Politics and Strange Bedpans*

I've been reading as much as I can on this bailout. To the point of obsession, really.

Sometimes, when I'm with a patient that is not doing well, I get this dull feeling in the bottom of my stomach, that grows into this big chunk of dread. Minutes later, the patient crashes and I'm in a code blue situation.

Well...I'm feeling this same sense of dread whenever I think of this bailout plan. It has nothing to do with partisan politics, and everything to do with fueling government corruption. Call me a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but I can't help it.

Redneck Brother is notorious for being bad with money. So much that he has faced the threat of foreclosure on more than one occasion. Had utilities turned off and on. Switched phone numbers countless times. I love my brother dearly, but he sucks with money. Faced with a $100 bill, and he has only $75 to pay on it, instead of sending what he has, he just shrugs his shoulders, and blows the $75 on something stupid...like a ping pong table.

More to the point, he is already in debt to me and Mother for a grand. Each. Mom and I figure we will see money repaid when, oh say, hell freezes over.

So let's say that Redneck Brother is Wall Street and Treasury Secretary Paulson. Mother and myself are the taxpayers. Redneck Brother comes to us telling us that the biggest financial disaster ever to his hit family is imminent. They are going to lose everything, and need help to the tune of $500,000. Right away!!!

Oh...but we can't be privy to how he uses the money. Not now, not ever. And if we ever do find out that he blew the money on things other than saving his ass (like a pop-up camper), he cannot be held accountable for it. Even though it is our hard earned money, we have no say in how it's to be spent. Oh yeah, there's no guarantee that this is going to work either because history has shown that RB is an idiot when it comes to money. Even though all the signs pointed to this big financial crisis, he never once saw it coming and he was even mostly responsible for it.

Sound asinine?

Sounds like the bailout plan to me. In a nutshell.

I don't claim to be a financial genius. If I were, I'd be a retired millionaire right now. However, when the government wants a blank check from John Q. Taxpayer to the tune of $700 BILLION, no questions asked, I tend to take notice. I work too hard, and don't get paid nearly enough for what I do, to not care where that money goes and how it's going to be used.

I guess a salary cap for the CEO's sounds nice, but if the NFL has figured out a way to go around the salary cap, it won't be too hard for financial asshats who think they are smarter than most Americans to siphon more money so they can afford authentic Greek columns for their mistresses birthday parties.

If they insist on taking $700 Billion from taxpayers, shouldn't the taxpayers have a vote as to whether we want it or not? Where were these big bailout plans when families were losing their homes right and left? If this bailout is passed, what is Congress going to do to help us for helping them? Tit for tat? Unlikely.

I guess when the big businesses are in danger of losing everything, only then does the government take notice.

Assholes. All of them. And can I just say that in listening to Bush talk about this crisis, I'm led to believe that our nation's leader is mentally retarded??

In conclusion, there are a lot of better ideas being floated around instead of this bailout that smacks of socialism. I think the bailout is a knee-jerk reaction, and ultimately, I don't think is going to work. Gubment wants to prevent a recession. Guess what, Sunny Jim, we're in one now.

So, shall you bring your code cart, or shall I??

*FTFY