GOP and Democrats can share the blame

Despite what Les Ayres said in the April 10 Fence Post, Democrats are not fully to blame for our financial mess and Republicans are not thwarted saviors. It's easy to tell people who listen to Fox News, because it's the same misguided propaganda and thoughtless inspection of the facts.

The Community Reinvestment Act did not cause our financial woes. All that did was tell banks that they needed to reinvest in the same communities in which they profit. Where the train left the rails is in 1999 when Glass-Steagall was overturned by Republicans Gramm, Leach and Bliley - passing the so-named amendment that allowed for banks, insurance and investment firms to merge.

That allowed for Fannie and Freddie and the newly formed banking conglomerates to do high risk loans with high profit margins and not hold on to the risk ­ they could bundle it up as securities and sell it for even more profit. It was gambling using other people money, and now we're paying the price.

Are Democrats blameless in this? Hardly! But it's the GOP philosophy of deregulation and profit by any means that got us where we are. It was the Republican-led Congress of two years under Clinton and six years under Bush who got us to where we are.

Too bad when the Democrats took over they didn't clean house, which is why nobody's hands are clean here. Hopefully under the leadership of Barack Obama, we can reregulate these industries and get our economic train back on the tracks. No company should ever be too big to fail and we all need rules to live and work by - even if we call those rules "regulations."

Cheryl Graves

Elgin