Not My Money

I was getting ready to head off to bed and wake up and eat turkey the next morning when I ran across a scary article. According to the Washington Times Treasury Secretary Paulson announced yesterday that the bailout package would increase by $800 billion. No debate, just an announcement.

The federal government expanded its financial-rescue effort by another $800 billion Tuesday to encourage more lending to home buyers and consumers, bringing the national bailout tab to $1.5 trillion and counting.

The program introduced Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. would commit $600 billion to assist the mortgage markets, and a second program would provide $200 billion of increased lending to consumers. Both would be operated by the Federal Reserve and do not need congressional approval.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/26/bailout-increases-by-800-billion/

When the $780 billion bailout package was being pushed a month ago it was touted as "the solution" to our economic crisis. Almost immediately after it was passed people started referring to it as "the first step." Now we are going to have another $800 billion added to the cost of the bailout, and Obama still wants another bailout bill passed shortly after getting into office.

You have to wonder where the politicians think this money is coming from. The more money you print off, the more you devalue the currency, reduce the buying power of the dollar, and indirectly tax every American. This trillion dollar package will further ruin this nation's already bleak financial future.

Beyond this, it is destructive to the Republican Party for President Bush to advocate yet again an insane spending package. If this party learned anything as a result of the general election hopefully it was that we need to be willing to draw the line in the sand and hold fast to our conservative principles. Wasn't their some Joe the Plumber guy who didn't like Obama because he wanted to "spread the wealth?" Now George Bush is trying to do it again. I hope when the Republican leaders wake up in the morning from their turkey induced slumber, hopefully they find their backbone and see this proposal die in the dustbin of failed socialist proposals.

All that said the scariest thing is that Paulson can allocate that much money to a purely socialist policy proposal without any kind of congressional authorization. When the first bailout bill was passed it took two house votes, presidential pressconferences, and a suspended presidential campaign to give Secretary Paulson $780 billion to save the economy. If Secretary Paulson can simply allocate himself $800 billion to continue saving the economy, he is either stretching his authority, or going beyond it. Either way he has way to much power, and the congress needs to stop him from going forward with this proposal.