Bailout baloney; we need to plug the hole in the hull

Ronald Reagan’s favorite laugh line was “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”

Last week the Fed man showed up on Wall Street, knocked on the door, uttered those nine words and the smartest men on Wall Street bowed down to the ground and worshipped him. They were no longer laughing. They are trembling with fear.

You can join Ronald Reagan and keep laughing, but if it weren’t for the government bailing out AIG, Freddie and Fannie, pumping tons of “liquidity” into the banking system, our economy would have crashed. As Thomas Friedman wrote, “How would you like to hear the line today ‘I’m from the government, and I can’t do a darn thing for you.’”

Maybe the only salvation for America is the government, but I’m mad as hell that our government enabled the hyper greed of Wall Street brokers and bankers to take aim at Middle America, string us up like a moose kill in Alaska and field dress us for their own engorgement.

Now the big question: what if this bailout does not work? I say it won’t. The administration is not addressing the foundation of the problem: the suffering people on Main Street. They are refurbishing the skyscraper at the top instead of putting out the fire on the ground.

Don’t refurbish the deck chairs on the Titanic. Plug the damn hole in the hull!

Joe Howard Crews