Oct 05 2008
The Bailout Bill
I've kept politics out of this blog in the past but this bailout bill has gotten be angry. I can say that this is the first time I have felt anger at what my government is doing. Up to this point in my life I have disagreed with what my Congresspeople and Senators have done. It may be that I come from a different type of person than this bailout bill was intended for. I am middle class. I am a business owner, as the main topic of this blog can tell you. I've spoken to others in my general financial class. I have yet to speak to anyone who wanted this bill to pass. I was amazed that it went through.
I understand the theory behind the bailout. I believe the theory is completely wrong. The market was on its way to a correction. No one can exist on credit alone. I know macro-economics are much different than the small time economics of everyday life but I can't get past two main points that I feel are needed for stability.
- Credit has its place in business and life. It is not something that can be used for long term existence.
- If you sell products that no one wants, you will go out of business.We are in the position we are in now because both of these rules have been violated.
Companies and individuals have been operating outside their means for a long time utilizing credit. Both people, small business and large businesses are stuck when there is no credit. They do not have the stability that true capitol brings. There have been reports for the past few years that people have been saving the least amount of money since the great depression. What caused the great depression? Many things, but it was largely brought on by a large part by credit. Living large off credit is a sure way to go downhill fast.
Companies took very risky mortgages and packed them into securities that were sold to investors. When things tanked, no one wanted to buy these risky mortgages any longer. These banks were left holding a lot of products no one wanted to buy. Correct me if I am wrong but if you are trying to sell something no one wants, you should go out of business. If you open store that sells Marti Gras beads, condoms and other risqué merchandise in the middle of an ultra-conservative religious neighborhood, you're probably not going to sell much. Eventually you will go out of business. You should. You made a bad business decision. You were selling something no one wanted.
Now we are on the hook for buying these bad mortgages. I am angry because I could have purchased a house for much more than I did. I played it safe and bought what I knew I could afford, not what the bank would lend me. So I played it safe and have a house that is smaller than I could have gotten. not only that but I now get to watch my tax dollars help reduce the interest rate for those people that did buy too much at a higher interest rate. Anger is just the start of what I feel.Anyway, I've been looking around the internet to try and find how my representative’s in Washington DC voted. I wasn't able to find an easy place to tell me how the Senate and House voted on the bailout bill. To help out I have compiled the representative name, vote, part and state in a convenient table to use. You can click on the top of the table to sort the columns.
Do you want to contact your senator about how they voted Wednesday on the financial bailout bill (S. Amdt. 5685 to H.R. 1424)? You can find your Senator's contact information at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
If you want to contact your Congressperson, the House contact page is: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
If you want to see how your senator voted on the bailout bill, I have a nice sortable table here:
If you're interested in seeing how your Congressperson voted, the House vote for the bailout bill is here: