A letter to Congress
I sent the following letter to Illinois members of Congress. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi and her buddy "Little Barney Foo-Foo," showing a total lack of leadership with their partisan comments, doomed the bill to failure.
September 29, 2008
Dear Member of Congress:
I am writing you to express my very reluctant support of the economic bailout bill. I realize that this unprecedented action is required due to the incompetence, mismanagement, and greed in the real estate, financial, banking, and insurance industries, as well as federal government agencies and Congress. However, I insist that the bill should minimize taxpayer exposure and absolutely include NO pork barrel spending for special interest groups! I am also against bailing out people that were dumb or naive enough to take out home mortgages that they could not afford! They have the same responsibility to manage their personal finances as the rest of us who were fiscally responsible enough to buy homes we could afford and pay for.
I was absolutely appalled to find out now that the bills for bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac included pork barrel spending for special interest groups! When will Congress learn that these antics are no longer acceptable to the American public? Congress needs to immediately revisit these bills and eliminate all the pork barrel spending!
While everyone has been quick to point fingers and we all agree that the mismanagement and excesses on Wall Street are part of the problem, there is plenty of blame to go around. Agencies of the federal government, that had an oversight responsibility for these industries and an obligation to advise the American public if there were any problems, were negligent in their duties and asleep at the switch. These agencies need to be reprimanded and there should be changes in management, motivation and direction to insure this debacle is not repeated!
And Congress bears a great share of the responsibility for this whole mess. It was Congress that created Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. In retrospect it was a poor idea at best and there were plenty of warning bells that there were major problems with these ventures. Yet, Congress DID NOTHING! This is inexcusable! While this whole situation was going downhill, Congressional committees that had oversight responsibility for these industries sat on their hands and did NOTHING! However, they had no problem having their hands out to accept campaign contributions from these very same industries! Congress needs to pass a law immediately to make it illegal for any congressional committee member to accept donations from any company, industry or organization that their committee has oversight responsibility.
In my opinion, Chris Dodd and Barney Franks should be immediately removed as chairmen of the banking and finance committees. They have proven to be incompetent and derelict in their duties and responsibilities to the American people. They, and any others involved in receiving campaign contributions from the involved industries, should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted for their misdeeds and poor judgment!
Once again, the American public is being stuck to foot the bill for the incompetence of others in industry and government. In this year where everyone seems to have the word "change" in their campaign jingle, I think there are plenty of things involved in the current economic situation that obviously need to be "changed". What Congress does or fails to do will determine who gets my vote on November 4.
Daryl Pratt
Arlington Heights