughen the standards for lending. Much of this mess stems from well-intentioned but wrong-headed policy begun during the Clinton year that pushed for higher rates of homeownership among those who had dubious credit and were not financially equipped to sustain mortgage payments.
Do not bail out the banks. Also shut down the federal reserve.
A better idea would be to let Fannie and Freddie fail or at least remove all their government support.
Not that this will make a difference because you are all a bunch of liars and thieves. You only care about enriching your own pockets and once again the American people have to pay. All the good men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting Fascism, Communism, and Socialism are all spinning in their graves. Thanks for nothing.
This bill will not help homeowners keep their homes or stabilize the housing market and economy. It will only serve to transfer losses from reckless lenders and borrowers and Wall Street investors to the taxpayers. This bill is the epitome of Moral Hazard! Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not explicitly guaranteed by the federal government and, in fact, were required to inform investors that their securities were not so guaranteed. Therefore, it appears to me that the taxpayers have no legal obligation to rescue Freddie and Fannie. Those who invested in the companies’ securities took a risk and they should suffer the losses. Likewise, the taxpayers should not be forced to pay for failing mortgages. Those mortgages are private contracts with which Congress should not interfere. The lenders and borrowers can modify the loans themselves. Furthermore, in cases of predatory lending, the borrowers already have a remedy – to take the lenders to court. There is no reason to burden the taxpayers with the certain losses from these faulty loans. While I oppose every aspect of this bill, I am especially concerned about giving a blank check to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to rescue Fannie and Freddie. Although the Congressional Budget Office reported earlier this week that the Fannie and Freddie bailout might cost $25 billion, earlier this year Standard and Poor’s gauged the cost to taxpayers of a Freddie and Fannie bailout at $1.4 trillion. http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/15/sp-gauges-bailout-of-wall-street-firms/ From the article: "The potential cost to U.S. taxpayers of bailing out Wall Street firms stricken by the credit crisis could grow to as much as $400 billion in a deep and prolonged recession, Standard & Poor's estimated yesterday. That bill would soar by another $1.4 trillion if it included the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other government credit agencies, whose losses could be so massive that the U.S. government could lose its AAA rating in what would be a calamity for the U.S. Treasury and the dollar." Rushing full speed ahead to pass legislation that will put the taxpayers at risk for this potential $1.4 trillion in losses, which it appears they have absolutely no legal obligation to pay, is utterly unconscionable. Ultimately, this legislation will prolong and deepen the housing market downturn by taking money out of the pockets of the home buyers who will eventually stabilize the market by buying homes when prices return to reasonable price to income ratios and putting it into the hands of the reckless borrowers and lenders that ran home prices up to unsustainable levels and the investors who bought the risky loans. It is regrettable that Congress and the President are in favor of harming the American taxpayers and present and future generations of home buyers to benefit the wrongdoers who put our economy in such distress. As a concerned taxpayer, I would like to again ask you to do the right thing and oppose this bailout.
I don't see anyone running to bail the average citizen out of their financial crises so why should We the Taxpayer bail out the banks?? This is just a band-aid for a bleeding artery anyway. Might as well let it play out now and get it over with.
Bailing out reckless behavior by private financial institutions is is height of folly. This bill does the nation a great dis-service. Vote against this bill and for responsibility.
The heck with "too big to fail." Let them fold like a cheap suit.
Governmental intervention in this matter will only distort the market and make things worse. Not only is it not likely to help matters in the long run (on the contrary), there is also the matter of using tax payer money so irresponsibly. Let the private sector keep our wealth where we use it productively and responsibly and bear our own consequences for its use or misuse.
Let the market forces play out.
What we need is a default movement -- saying basically we, the taxpayers aren't going to pay off the debt unless politicians start taking serious action to reduce it. And taking it out of our hides doesn't count! So if government officials want to borrow and spend more money, they better be prepared to pay off the debt themselves, or pass it on strictly to their own children. And institutions that lend money to the U.S. government, or people who buy government bonds, should be hereby put on notice that they do so at their own risk.
When in a capitalistic economy was business suddenly not allowed to fail? When business is safe to make stupid decisions, they will continue to do so at the cost of the people. Stop the bailouts.
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