Most Americans fear bailout will help those who caused crisis

Well here we go again. The government is going to help the rich and the poor and leave middle America to foot the bill! Don’t you know that if the government takes over these financial institutions that the Rich private sector of America (mainly the High Ranking Government Employees) are going to buy up all of the stock in each of these markets and become filthy rich at the expense of the largest sector of the population! Lobbyist and government needs to keep their hands out and let these companies run by idiots who are still going to get rich on the stupid deals go bankrupt! The CEO’s and investors of all of these bad decisions should have to use their “Millions of Dollars Golden Parachute Comp Packages” to bail their own companies out!!! American People stand up for your rights!!!!!!!!!

I make $40K per year and now I'm bailing out very smart CEO that make 400 times my salary. How is that possible? What did the CEO of AIG make per year?

I hope congress does not let these CEO make millions and stock options and private club memberships. They should work for my pay until they pay the tax payers back.

How much will this CEO lead mess cost the tax payers? Just sick!

Wall Street honchos need to be held accountable and even prosecuted! The bail out plan needs to protect the tax payers that will shoulder this burden for many years. The middle class and those of us that see our future earnings eroding want the CEOS that walked away with millions and are living in mansionsss
punished: they too should face foreclosure, criminal and civil penalties because
they knew only too well that their enrichment was on others backs'. The people
need relief: bring the troops home; no bail outs for these foreign countries.
Let us take care of Americans and America!

right on.

so freaking right -- this is unbelievable -- i got to get out of this country -- not only should those ceo's who are going to be filthy rich (or are already filthy rich) (while the rest of us lose our pension and 401k plan monies) pay for this bailout and be left homeless, they should be in jail --

This all comes down to GREED!!! CEO greed, Stockholder greed, Corporate greed, and Regulatory/Government greed. Where were the organizations that should have been closely monitoring this activity before it got out of control? Sunning themselves with corporate money on some island somewhere. Stockholders were only concerned with getting their stock shares to rise in value to sell it off for a huge profit. CEO's made sure that they got contracts with Corporate Parachutes because they knew what was going to happen. Companies can only get so big before something breaks or falls apart. Let the companies bail themselves out. Cancel all Golden Parachutes, make them sell off their luxury assets (vacation homes and boats) and require them to put that money back into the company. Then can them all, they do not deserve to be heading up a corporation. History repeats itself as we are now seeing first hand. Before the Big Stock Market Crash of 1929 financial institutions continued to abuse the system, bang heavy regulations, namely Glass-Stegall Act. Repeal the previous regulations and you are back to where we were before 1929 with financial irresponsibility. Too late the horse is out of the barn and now it is expected the Middle Class is going to ante up. The Republicans do not like the Dems proposal to help bail out the single homeowner. Why because they are not BIG BUSINESS. If I am irresponsible with my debt no one is coming to bail me out. Again it is a case of Big Brother being bailed out by good ole Uncle Sam. Sorry small fry not only are you up the creek but they have now taken away your paddle and given it to the big boys. When is the government going to get it right and start protecting the rights of the average person? Stop wiping the nose of large corporate America.

I right there with Can't believe it!! Well said.

I want them to bail ME out--but alas, they won't. I will have to chip away and the mounting medical bills...and sell my house--oh that is right, no one wants the stupid thing because there are no banks to fund them anymore...
Maybe I should have been a greedy captialistic monger and not a do gooder nurse.

Ditto to comment #1... You know that the rich dudes who caused this catastrophe will not be giving up their mega million dollar homes and bonuses because they are Washington's good buddies and benefactors ... While the rest of America gets #$%#&^*&$#%$*'ed .....

$700 BILLION DOLLARS FOR A BAILOUT????

If the government is so interested in loaning money at a phenomenally low rate to the very companies that gouged people out of their mortgages and homes, why can't they give that same deal to the people that owe the government back taxes?

Why is it that only the elite rich get tax deals and bailout plans from Republicans?

1) without the bailout the economy will suffer until the greedy find another way to make paper money without cash and the willing particpants will jump on the process and ride along creating more paper wealth that will once again drive the economy
2) with the bailout government employees with no recent experience regulating financial instruments they didn't understand will have free rain with a trillon dollars
3) each agency of the goverment in the spotlight over the last few years has proven totally incompetent to perform the jobs assigned...should we trust our bureacracy

What are my choices again?
What are my choices again?

They want to pass more fast track legislation to fix this supposed crisis........all the Bush administration does is cause a big crisis and end up suckering quick fix legislation that gives unregulaed power to his buddies.....didn't his old man always say "fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me" we need to say no......oil and tech sectors are doing fine, don't bail out stupidity....these markets as they normally will will correct themselves....

Repub, Dems and Independents don't let the greed SOB's get away with this... I've seen my 401(k) take a massive hit, my sons college fund losing money hand over fist and these dirty SOB get 2.5 billion for WHAT ??? Running these companies into the ground and making money while doing it.

My bonus is based on performance... what the hell is their bonus based on?

You are right nothappy. I keep saying the same thing. What happens if my JoeAveragePerson Corp. goes under? If suddenly I fall behind in payments. Would the govt come in and bail me out? No way, they'd be there protecting these crooks who will try to foreclose on my whom, and then I'd actually be supporting them, and therefore supporting my own foreclosure?!!!

This is insane.

The Govt stepped in because of the widespread economic impact of the failures. But then the CEOs and Stock people who made millions on these bad loans should be brought to justice.

Prison for the crooks. Don't reelect those who vote for bailout. Boycott Fox.

based on what i've observed it seems that Republicans are the party of selfish greedy people, of warmongers and of liars. it is uterly dumbfounding that they have any credibility whatsoever with the masses. how can people continue to be so stupid? i only hope and pray that they are all thrown out of power, forced to make resitution (via both fines and prison time) and that our corrupt political leaders are tried and convicted of war crimes and dishonesty.

The middle-class and the poor got stimulus checks. The CEOs and the rest of the upper management of these ridiculous companies get bailed out with taxpayer money and great severance packages worth tens of millions. If this is really the free market capitalist society that the government and big business claim we have, these companies should go bankrupt without government interference. Our government seems to think that we have unlimited coffers even though our national debt continues to skyrocket. But no worries as we're not paying that back any time soon so long as our foreign creditors don't come calling and demanding repayment.

"Uncle Sam must pay!"

The Administration has all these financial advisers and economists and yet they didn't see this happening. Wow....way to go World's #1 Superpower....maybe we should get rid of some of the unnecessary items like the funding of foreign countries and calling in a few of our own debts to clean up this mess. Look forward to years of higher taxes, no health care and for what.....thanks to 8 years of incompetence and a system that doesn't allow us to remove them before them.

"(In India) CEO bludgeoned to death by mob of sacked workers..." That is one of the current headlines on Drudge today. I don't know if/how this applies to our current crisis but the US should probably start executing (forget jail time) some of the most sociopathic CEO's in this country to make an "example" out of them.

A few years ago a famous "institution" in the Cambridge area came out with a study that came to the conclusion that to succeed, most CEO's display sociopathic tendencies. Pretty funny considering they were the ones instumental in training them in the first place.

Back in the day there was one phone company.... the goverment said no your
making to much money...so then there was verizon vontage at&t comcast. just
to name a few... that was settled..... then came the bank of america......
total opposite.. applied bank of america started buying up all the small banks.. and lending institutions.... I guess the gov. changed there minds and said good bus.idea.. one bank ....one america...
one pot.... no back up......

I agree we should not be bailing out Wall Street and we should be taking these people to task. But, I also think the people who were taking these mortgages to buy bigger more expensive homes need to share some blame. A mortgage is probably most people's biggest responsibility, outside of children. It easy for people to blame others, but let’s be honest the terms of these mortgages are laid out in front of you when you sign at closing. Those documents are huge and take a while to read. But, I am guessing people did not care to read them or fully try to understand what they meant and that is their own fault.

I do not want to bail out Wall Street and I do not want to bail out the person that got g reedy and wanted the bigger house in the more expensive town. If you are in trouble with your mortgage, take a look in the mirror; you are the one to blame.

As far as this election goes...I am not sure why either of these guys wants to be President. We are talking single digit approval ratings by year 3.

If the government wants to do something for AMERICA and AMERICANS... Erase all the debt of the working middle class that strugles to pay for college for their children, health care and even basic needs.

Erase their debt and we all be a big happy country. Mr. Bush, do something nice for us before you leave office.

The new part of the "bail out" will also want to buy out bad car loans and credit cards... well just go ahead and pass a law where our debt gets erased and our credit gets cleaned out. And create a system where all those CEOs of the Big Fat banks and Insurance companies get prosecuted for the bad lending practices just like the poor people who is facing foreclosure has to go to court to explain why this happened... I think we should be able to take them to the witness stand and perhaps have them tell the judges how much $$$$$ they got in "misc. Fees & Other Fees" in our mortgages!

Don't bail out the banks. Let the free markets work. Why should the taxpayers foot the bill so the greedy bankers benefit?

Good point look in the mirror. But you also need to think about those who have good mortgages. I got the lowest 30 yr fixed 5 years ago. Fixed rate. But with the impact of these financial crises on the entire economy, what happens if I lose my job because of these bozos?

Is that my fault that one day my job is there, and I can pay my fixed rate, and then my job is gone, and I cannot pay my fixed rate? I have no problems when I look in the mirror. These crooks on wall st and lending houses are the ones who need to be taken down.

Anyone who agrees with #1 needs to seriously get a clue!!

"the Rich private sector of America (mainly the High Ranking Government Employees)" Do you even realize your contradiction??!

Who caused this? All the ignorant, hypocritical, greed-mongers that voted for Curious George or any republical congressional candidates. Democratic calls for more regulation and government oversight in Congress have always been met by repeated republical filibusters and parrot calls of "Less government!", "Privatization!", and "Let the market take its course!"

Hey #1, want to know who caused this mess? LOOK IN THE MIRROR!!!!

caused BY NIXON in 1972 moving from Gold standard all the rest was a "artificial economy" Now Red China has the industrys --Usa has the crooks & immigrants. & USA soldiers insurances are worthless now

We desperately need to finance this bailout with money from the people who caused the problem in the first place. A 10% surtax on those making $1,000,000 per year or more for ten years might cover it.

Alternative is have the middle class pay for it, or pass on the debt to the children.

It is sad to believe that most people of this great nation are no different than an enormous flock of sheep or some other form of livestock constently hearded in directions unknown. Through trust and faith in those who lead and others who follow we drive our toiling bodies and minds do we envision our hopes and dreams for a better America for all and our loved ones, turn to decay. Most who say and belive that they are true to themselves and to others fall the hardest among deceipt, lies and corruption. We now pay for our ignorance with our homes and modest standard of living that we as hardworking middle class Americans have worked so hard to achieve and maintain. We pay for our ignorance with our meger savings in hopes that someday when we are frail we can still hold our heads high with dignity and respect. We pay for our ignorance our children, parents, sisters and brothers who have lost their lives in a war not understood. How long as a people must we endure these trials at the whim of greed of a select few. How long must we sheild ourselves in ignorance.

I'm sorry but why hasn't anyone laid blame on the people who took out these loans and were incapable of paying off the loans? They got us into this situation! Rule # 1: PAY YOUR BILLS! I don't blame Wall Street, I blame the people who took out these loans. Maybe now the banks will think twice about giving loans to people with little means of paying them off! We need tougher loan conditions in this country so these citizens will not drag the rest of us down with them!

I can honestly say that most of you "mob" have no idea what you are talking about. Mortgage companies have made too many bad loans giving people larger mortgages than they can afford. People then lose their jobs, default on their mortgages and that then lowers the value of the mortgage backed securties (Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) and the banks foreclose on the defaulted mortgages/homes. The credit market for Freddie and Fannie is massive and every single financial firm out there on Wall St. and elsewhere trade in Freddie and Fannie, it's impossible not to, it's the basis of the credit industry. These securities lose their value as homeowners default on their mortgages and since the credit industry is based upon these timed maturity vehicles, Wall St. firms that hold these Freddie and Fannie securities are left to either sell the securities (which no one else wants) or they lose their value and hence "break the buck" which is when a these mortgage backed securities trade below par. Getting angry at the Wall St. CEO's has nothing to do with this. These firms need to buy these securities or there will be NO housing market. Being angry at Wall St. is a very knee-jerk mob mentality. Wall St. needs to be bailed out, otherwise you can forget getting a mortgage, a car loan, a bank loan, etc. in the future. Wall St. did not cause this problem, they have been left holding the ball when the music stopped. Typical liberal Democrat Massachusetts to "blame the rich" without looking at the real numbers. The CEOs do indeed make too much $$$ but this crisis has NOTHING to do with them being overpaid.

This is only a bail out for the financial institutions with the bad lending practices, bad bookkeeping, and the folks who get to walk away from their poor decisions scott free!

$700 Billion ?!?
If they really want to bail our ecomony out, don't send me a measely stimulus check that will only put some new tires on my car. Send me a check to pay off or down my mortgage! Take that $700 BILLION and disperse it to most of the 75-100 million home owners in this country to pay off their mortgages! Imagine giving our hard earned money back to us and setting up millions of families across the country in much more solid financial situations? Now those people will have more disposable income to pay off other bad debts, invest in the stock market, invest in small local business, buy more retail goods. That would stimulate the damn economy - not giving a bunch of already rich people more money!

"oil and tech sectors are doing fine, don't bail out stupidity....these markets as they normally will will correct themselves...."

Bingo John Beaumont...This is a big time panic move from the Fed; the core of this problem is that if lenders go in the tank and can't lend then the economy suffers. Be that as it may there are still lenders who have their houses in order and there is money to be borrowed for those persons/companies that are in a position to do so. The market will adjust as it always does. I don't know a single person or family who is rushing out to take their money out of their local S&L, credit union, or investment portfolio. I get solicited with offers of unsecured credit every time I shop at a department store. Things are not as dire as they are being made out to be for Joe citizen. This move is clearly an attempt from major lenders to have the Fed save their bacon and I say, let them fail. I have no lack of confidence that the financial structure of the country will persevere and sooner rather than later rebound successfully. Lastly, it is no fault of the current Administration that the market is what it is right now, no more so than was it the Clinton administrations fault that 9-11 occured. Leave ideology out of the equation. This is a correctable situation and it does not have to take 700 billion to do so.

I think the gov't should buy all of our mortgages! Go straight to the source! Then we'd all have tons of money to dump into the economy every month! Alas, it is a nice dream.

I don't want to a single penny of my tax dollars to go towards any of these disgustingly corrupt companies unless it's paying for a decades long stay in a federal prison for their CEOs.

Where do you sign up for the bailouts?

Golden Parachutes for CEOs are making me rethink my opposition to the death penalty

I don't know about all of you but I didn't try to get a loan that I couldn't afford during the housing bubble in the last few years. All of the people that got into bidding wars and drove up the cost of housing around Boston are partly to blame for all of this. I can't believe that many of the people that made these stupid decisions will be bailed out and housing prices will remain over inflated.

I thought the market was self -correcting, if so, why do they need the people to bail them out. Sounds like " captalize profits and socialize losses". Then borrow the bailout funds from a " Commie" nation???????????????????????

I am a lifelong Democrate but I am not happy that the democrats in congress are looking to bail out the folks that made rediculously bad decisions by taking out loans that they could never afford.
I still rent because I knew I couldn't afford to overinflated home prices in the Boston area. Why should anyone that took those bad loans be bailed out? They caused part of this mess and made housing in Boston unaffordable.

Happy to see almost all posts share my opinion.. Bush is breaking America. Russia is sending its navy to Venezuela, and we are too broke and bogged down to do diddly about it. WORST ADMINISTRATION EVER!!

What they need to do is take that $700 billion and use it towards funding a better fraud and compliance departments across all sectors in the financial industry and run thorough investigations, because why should the CEO's become even more rich? Why should they be rewarded for their corrupt ways? I want justice served here, the problem corrected the best way possible and a more watchful eye on these scummy CEO's..... not a slap in the face for being middle class!!

But I guess maybe if I was a lier, a theif, and an excellent scam artist, maybe I too would be sitting on bags of money and when things go wrong, I could continue to fan myself with hundred dollar bills all thanks to the government!!

Thank God that people in my state have a good sense to be rightfully angry and point to the right culprits. By watching CNN you would think this is just one little hurdle that we'll get through, and that we are all somehow responsible for this.
According to them, poor people were also greedy for buying houses that they can't afford. What about the banks that allowed that to happen?

Those that want companies to go bankrupt, either plan to retire solely on Social Security or haven't figured out that those financial institutions they don't mind seeing go bankrupt are the very same institutions their company 401Ks are invested in. The bailout is necessary to save the middle class but regulations need to be put in place to prevent those same institutions from repeating the same stupid things that got us where are today (i.e. sub-prime mortgage lending; secondary mortgage markets, etc.)

How do people making million of dollars a year plus bonuses, never served in the military, or have lived in poverty empathized with those who have?
If one has struggled to survive in a desert, a mud puddle is delicious, a little
profit is fine but outright greed, opulence, and indifference is evil.

My beef with this is what message does this send to the big mortgage companies? When things start to improve down the road which they will, they will be even more so to give every Tom, Dick, and Harry a mortgage because they will know, if things get bad "Big Brother" aka the Tax Payers will bail them out. Let this be a lesson to them. My oil tank in my house is on empty, no one is bailing me out. Im forced to get a weekend job on top of my two jobs I work during the week. Have them suck it up and take their punches like most of us right now.

we are paying the people who bet on this very thing happening (massive loan defaults, etc). Its called a Credit Default Swap (Derivative). We are paying off people who went 'short' against the sub-prime markets. Kind of like shorting a stock. I say screw them. For the good of the country these individuals should eat there CDS's and eat shit for that matter.

Derivatives, Swaps, and Shorting of all securities should be permanently banned! Its not good business to have people profit of others demise. We can thank the Republicans for the lack of oversight and regulations which are badly needed.

our govt is a KELPTOCRACY!!!-The middle class needs to stand up against this enough is enough . You can no longer trust the media outlets since they are all owned by the same type of people. According to them things are fine how stupid do they think americans are and how much more are the people going to take, the govt should fear us not us fear the govt. Too much power in too few hands. Who is overseeing these criminals there is no balance of powers since they are all crooks.

you silly people. just go hiking.

Don't you idiots realize Wall St. didn't blow this money??? The housing market went bust b/c of stupid consumers taking ARMs they couldn't afford then the market value of their homes went down and they couldn't afford to refinance a $400k house on a new $325k mortgage appraisal. So commercial banks foreclose and mortgage backed securities have no $$$ to back them up b/c people are defaulting. That's it. It has very little to do with CEOs. All of you bashing Bush over this are very uninformed and actually quite stupid. Might as well blame your weak Democratic congress too then as they've been in power for two years now as well. Secondly, none of you probably know this but the $700B bailout is not a gift. The Treasury would be buying the defaulted mortgage back securities to reacution them off at a later date, hoping to recoup it's money. It will come close. The securities in question are not worthless, they are simply below par, which for all you dopes out there means it's roughly like $0.90 on the $1. It's not a giveway. I honestly think no one on this board understands this.

Fundamental things that are the basic life blood of the economy like finance, energy, food and transportation should not be completely unregulated as the Republicans like. The market is great at rewarding high value and flushing low value but that creates volatility. That is fine for many, many market segments but those segments that are the foundation for all others cannot be that volatile. Americans hate to admit it but the Europeans got this right and we did not. Now we have a problem (like Iraq, sound familiar) and we can't let the market fix this by itself because it won't and we really could be headed towards a 1929 and a very deep recession or worse that would last at least a decade. So the government has to step in like it or not. The question is how. This administration and the Republicans in general have just about ruined this country. They have let this happen because they hate regulation. We lost the war in Iraq. Lost you say. Yes lost because the political battle is what a war is about and we already lost that. Now we have to try to stop the fighting and dying. And the constitution has been shredded by this administration. So ENOUGH already. Get the republicans out of there. In the meantime, put some very strong controls in place to protect taxpayer money. The CEOs that recently made payouts of $100M, $200M even $500M need to give that money back. None of them should get a dime even if they had a contract. Under these circumstances, those contracts should be null and void.

CEOs and other executives should be paid bonuses based on the profitability of their companies under their rule, NOT because they show up for work. Their poor performance has caused many thousands to suffer! Actually millions, since people who had nothing to do with their firms' failures will now be paying for generations.

If the government (taxpayers) is bailing the companies out of the messes these executuves caused by virtue of their bad decisions, then I think this same government should invalidate any parachute or sererance guarantees that may be in these guys' contracts.

The idea is not to protect investors. What did we learn from the S&L Crisis? We must write our Senators. I would love to hear the 'short story' on why the administration thouth the deregularization of Wall St was good for anyone. Also there should be no 'golden parachutes' for the CEO's who are responsible for this mess. Write your Senators people, please.

Didn't Abre Lincoln say it best?

Let the big financial firms go up in flame. Otherwise $400 Billion at least will go directly to a few dozen companies responsible for engineering this mess in the first place.

The employees can re-assemble in a new company. Big deal.

Here Congress goes again, the administration leading them by the nose into another fiasco, just like with the Iraq war vote. Our elected officials needs to take the time to put together a thoughtful long term solution that will protect the average American and not socialize the losses on Wall Street. So what if the stock market jumps around for a few weeks; the steps we take at this juncture will impact our economy for decades to come. So what if our representatives can't go on recess and campaign at the end of this week.

Where are our priorities?

What scares me about this bailout is the talk about the government buying up all the "bad mortgages," forcelosed and bank owned properties. Some of us have been trying to wait out the ridiculous greed of the real estate market for the last ten years to buy a house. Some of us have been saving every penny we can for good down payment of at least 10-15%, which is super hard with the cost of everything going up way faster than our salaries.
And some of us NEED more properties to be foreclosed on to even be able to afford a home in this state.
Now the government is going to swoop in and lock us out of the market. It sucks, the government has no idea how much this bailout is going to hurt the average citizen.
Bottom line is that I will have to pack up my family and move to another state, leaving all my family and friends behind, just to be able to afford to buy my own home.

Umm if we bail out these companies we in essence become stock holders right. I want my stocks, where are they? My 401k needs all the help it can get.

I am outraged by this whole situation.
The greedy companies and CEOs'
The do nothing government that we have
The idiots who borrowed $$ that they did/could not pay back and then cry that they did not understand what they were signing(all though they are apparently smarter than me, because I am paying all of my debts.)

I am really outraged that once again the people who did NOTHING wrong are paying for this crap. I took out a mortgage I could afford, I work for a living, I am paying my sons college tuition, I am paying the loan that I took the first semester, and ONCE AGAIN I AM GETTING SCREWED!!!!

I am just really tired of the whole thing

I agree with many of the posts, but the few that stand out are: CantBelieveIt, LookInThe Mirror and Dennis. Well said all of you. I, like many, have been renting for years because I do not want to pick up a mortgage that I cannot afford. It is called personal responsibility. The overinflated housing market problem exists not only in Boston, but in the SF Bay area as well as many other housing markets. Why should I bail out the people who caused me to not be able to afford a house in the first place? While I wait for the market to correct, this bailout will only propagate the overinflated market and continue to make it difficult to buy a house. The risk-reward phenomenon takes on a different meaning when it is someone else (i.e. taxpayers) taking the risk for you. The lending companies should be allowed to fail and learn from their mistakes as the markets will certainly rebound in time. The need to buy and sell will never go away, the process will just be different. We should not let fear-mongering influence us.

I don't mind Golden Parachutes as long as they can't be opened.

Funny... all you Democrat whimps out there can scream bloody murder about the US Govt. getting involved in helping fix this credit crisis but you're probably all for a government run health care system. Hypocrites. You all love seeing this crisis I'm sure... party before country, typical Democrats.

Most of these comments reflect a lack of knowledge of investment banking and its heretofore positive effect on the economy -- particularly the middle class. I didn't hear anyone complaining about the low cost of goods and services we've been enjoying for the past few decades -- all because investment banks provided everyone (consumers, corporations, and small businesses) with access to cheap capital. Sure, Wall Street made a lot of money. But, their contribution to our large and robust economy was much, much larger. Where else but in the U.S. do lower-to-middle-income citizens own cell phones, buy $200 sneakers, have cable TV, drive a car, own an air conditioner, etc., etc.? By the standards of any other country, our citizens live at a level that's considered very, very high. If the U.S. Government does nothing to help our nation's largest financial institutions, we will all be hurt in a very big way. If you really want to help, stop spending so much and start saving. We created the demand for cheap money, goods, and services and are all to blame for the mess.

After listening to the Senate Banking Committee hearings this afternoon while working out at a health club, I've concluded Paulson's comments are even more scarry that originally thought.
He admitted not seeing the regulatory loop holes while at Investment Bank Goldman Sacks. He's now petrified at the consequences of "doing nothing". He's pretty smart; well educated and experienced. I fear he's sees the big picture and isn't sharing it.
What's that tell you? Complete collapse of our entire financial system? Maybe a 700B bailout isn't as bad as a 1.2T FDIC, etc. bill coming out of the same pocket.

I am a homeowner and a small business owner as well. I also work another job to keep things togeather finacially. These are diffently scarey times and as Americans we need to stand togeather.

I do not know what could or what will happen with this bailout but all I know it is a lot of Money to ask for. I too watched the hearing and there seems to be way to many what ifs.

Where is Mr. Grenspan in all this? whats his stance?

If these Mortgage companies wernt so greedy(rates) and sticking up the average joes butt all the time, we probably would not be in this mess.

People do desperate things during desperate times. And when a mortgage company says "sure you can have the loan, just sign here" what would you or anyone have done... signed on the dotted line...you are living the American Dream.

So, I hope this does not pass and lets see if it is all hype as usual. And if it isnt we as American's will have to get through this mess.

I have worked with small to mid size business as an economist since 1986 before then I owned several successful small businesses. I am watching the last 3 weeks unfold and I have ZERO confidence that Paulson or Bernanke have a clue how to fix this problem. I hope Congress wakes up and realizes it may be time to get more then just a few Economists into a room and get some real input and ideas into this problem. Right now the two stooges look like deer caught in the headlights.
I thought we were already into the Mortgage market to almost 1Trillion dollars from last week’s announcement bailing out Freddie and Fannie now we want another trillion dollar to pay for what?? Some one said let the government buy all of our mortgages and be done with it well 2 Trillion should have just about done the job in my estimation so what else are they buying and Who is getting the Money??? I don't think a CEO or a group of them will get away with that much in a parachute sounds like the plan is to ship it overseas with the hope they will lend it back to us how stupid is that. I say bring back the 70% tax bracket on people making over a million dollars and let them foot the bill for their folly they duped our government they duped the investor now they are trying to dupe us I just don't buy it some one is going to turn a profit out of this and it's not going to be you or me.

Don't you idiots realize Wall St. didn't blow this money??? The housing market went bust b/c of stupid consumers taking Arms they couldn't afford then the market value of their homes went down and they couldn't afford to refinance a $400k house on a new $325k mortgage appraisal. So commercial banks foreclose and mortgage backed securities have no $$$ to back them up b/c people are defaulting. That's it.
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I beg to differ it was the banks and loan brokers who did not due the work to make sure the people applying for these loans could actually repay them. Not the other way around. Don't blame this on the little guys we gave too much free money 1-2-3 % interest rates to the lenders they created these loans that they knew would go bust and kept the profits from making the loans. I know people who worked in this industry and they would blanket the markets with offer to refinance and take out the profits in your home or buy and watch the house appreciate in value at a 10-15% rate per year. If you were on the bottom and someone gave you a home that you thought you could but and make money on even if you could not afford it then why not. If they made sure the loan values could be repaid at the final value not the teaser rates before they lent the money then we would not have had prices spiking all over the country making people millions of dollars but alas we are the down turn in this scheme and the losers are left to suffer after the winners made all the money.

If the banks did there jobs we would not be in this mess as the consumer can’t approve any mortgages or loans for that matter. It's the banks job to weed out the good from the bad they didn’t do the job now they must pay.

NO BAIL OUT OF WALL STREET PERIOD

I understand that in time....all empires both Roman and othwise.....fall! It is the natural course of any nation. It does not last forever, neither do our mineral resources (platinum and other crucial elements will run out in 15 years........and there IS no more!) I do not believe the government should put there nose in private enterprises...but if they do not, who will step up to the plate other than Warren Buffet and a few other brave individuals or concerns - like Bank of America to help us all in this hour of need. I say.....hold onto your seats because the ride is not over! This $700 billion will not make a dent nor the funding of AIG neither. Our armies are overtaxed in strength, our resources are depleted, our homes are losing value, our future retirement is a big question mark and also - the unemployment will go up.......and listen to this - watch the banks that
have your money! I have already taken mine out of Washington Mutual (WAMU)and put every cent into U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo. Be alert and protect yourself - don't run around scared, just be alert and do some short term planning..........and good luck to all of us!

I can see how this bailout should be enacted in order to maintain consumers' ability to borrow and prevent another depression from occuring within our nation. If all the banks folded, where would you go to borrow money? China? Next thing you know we're owned by them and they're knocking on our doors politely asking if we could please move to the shelter since their family, their kids, their cousins, and brothers all would like to move in to your home. The executive pay should be capped that's for sure, but what really upsets me the most of this whole bailout plan is that some homeowners, and in my working class neigborhood I know a few, who have taken every handout the government has had to offer, from food stamps, to energy assistance, to free health care, to Advocap, even repeated encounters with tax-funded social workers because of their horrendous parenting and some of whom have declared bankruptcy and foreclosure multiple times and are still allowed to keep their homes are now going to have all the more incentive to not pay their mortgage!!!!!! because the government is now going to provide money to these people to reduce not only their payments, but the actual @*@! balance owed. And yes, these people I speak of don't pay their bills because they have gambling problems, spending frivolously on absolutely everything ALL THE TIME. I hate this neighborhood I live in and although I'm a homeowner I was hoping the housing would decline substantially so we could afford to upgrade to a better neighborhood, but now that the housing will most likely stabilize I have no choice but to listen to my neighbors brag about the free money they're getting and I get to look at the spare tires and pure neglect that a couple of these homeowners have done with their properties which in turn has devalued my property over the years. I'm stuck, so where is my bailout? I have never been late on a mortgage payment in 9 years. I thought you're supposed to be rewarded for having great credit, now you're an idiot for paying your bills...

Tonight there was the Director Peter Orszag of the government's Congressional Budget Office in front of the Budget Committee. The committee was making the inquiries as to how we got into the situation and what would the 700 billion bailout. This was suppose to help folks like us who only have a small savings, or small pension, or money market account.

Mr. Orszag said what occured that Tuesday was because their was a run by investors who have money market accounts that was heard that the money market funds were going debunk on Wall street to the tune of 500 billion dollars so Paulsen had to input 1.7 trillion dollars in the money markets so that it would not go belly up.

This director answered more questions as to how we got into debt and said that
we should not buy bad debt because the money we would invest is at a lower dollar and and there would be no return of that money because of all the exasperating debt owed in other places, like the mortgage banks and all those bailouts in other financial instituions.In other word we would have to ask for more money again and the next tine this may not work. He stated that it takes 2-4 weeks to look at everything and see where the money should go and get the final figure before blindly forking over to insitutions that have been causing this problem by deregulation.

He also said by asking foreign countires to help us means that those countries own us. He went on to say that this is not fool proof because there is not much time spent to see what money we need to get them, what caused this, and what we need to do business differently. In other words you don't keep borrowing and printing money when you are not paying back the debt that was caused. This takes time. many panel members said they didn't like a 7 day window to turn this around, that there are no guarantees and that we didn't want to see this in another 20 years like again we have in the past another bailout.

This makes me wonder of this bailout to " no where" if we are getting railroaded again because they want to hurry and give us a lot of fear. Paulsen says he can't gurantee how it will work.

Well "No thank you Paulsen" we need the everyday "bean counters" from the government budget committee who made more sense who apparently knew what happened. Paulsen is beating around the bush. He should not have complete power to do what he wants.

These guys want us to sign off and take the taxpayer for a ride. Mr. Orszag knew more of what happened and gave the reason why this happened besides the word greed from Wall street then Paulsen not fully committing or knowing if this will help us out of this jam. He accomplished nothing today!

Don't forget that Paulsen the helm of one of those firms we are bailing out when our commander in chief got him in his staff and was from a company that we had to bail out and he made millions.

Your asking us to trust his judgement. I don't think I am.

Why don't we ask him if he would like to donate from this wind fall of his millions to help the little taxpayer out. I think that is only fair, don't you? I wish I could ask him in that meeting in public if he would do that for the taxpayers of America.

McCain should stay home he isn't needed there amongst all that debating and he isn't really worried about this - McCain you didn't fool anyone by your stunt today.

Aren't you suppose to be debating this Friday? McCain you would proabably be in the $250,000 tax hike so thats whay you want to say that the democrats will tax everyone small no they are talking about you and your spouse Cindy maybe your wife can bail us out since she says she wants this country to be prosperous.

McCain you just need to continue with trying to look presidential ans stay out of the way. Your are not fooling anyone!

I've read most to the preceding posts. I think most of us that are paying attention understand we're only looking at the tip of the iceberg with the bailouts. We are now setting a precedent with the decision(s) made... the rest of the iceberg will want "the same deal" the tip gets now. Like many of you I've lived within my means and have no desire to "bailout" anyone else who hasn't. I believe that if the bailout goes through, and deregulation, speculation and unsecured borrowing proliferates this bailout will only postpone the inevitable unpleasant market correction except it will be more amplified in the future (we'll be paying back on the first bailout via increased taxation while concurrently dealing with a major recession, or depression in the future)... a current bailout will only put a bandaid on the problem and it won't heal. Some of you seem to actually have been sucked in by the fear mongering... whilst forgetting it's the repubs that preach "hands off" the ecomony doctrine - fear mongers have an agenda and it's usually self-serving... but typically convinces the "less informed" sheep "it's in their best interest" to "help out"... unbelievable. In the end if we are forced to bailout/buy up bad paper as taxpayers... we will only reinforce bad behavior/financial decisions. Interesting how the golden parachutes don't upset some of you more... it seems clear to me that this isn't about the American Public... it's simply about greed and propaganda via fear mongering in order to propel the dilatory populace into making a rash decision that benefits... yes you guessed it, the fear mongers. Once you let go of your fear you will be able to see this situation more clearly and make the linear connection between where the money originated and ended in this particular case and the middlemen who "took hedonistic advantage" of an always fearful American Public. The Power of Nighmares is as real as you allow it to be.

my husband worked the same job for 15 years, an out of country buisness came in bought it out and laid them all off now there are NO jobs.........and no help............. BAIL US OUT !!!!!! we have sitting here begging for work sure u can get a min. wage job at a local chain store that wants to give you 10-20 hrs a week. That wont even pay for the gas to drive there. since its $4 a gallon.
We have a pile of disconnects and no money for food tried public assistance and they offered $98 in food stamps for 5 people if we sell everything we have a go through a waiting period .........dont think my 3 year old is going to understand we will eat later

wont the government have to itemize which part of our taxes go to pay on the bailout? why pay it??.. if none of us pay it , they cant put us all in jail. so lets just not pay it.. what do you think?

So if the majority of Americans - those of us on 'Main Street' -- are vehemently against this bailout, why are our voices and words invisible? Why are no elected officials or appointed leadership listening to us? Its beyond awful. Salaries have stayed stagnant, and house prices rose beyond reach for many because of slimy lending practices, overeager/greedy people wanting homes bigger than they could afford, and bidding wars in Boston. We need housing prices to come back down, way down. Back down to where the salaries of today can afford them.

Amazing someone is actually complaining about the poor people getting helped. I am sorry but those Dollar General wages do not allow the cashier who is working two or three jobs to warm their family at night to run the furnace basically left with the assistance to pay for spray paint to paint rocks and huddle around to pretend to get warmth! Someone is actually complaining about only making 40K a year wow I wish I could make that in a year and from one job! I agree about bringing the prices to meet salaries or salaries to meet prices.. rather than prices that leave the poor painting rocks and pretending.

I just want to say if all you Americans are worried about the middle class paying out for everything and that they only care for the rich, why dont you do something about it.....Dont talk about it, do something about it!!!!!

The American Revolution