Bailout Blunders #1

Where do we go from here? House Speaker Nanci Pelosi reiterated the Democrats' commitment to place the needs of Main Street before those of Wall Street . However, the problem remains that "protecting" the middle class is rarely effective when done by by those who do not feel the social and economic pressures felt by the middle or lower-middle class.

Regretting that the lending crisis is our reality says little when no member of the House, much less the Senate, face foreclosure, face living on the streets. Even if members of the House and Senate face reelection, few face any real threat of unemployment. Even if they lose a seat in Washington, most maintain law practices or posses wealthy spouses capable of sustaining a $100,000 plus income with a single-earner household.

Perhaps Republicans and Democrats need a closer look at the ills facing many of Americans. Perhaps economic leaders need to learn a tougher lesson than they'll learn from briefly losing their CEO or CFO or COO positions. Perhaps members of the 26 companies currently under Federal investigation by the FBI for their role in the sub-prime lending fiasco, should have more than their, so called, golden parachutes cut. Let's see these business and political leaders stripped of their silver spoons, blue blood, legacy birth rights and speculative wealth. Let's see these folks stripped of their designer clothes, luxury vehicles, chartered planes, overstuffed stock portfolios and company (or taxpayer funded) credit cards. From there we may see a different turn when it comes to the way they relate to "ordinary" Americans.

$700 billion dollar bailout isn't in the cards, at least not today. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blames Republicans for not passing the bill that she said would have given more oversight to the lending market, but let's not forget that politicians were the ones responsible for ensuring that the oversight was there far before this catastrophic collapse.