Bailout Nation - A Shredded Constitution

For those who haven't been keeping track, our government has now spent about $3.5 TRILLION dollars on bailouts the last few months. That's right, trillions with a big, fat, T. How can this be? Didn't congress only vote on a $700 billion bailout (known as TARP)? Yes, yes they did. But the Fed apparently has the unconstitutional authority not only to print money out of thin air, but also to make "emergency loans" to companies all over the country without any congressional approval, oversight, or any other form of responsibility. Here's how it breaks down so far:

• $2 Trillion in "Emergency Loans"
• $700B TARP (the official bailout voted on by congress)
• $300B Hope Now (the gov's year-old attempt at saving troubled mortgages)
• $200B Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac nationalizations
  
• $140B Tax Breaks for Banks (which the IRS quietly enacted without fanfare)
• $110B: AIG (in addition to $40B of TARP money)

What? You didn't realize how much money was being spent? Yeah, well... not many people do.

Oh, incidentally... that $2 trillion in "Emergency Loans" that the fed has already dished out (without constitutional authority, or oversight)... yeah, they refuse to tell anyone who they have lent that money to, or what kind of collateral they got in exchange. Talk about scary. That's $6,700 for every man, woman, and child in this country.

And the TARP money? Tens of billions of dollars of that bailout money are being used to pay corporate executive bonuses. BONUSES?!? WHAT?!?

But oh, gentle reader, don't get the false impression that the bailouts are over. Not by a long shot. There will almost certainly be hundreds of billions (if not trillions) more given out to the financial industry. And let's not forget the automakers, who are almost certainly going to get tens of billions of dollars. And what about the government's pension guarantee corporation, which is getting hammered and will likely need additional funds to take all these failed pensions on its books? How about FDIC and NCUA, which insure bank and credit union deposits? They're probably going to need billions by the time this is all over. Then there the airlines, quietly waiting in line for their turn to ask for a handout. And the list goes on. Where will it ever end?

Trying to add up the true cost of the bailouts is very difficult, and won't really be known for years. But just think about the fact that $3.5 trillion is about 25% of the entire US economy for a year, and about 35% of our current national debt, and you may start to be alarmed. Unfortunately, hyperinflation and/or sharply higher interest rates seem to be where we are headed. Hyperinflation is always terrible, and sharply higher interest rates would deal a terrible blow to this already crippled economy. However you look at it, it isn't pretty.

The constitution has in the last 50 years become nothing but a nice idea, a historical note, to be used as a trumpeting call to rally people, but to be completely ignored by our government. There are tens of millions of people in America who still believe in it and want to see our government restored to it original principles. Principles which have been slowly twisted and perverted over time in order to centralize power in fewer and fewer individuals. The governments of the last 40 years are primarily responsible for this mess, as they have moved farther and farther away from the constitution and the principles of small government and personal accountability.

What we need is a charismatic leader to rise and lead the tens of millions who want to return to a government FOR the people and OF the people, not one that is OVER the people. We need leadership to help organize massive (and peaceful) rallies across the country, to get our leaders to pay attention. Our government leaders have long forgotten what it meant to be "afraid" of their constituents, and unless we start reminding them of that, things will never improve. I hope such a leader appears soon.