Chris of Brunswick, ME PS: The financial risk of this proposed bailout legislation is so high that it could well jeopardize other important federal programs like Social Security and Medicare. That’s because US Treasury should only buy bad debts after a bank or insurance company has failed, when the bad debt can be purchased at “fire sale” prices, which present a low risk of loss to the federal government. Therefore this dangerous bailout legislation should be strongly opposed by our Congressional delegation!report abuse

Chris of Brunswick, ME The op-ed said: "It's really not fair to let businesses and their stockholders make a profit and then stick the taxpayers with the bill when those business generate massive losses."

That's why bailout legislation always work to come into effect after a bank or company has failed, not before as the Bush administration has proposed. For example the bailout legislation passed after the real estate recession of the last 1980's, when real estate prices fell on average 25%, worked by having the federal government buy bad assets after banks failed.

The Resolution Trust Company was formed to takeover collapsed banks and protect depositors, while taking on bad assets at "fire sale" prices in order to protect federal taxpayers from a huge liability on resale. However what the Bush administration and Democrats in Congress are proposing is a MASSIVE GIVEAWAY to shareholders and executives of these banks before they fail.

Not surprisingly Democrats in Congress are also working furiously to hijack the bailout legislation in order to buy more votes for Democratic candidates in the November election. The Democrats don't care how much they add to the federal debt as long as they can buy enough votes to win 60 seats in the Senate as well as the Presidency. That's why passage of the bailout legislation should be postponed until after the election, when voters can demand no assets be purchased before a bank or company fails!report abuse

Rush2Judge of Augusta, ME I disagree with part of GaMainer's statement:
"WE (401k participants, stockholder, stockbrokers, investment bankers, real estate owners, etc.) created this problem and WE need to solve it".

The 401k participants did not buy the carppy loans their money was used by others to buy crappy loans. Many real estate owners bought what they could afford and did not take out second mortgages to buy other things. Sp some of US did not do this, but will pay.

I too don't like the deal. I think the finance people in the government are moving to fast to be sure this is a good idea. If they couldn't see this coming for months, how can we trust them to fix it in a week. Add to that most of them worked on Wall Street and banking. Many in the companies WE are being forced to save. I'd recommend:
- limiting the credit of anyone having one of these loans sold to the gov to $20,000
- voiding the golden parachutes of anyone at a bank that force-sells one of these loans to us.
- barring anyone in the government that is working on the bailout or neglected to oversee the problem from working in any bank that gets bailed out.

First and foremost I think they look at ways for the banks to keep the bad debt themselves, but at a discounted level. Why should WE own and sell this stuff. Let them.report abuse

GaMainer of Atlanta, GA WE (401k participants, stockholder, stockbrokers, investment bankers, real estate owners, etc.) created this problem and WE need to solve it! When the market was making money, we did not care how the money was coming in!!! Now, we have to fix it. The bailout, which I truly despise, is better than letting things go South - it could be as bad as the Great Depression. So, let's eat crow, fix the problem and learn that greed does not pay.report abuse