$700B for Wall Street Raiders and the Shaft for Us

The proposed Wall Street bailout is reverse socialism in the name of capitalism. In this case the government takes from the poor, to wit the average, middle-class taxpayer, to give to wealthy corporations. And make no mistake that they are still wealthy as the CEOs, CFOs, et al aren't going to lose a penny of the fortunes that they'd amassed under the Bush Administration’s blank check now with no questions, oversight nor punitive measures. The reality is that the institutions they've run into the ground are their cash cows and they expect the taxpayer to save them so that they can continue to suckle at the teats. If the institution dies it’s someone else's money that vaporizes - not theirs – as they have their golden parachutes packed before the shareholders receive a cent should anything remain.

These robber-barons at every level knew they were building time bombs to hand off to the unsuspecting. Mortgage brokers at the base pushed through loans that they knew would end up in default but didn't care as they got their fees and commissions in the front. Then the actual mortgage holders bundled good loans around bad and sold them before they could detonate in massive foreclosures. The people that are suffering the most are those who invested for their retirement and are watching their accounts tank. Those people would be the afore-mentioned "middle class" that government is killing off by aiding and abetting business and financial institutions at every level.

The only way a bailout should occur is in the form of loans and if there are caveats attached regardless if they would “discourage” these firms from seeking help as Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke would have us believe. They can either accept the caveats or go under but they should not be allowed to continue to profit through an infusion of tax dollars while taxpayers providing the funding continue to lose their homes and savings to the very ones responsible for this economic implosion.

Without the following there should be no “bailout” loans:

1. Complete, unfettered, non-partisan oversight,
2. A set minimum portion of any future profits goes to a fund to repay the treasury,
3. No employee of the corporation can receive a salary greater than that of the highest paid federal civil servant nor can they receive any bonuses, stock options or any other additional
money over their salaries until the treasury is repaid,
4. Binding arbitration with distressed homeowners to prevent further foreclosures with a ten-percent credit of the value of the loan toward the debt to the government for each successfully re-negotiated mortgage preventing a foreclosure, and,
5. In the event arbitration fails to prevent a foreclosure, the homeowner will be forgiven any debt that may arise from any difference from the amount owed and the sale price of the home and that the forgiveness of any such difference shall not be taxed as income by the IRS.

The Whitehouse plan pitched by Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke is nothing but free money with no strings allowing Wall Street moguls to continue to profit while more Americans continue to become penniless and homeless - period.

Wall Street and their Whitehouse enablers are joined at the wallet and they want to openly raid our wallets again. I'd rather see Wall Street implode from its own, unregulated greed and charge those responsible under the RICO statutes then confiscate all of their personal assets as the illegal gains from a criminal enterprise rather than give them a single penny with no conditions.Yep. That voting Republican thing worked real well, didn't it?

21-50. Out.