I have been watching the goings on in Washington over the bailout plan as I am sure that many of you have. The politicians have the lobbyists at their throats and they are demanding a return for their money. On the other hand the American people are disgusted and don't want to give their hard earned tax money to CEOs and corporations that have milked us dry and made billions in profits while we struggled to continue to support our families. Some of us have even lost everything, but where is the help for these people? The president and the politicians seem to be much more concerned with helping the rich than helping the average American. I heard the other day that the lawmakers would put a stop to golden parachutes with the new bailout bill, if it passed. Then I heard that many CEOs had locked in their golden parachutes, with some of them even getting sixty and seventy million dollars. Is it any wonder that the citizens of this country don't want to fund these bailouts?

We were told that there would be all sorts of gloom and doom on September 29^th and indeed the stock market went down over 700 points, but the very next day it rebounded by several hundred points and this is because stock holders like a bargain and they knew that some of these companies were very solid and would rebound. Now congress thinks that by raising the insurance on bank accounts from $100,000 to $250,000 will calm the outcry against the bailout. Well they still don't get it. The average American saves only $392 per year. I know that some of you will doubt this figure, but you can go Here and see it for yourself. It seems that "In Money Today" has done a study on this. If this is common knowledge, then why don't the politicians realize that most people don't even have $100,000 in the bank, let alone $25,000. Are the politicians so out of touch with the U.S. Public? I guess the answer to this question has to be yes.

Basically what we are doing is asking a group of millionaires to understand the plight of the poor and middle class. Some of them were not wealthy when they got to Washington, but somehow most, if not all, seem to acquire great wealth while they are there. It is almost as if Washington was some sort of magical place. I guess it is for the law makers. It is my firm belief that raising the insurance on bank accounts is just a ruse, they probably feel that they are in danger of losing some of those fat cat lobbyists that throw cash around the capital like it was paper. Then there is the fact that some of the lawmakers just might have been threatened with exposure of some shady deal if they don't come through with a bailout plan. I don't think that anything done so far will change the mind of a single American about the bailout plan and elections are coming in November and believe me, that is one of the only reasons that the plan hasn't been passed yet. It is hard to say to hell with the public, with elections only a few weeks away.

What should the plan really be? The bailout plan should be a plan that protects the public's retirement funds and savings. Secondly it should contain some relief for those that have lost their jobs. The relief could be some sort of support and retraining with help to find a job in a new field. Hey, we didn't cause this mess and our money should be used to help us. A lot of people are in disagreement as to whether those that can't afford to pay their mortgages should be helped. Some say that they took on that were over their head. In many cases this was true. The way things worked was that it became cheaper to buy a home in some areas than to live in an apartment and you might be able to live in it for about a year before it was repossessed, so you just about lived for free if you walked away, because there was little or no money down. These types of situations should not be rewarded. On the other hand, those people that bought a house and lost their job or became sick and couldn't work should be helped.

According to a rumor I heard, there just might be a stipulation by the FDIC on the time allowed to repay deposits of failed banks. The rumor states that a provision might allow the time period of 99 years. I have not seen anything on this myself and the thought is appalling. If this turns out to be the case and I can't believe it would be, than every lawmaker in Washington should be removed. It seems to me that there is less respect for the American worker now than at any other time in the history of our country. It is almost like we are in the way of the politicians trying to conduct business with the big corporations and writing bills to relieve the rich from paying their fair share of taxes. We seem to be only good for one thing and that is supporting the country with our taxes. If there was some magical way to relieve us of our money without actually having to deal with us, the lawmakers would be a lot happier.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that one of the reasons we are in this mess is because the lobbyists were allowed to craft the bill that allowed the financial industry to audit itself. Yeah I know this sounds insane, but it is true. Every lawmaker in Washington at the time had to know that this was a bad idea, but money talks.

I don't want to see corporations go out of business, but guess what? If a company borrows $30 for every dollar it is worth to play the market or make bad loans, then they deserve to fail. If you or I tried to borrow $30 for every dollar we were worth, we would be told that we couldn't have the money and we were crazy to do that, yet that exact thing was done by some of the companies that are failing. They felt that they were going to make a killing and they lost huge sums of money. Well too bad for them, why should you or I have to pay for that? Why would the president of the United States even ask us to? The answer is simple, those people that run these companies socialize with him and many are his close friends. We are not his friends, so why not just get the money from the suckers and help those friends? It worked with Iraq, it worked with Afghanistan, it works with the military budget, can you blame the president and the lawmakers for believing that it would work again?