Reagan's words haunt Republicans

Ronald Reagan stated what he considered the nine scariest words in the English language: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Well everyone, the federal government is here to help. First of all, in a few weeks, many of us will be receiving checks from the federal government in the hope of stimulating the economy.

The proposed cost of this is $168 billion, which will be borrowed money.

Now we have the federal government stepping in to guarantee the rescue of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan.

How can you Republicans stand for this?

But as you are finding out, the unregulated free market economy is a disaster waiting to happen.

It will be interesting to see how many more institutions will require the assistance of the federal government.

But of course, those executives who directed their companies already have their huge compensation and will have no responsibility for the mess they have created.

As usual, the taxpayers will be left with the tab as we were with the S&Ls in the late 1980s, which was caused primarily from the dismantling of banking regulations by the Reagan administration.

Kevin Martin

Schaumburg