Contact Your Congressman Now

Dear Senator or Congressman:

Like all Americans, I have a vested interest in the stability of our banking system and the financial markets; however I am deeply concerned about the proposed government rescue legislation that the Bush Administration is now seeking. Albeit with perhaps good intentions, any legislation that grants unfettered authority to the Treasury Secretary with minimal oversight and accountability and no recourse to the courts is simply unacceptable on its face. Furthermore, the crisis is primarily related to housing and any widening of the scope to include other asset classes like credit card debt is nothing less than rewarding companies for their irresponsible behavior. If banks are insolvent, then they should be forced to merge with another bank that is run responsibly. The shareholders and executives of the failed institution should be held accountable and not rewarded with an infusion of taxpayer capital. The forced bank liquidation process has served us well in the past and can do so now.

As a taxpayer, I am not interested in writing a blank check to the Treasury whereby they outsource their unprecedented new authority to a Wall Street firm with no oversight, no reciprocity, and no regulation. It was the Wall Street gurus and the lack of regulation which got us in this mess in the first place, so why should they be given all the tools to help their buddies and profit from this crisis at the expense of the taxpayers. Talk about conflict of interest? Such a scheme defies common sense.

What is also especially disturbing about this proposal is the speed at which this is being rammed through the Congress. Problems this complex deserve some deliberation and well thought out solutions. We should be very careful about what authority is granted to this administration especially after they misled us on the war, and most recently about the need for the authority to bail out FNMA and Freddie Mac. It was only a mere few weeks ago that Secretary Paulson told Congress that if he was granted the authority to bail out these agencies that it was unlikely he would need to use it. Then in a matter of weeks, he quickly moved to orchestrate the largest bail out in history. Simply put, I don’t trust the Bush Administration to tell the truth about anything. Their track record is simply too fraught with misinformation if not outright lies to get whatever they are seeking on whatever the topic of the day happens to be: authority to use force, torture, wiretaps, and now the largest bail outs in history.

Reading this letter, you might conclude that I don’t fully understand the banking system or the housing market. Please know that I have made my career in housing and mortgage banking for thirty years. I have worked as an executive for both publicly owned banks and non-regulated financial institutions. Furthermore, I am a stockholder who wants to see the markets stabilized, but I am first and foremost an American and a taxpayer. I am simply tired of seeing our tax dollars squandered with little regard for the national debt, deficit spending, or our crumbling infrastructure. I am most upset with no-bid contracts and the outright greed and corruption with no oversight or accountability.

In summary please have the courage to do what is right for Americans and not get caught up in the hysteria of the moment. Yes we need a stable financial system, but we don’t need to reward incompetence and self-dealing. As a federal official sworn to uphold the constitution, we need you to stand up now for America and not a unitary executive. We expect you to think about America First!