THE WORST LEGISLATION IN U.S. HISTORY?

Do you realize what has just happened to us? Let’s go through the drill.

1) Back to at least 2003 that we already know of, those in charge of keeping their eyes on our nation’s financial affairs have been warning the House Committee that things were going astray and that big problems were looming, especially with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. And the Committee has been stonewalling. Led by Barney Frank, the Committee has practically been ordering those in charge to put out more and more money and they didn’t care if the deals were risky or not. In fact, someone very close to me who has been involved with the building industry recently related to me that mortgage companies weren’t even verifying income or credit, they were just funding mortgages. I don't know about you, but I got quite the grilling when I went through my last house purchase.

2) As recently as three months ago, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in so much trouble that only a blind man could miss it. Just a couple of weeks ago, our Secretary of the Treasury was telling us that everything was rosy, that we might have “a few bumps,” but that there was nothing to worry about.

3) The regulators needed to be issuing all kinds of findings against the investment companies and against Fannie and Freddie, but they were not. You might say that they were turning their eyes the other way. And, no one in Congress had the slightest clue that something was wrong? This led all of the way up to a declaration of an emergency by Paulson and Bush, and Congress had no idea what was coming? An emergency that had been brewing, undetected, that threatened to bring down the country unless we acted immediately? Is that dumb, or stupid?

4) The House looked at Paulson’s proposed emergency legislation and turned it down. The Senate then looked at it, added a few things for “window dressing,” added a whole pile of pork, over 400 pages of it, passed it and sent it to the House, with the President threatening Holy Hell on Earth if the House didn’t also pass it. So, the House passed it.

5) Congress, led by the Patriarchs of American Salvation, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, then issued forth a proclamation honoring those whose actions or inactions created the problem in the first place, anointing them with thanks for a “job well done.” And, President Bush waved his pious hand over the Bill and affixed his signature thereto, and now all is good and well in America.

Thank God for their insight and perseverance in protecting us. They even added a protective commission to ride herd on the financial houses in the future and to ensure us that “this could never happen again.” Guess what? They somehow neglected to provide this great commission, the great protector, with any power whatever to enforce sanctions or to address future violations of the public trust by our esteemed Fannie or Freddie or any other institution.

Isn’t that sweet? Doesn't that just make your lips pucker?

Now, let’s talk pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork. Don’t you feel really good down inside that we Americans just took on $700 billion in more debt and that everyone in Congress had kept solidly away from any verbiage that this will guarantee that the problems will go away? In fact, every last one of them who has been asked has coughed when asked that question and a few have admitted, reluctantly, that there are “no guarantees.”

But, there IS plenty of pork. TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE, (http://www.taxpayer.net/index.php) has managed to list a whole pile of pork added on to this emergency legislation that was so needed to save our country. Here are some samples:

Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children

Cost to taxpayers: $2 million

Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motor sports racing track facility

Cost to taxpayers: $100 million

Sec. 308. Increase in limit on carry over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Cost to Taxpayers: $192 million.

Sec 502. Provisions related to film and television productions

Cost to Taxpayers: $478 million (You really should go to their website to read up on this one)

Sec. 211. Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters

Cost to Taxpayers: $10 million

And now, my fellow Americans, bend over for THIS one:

Sec. 301. Extension and modification of research credit

Cost to Taxpayers: $19 billion, (and yes, Microsoft, Boeing and Harley-Davidson get a chunk of this)

I don’t know about you, but this is how I feel about it:

Doesn't all of this make you wonder how long it took for members of Congress to get on over to Paulson's office to grab their share so they can try and go back to their states and buy some votes?

We Americans need to turn out every member of Congress that we possibly can, by voting against any and all incumbents in the November elections, regardless of political party. They're all in it, they're all tainted. We haven't had a decent Congress in over 20 years and these guys have just underlined the fact that they don't give a damned what we think or feel by shoving it way up there out of sight.