Why Can't We Get the Good Loans?

Am I the only one with a sense of deja vu regarding the urgency being pressed by the White House for the American taxpayer to accept $700 billion in bad loans as their own? I'm sure others can recall previous instances where the Administration told us of impending doom where the threat didn't materialize.

It seems an awful lot like the bad actors on Wall Street, who pursued profit over prudence, are being given one last reward for their actions. I haven't spoken to one real person, or heard one talking head, who thinks this is a good idea. It doesn't sit well with anyone I know that we're about to bailout these guys to the tune of $700 billion, leaving them their profit margins and good notes.

If the bad actors need $700 billion in capital, why aren't taxpayers buying $700 billion in good loans? Then at least we'd know we're going to get most of our money back. Why are they shafting taxpayers and telling us it's for our own good?

We're being told the alternative is much worse, well the American people deserve to know what that alternative is. There are enough good actors, small local and regional banks and insurers, who didn't get greedy and stupid. If these institutions are capable of picking up the slack, why not give them a shot first? Or let them buy $700 billion in good loans from the bad actors. The people that made the bad loans shouldn't be able to simply wash their hands with taxpayer sanitizer and move on.

I have little doubt this raping of the taxpayer is going to go through, but as voters and citizens, we have to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that these sorts of things don't happen again. Unfortunately, in the era of special interests first Washington leadership, we the taxpayer will continue to be bent over the barrel and told it's for our own good.