Congress has a bad track record
I recently read where the politicians in Washington built a visitor center for the tourists who come to the Capitol. The original estimate for this center came in at $71 million. I would like to think they scrutinized this estimate since $71 million is an awful lot of taxpayer's money. At that price I have to assume this was going to be some kind of extravagant visitor center.
Turns out they miscalculated a little and the center came in over budget, a little over to the tune of $550 million over for a finished price of $621 million. Not 8 percent over, not $8 million over but eight times over the original estimate. Imagine you get an estimate for a small home repair and the estimate is for $1,500. When the work is done and the contractor says he forgot a couple of items and the bill is actually $12,000. Wouldn't this feel like a crime to you?
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised as this is the same group that said Freddie and Fannie were in great shape. It is also the same group that started this mess with the idea that homeownership is everyone's right, not just those who paid their bills and built up a respectable credit rating, no, it is everyone's right regardless of credit history.
Now we see financial institutions and automobile companies coming before the wizards of Washington with their hands out and the politicians are grilling and berating them in public. You know inside these executives want to say that many of the politician's policies and requirements are what caused the problem, but I guess you don't point your finger at the group you are asking for billions from.
So a bunch of elected officials who, for the most part, have never been in business or had to turn a profit in their lives are now telling businesses what to do and are expecting some ownership-type decision making as part of the deal for these combination handout/loans. If this is the group we are looking to as our saviors from financial ruin then this problem is going to become much bigger as these people specialize in "unforeseen consequences" that almost always end up making the problems worse.
Marc Thomsen
Elk Grove Village