What Do You Think About the Rescue?

Amazing, the President sumbits a 3 page Bill to Congress. The House presents a 100 plus page Bill and the Senate then brings forth a 456 page atrocity. Time for this nonsense to stop. It's time these Congress folks realize the people are the government and not them. Call or write your Senators today before they vote on this massive bailout and voice your opion. Then, when they are up for re-election...vote them out! I am in full favor of the Common Sense Plan. Common Sense Plan. I. INSURANCE A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity. B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things: 1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage. a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes. b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives. 2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs. C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal. II. MARK TO MARKET A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate. B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing. III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing. B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.”

Follow the roadmap that Warren Buffet did with Goldman Sachs.... He's going to get a return on investment......

Why not just let the banks that made bad loans fail? Why should they be allowed to continue? Bankruptcy is a great cleansing agent. Use it. Prosecute the crooks on Wall Street. That should keep the courts busy for a while. Set up temporary courts using judges from all over the country. Then kick out all of the bums in Congress. The new Senators and Representatives in the class of 2006 are worse than the ones they replaced. It grieves me that the new president will be from the Senate. Surely we can do better than this.

Adopt Dave Ramsey's plan. It's common sense and it will work.

Follow the Dave Ramsey Plan.

I agree with Stan. Lets limit the terms of congress. Career politicans always get greedy and get sweetheart deals.

We get prefered stock at 10% for our money. That simple. We dont want to go to thier yard sale and but the 3 wheeled wagon, 2 legged stool, bicycle with no tires. We loan them the money and take a lien at 10% interest on the bank (house). Thats how you help your neighbor and protect yourself. Our lien on the banks needs to be the senior debt and no other can come before it to include executive pay. Interest payments first before executive pay. No golden parachutes till all loans payed. The tax payers should not be asked to haul off the trash from the financial neighbor hood yard sale. Plus we get to pay for the trash and then also be stuck with the bill to haul it off. WRONG!!! Congress best be paying attention!!!!!!

1. Make the banks collect the mortgages. Insure the mortgages i.e. like FHA housing loans 2. Eliminate the Mark to Market accounting rule 3. Increase the FDIC limits permanetly 4. Remove the Capital Gains tax 5. Change to a flat tax. Equality for all

1)raise fdic insurance to cover all deposits....(stop bank runs) 2) remove the recent rule changes...e.g. mark to market...naked shorts...community lending ....everything passed in the last 15 yrs...in other words reset the regs. back to sensible times..(an old IT practice called "oops, the upgrade crashed...who has the back-up the the old system?...let's reload the one that worked) 3) hold hearings... 4) indite everyone who recommended, voted for, or regulated any of the new laws

1. Dave Ramsey's Common Sense Plan. It makes too much sense! 2. Congressional "leadership" needs to replace the committee chairmen of the responsible oversite committees. That would send the signal that Congress is truely serious about their responsibilities.

Eliminate capital gains tax and mark to market rule. Approve the increase in the FDIC ceiling (as proposed).

Let the market fix itself. I have said for a long time that the numbers were getting too high to be trusted. Let Wall Street heal on its own. And let Main Street get back to work. My solution is to vote every member of Congress out and start over.

LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY..THE LITTLE GUY KNOWS HE IS SCREWED WHETHER OR NOT THE FAT CATS ARE RESCUED..LETS LET EVERYONE SINK WITH US..PLENTY OF ROOM AT THE BOTTOM FOR EUROTRASH

Congressman DeFazio created the No BAILOUTS Act at no cost to the taxpayer. It worked during the S&L debacle of the 1980's and would be worth trying now: "Bringing Accounting, Increased Liquidity, Oversight and Upholding Taxpayer Security 1) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require an economic value standard to measure the capital of financial institutions. This bill will require SEC to implement a rule to suspend the application of fair value accounting standards to financial institutions, which marks assets to the market value, no matter the conditions of the market. When no meaningful market exists, as is the current market for mortgage backed securities, this standard requires institutions to value assets at fire-sale prices. This creates a capital shortfall on paper. Using the economic value standard as bank examines have traditionally done will immediately correct the capital shortfalls experienced by many institutions. 2) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to restricting naked short sells permanently. This bill will require SEC to implement a rule that blocks naked selling, selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares or ensuring the shares can be borrowed. Such practices many times harm the companies represented in the sales and hurt their efforts to raise capital. There is no economic value produced by naked short sales, but significant negative effects. 3) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to restore the up-tick rule permanently. This bill will require SEC to implement a rule that blocks short sales without an up-tick in the market. On September 19, 2008, the SEC approved a temporary pause of short selling in financial companies “to protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence.” This rule prevents market crashes brought on by irrational short term market behavior. 4) “Net Worth Certificate Program” This bill will require FDIC to implement a net worth certificate program. The FDIC would determine banks with short-term capital needs and the ability to financially recover in the foreseeable future. For those entities that qualify, the FDIC should purchase net worth certificates in these institutions. In exchange, these institutions issue promissory notes to repay the FDIC, counting the amount “borrowed” as capital on their balance sheets. This exchange provides short term capital, with not cash outlay. Interest rates on the certificates and the FDIC notes should be identical so no subsidy is necessary. Participating banks must be subject to strict oversight by the FDIC including oversight of top executive compensation and if necessary the removal of poor management. Financial records and business plans should be subject to scrutiny while participating in the program. In 1982, Congress approved a program, known as the Net Worth Certificate Program, that allowed banks and thrifts to apply for immediate capital assistance. From 1982 to 1993, banks with total assets of $40 billion participated in the program. The majority of these banks, 75%, required no further assistance beyond the certificate program. 5) Increase the FDIC Insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000. The bill will require the FDIC raise its limit to provide depositors confidence that their money is safe and help eliminate runs on banks which are destabilizing to the industry."

Instead of dithering around, have Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, and Steve Wynn finalize the package. The government obviously needs some expert advise. These men live and breathe the economy, and the results of both good and bad investments, along with responsibility and accountability.

When do the bail out's stop? So the government tried to bain everyone out this summer by putting the entire country on welfare with the stimulus check. Now they are considering taking that back, and more if they follow through and bail out several major company's. How about this instead: 1. Let the market economy / free enterprise system balance itself and it will. Lets all remember that we got in this mess by Government continually messing with the prime rates in the first place. The Laws of Supply and Demand ALWAYS work if you just leave them alone and stay out of the way. 2. Re instutue the Roman practice of debters prison and eliminate Bankrupcy-Chapter 11 and 7. This should solve our greedy-materialistic foolish spending habbits of both individuals and business. It will remind foolish individuals and business that our country was founded on the pursuit of happiness, not the promies of a handout, or bailout, for every stupid descison people make. Pursuit is not a guarantee. 3. Let Churches get a clue and start actually caring for the people around them and we would not need the government to play robinhood. My wife and I run a free coffee house, we house, feed, and help tons of homeless and needy individuals and familys, They learn to provide for themselves and become productive members of society and we seem to have much better succes than the welfare system. I see my taxes buying garbage at superstores all the time for people who could easily be working if they were motivated and someone just helped them. Giving people a handout only encourages lazyness and helplessness and foolishness. I have lived on the streets and know what it takes to get off the streets for many people, a night or two on the streets hungry is what they need to learn to work for their own food and budget their money.

Sorry-- my name misspellt in previous email. For correct spelling see above.

I think that it's time we all sent a message to Washington that we DO have the power to use the practice that Richard Pryor used in "Brewster's Millions"....and vote "None Of The Above"

This bailout is a terrible idea. What we don't need is more bad governmental policies and regulations like the ones that got us into this mess. Let these troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Repeal the capital gains tax. Reduce the business tax. Get rid of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and policies like the Community Reinvestment Act that encouraged the subprime mess. Someone needs to take a hard look at the bailout the auto industry received last week as well. What was that? $24 billion?

This plan is SIMPLE, like all great plans SIMPLE --. Say it in 3 words 'COMMODITIZE" junk mortgages" - list them on our planet's largest, most efficient financial exchange the CHICAGO MERCANTILE EXCHANGE where, once listed, will be bot by PRIVATE speculators, NOT tax-payers This plan would reverse the process, unbundle them and re-bundle them as COMMODITIES. To explain, originally these junk-mortgages where "securitized", bundled together and sold as securities. this plan would reverse the process, unbundle them, and re-bundle them to be ready to be traded as COMMODITIES. This plan dovetails nicely with Paulson's plan to have an army of appraisers re-appraise these junk mortgages before selling them to tax-payers. This plan would sell them on the CME to PRIVATE speculators. Refine bundles by maturity, origin by say state and quality - have a great variety available to suit the taste of a great variety of PRIVATE investors.

1.) End the Bailouts - The Federal Reserve's authority to use taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street must be revoked and the Fed must be held accountable. 2.) Stop Congress' Reckless Spending - We must freeze all non-entitlement spending by the federal government at current levels and eliminate wasteful spending both domestically and in our trillion-dollar overseas budget. 3.) Cut Taxes - If Wall Street can be given your tax dollars, shouldn't you get some back? It's time to cut taxes and return your money to you. Combined with spending reform, this will increase the purchasing power of our dollars and help lessen the economic storm. 4.) Reform the Monetary System - If we are to have long-term economic progress, we must end the system of printing money out of thin air. The current laws limiting the circulation of gold and silver-backed currency must be overturned.

The most significant systemic international financial problem at this time is credit market liquidity. Basic supply and demand rules only apply when buyers and sellers are both in the market. Providing individual and corporate investors with a U.S. government supported process to efficiently and securely purchase mortgage backed securities at discounted prices as appropriate could provide an incentive to investors to invest and financial institutions with liquidity to facilitate market based lending. With enough support, it might be possible to persuade our elected officials to consider this approach.

NO BAILOUT. Bush, Paulson, and Bernanke are LIARS purposely trying to deceive the public for their own personal gain. The bailout would take wealth from the average American (via inflation tax) and give it to the rich, heartless fools who currently control everything. Furthermore, we need to SHUT DOWN THE FEDERAL RESERVE immediately before it destroys the Republic. Peace, Truth, Justice

UGH! Give the $700 billion to the taxpayers. Let us use it to pay our mortgages or to buy homes--wouldn't that "thaw" the freeze?

If any money is going to be given out, let it be given to the tax paying, hard working american people!! It was theirs to begin with!!! Let them use the money to pay off their mortgages and get back on their feet!!! That would be a boost to the failing economy and to the businesses that are hurting. Better yet, let the government stay out of the whole mess!!!! Let it all fall down so we can start over and build it right!!! Anything the government does will only be a temporary fix anyway!!!

No on the bailout bill. A simple but yet affective fix would be to go to a 'Flat Tax.. sometimes referred to as fair tax' which would mean you only pay tax on what you buy...

I would start by NOT electing Obama and start to hold people accountable for their actions financially. There needs to be government intervention to some degree but there needs to be some type of reward to the hard working people who are responsbile enough to pay their mortgage. My suggestion would be to give people a tax break who are actually paying their bills and let the people who don't continue to suffer.

Remove the mark to market provision and extend the fha insurance to sub prime mortgages.....lack of financial institutions to regulate themselves and the over reaching reaction of the government has put us in this position....if we allow this degree of governmental intrusion we will never see it removed.

Why not take that 700billion dollars and use it as a economic stimulus. Every adult would get approx 200,000 dollars. A married couple get over 500,000 dollars with stipulations that mortgages and credit cards be paid off and also taxes be paid. This not only pays back the government, but releases the banks of debt also. This not only helps the government, banks, etc. but helps "Americans" from main street get out of debt also.Everyone wins not just those rich CEO's that has created most of this trouble.

From three pages to 451 pages in one day. It would take a month just to read it. No way do I want to see it pass it one day

I agree with Dave Ramsey's recommendations that many have posted. I especially like eliminating the Capital Gains tax but Democrats in Congress will never let that happen. It just goes to show that Democrats would rather saddle American taxpayers with a huge debt than run the risk of someone actually making a profit.

I want to see something done to reduce Government handouts, not increase them, whether to business or individuals. We should not give away any funds to treat the symptom until we cure the cause - Fannie, Freddie and CRA as well as nincompoops as chairmen of Congressional committees. A truly Free Enterprise System will regulate and cure itself. Deregulation only workd when Government leaves it alone and that did not occur. We do now need to rescue the stock market but giving $700 billion to the Treasury to buy back bad loans is not the answer. However, if the banks simply wrote off the bad loans, they would not only avoid paying taxes, which more than likely, would cost far more than $700 bilion but also create massive foreclosures. The subprime mortgages created a false economy that benefited, builders, realtors, building supply companies, mortgage lenders and their executives and they are those who will pay with reduced income and profit. The real estate market needs to return to normalcy. Banks can already borrow from not only the Federal Reserve but also each other, the mortgage companies that cannot, should be allowed to fail and not be rewarded for greed. In summary, the Government should not make sub-prime loans to companies that don't deserve the credit, that's what got us in this mess. Government has never been able to run any enterprise effectively. Loan the money to the Federal Reserve, if it needs it and let it deal with creditworthy banks and lend money to the FDIC, if it needs it, to buy out the problem assets of closed banks. Eliminate capital gains taxes and investors will buy bad loans or their undelying real estate at some price and the market will regulate. Those who bought the worthless mortgage backed securities should lose their investment, they write off a portion of it and reduce their tax payments accordingly. In other words, let the regulators already in place help those worthy of it and let the marketplace deal with the rest. If any additional funds are needed, make it available to the Federal Reserve and the FDIC and keep it away from politicians.

No treasury bailout is needed. Just let the Federal reserve do what it's been doing. Let the treasury continue to broker deals between the financial institutions. That's all that's needed. The financial institutions are already beginning their necessary restructuring. The credit crunch is overstated. LIBOR is much lower today (10/1) and I have seen no significant increase in CD rates or other indicators of credit crunch. Even if a significant credit crunch was present, it would not be solved by a Treasury Bailout. The federal reserve is in a much better position to solve credit crunches than the Treasury. Isn't that why we created it in the first place -- lender of last resort? In terms of stock market declines, this is not even in the top 10 stock market declines (by %) in US history. So, why do we need such a huge bailout? In fact, there is something paradoxical about a Treasury solution. If there is a big credit crunch, how is the Treasury going to get their money? They are in deficit, so they have to borrow from the same market mired in this credit crunch! Or they are going to print money, which can only lead to inflation. If the idea is that the only institution the banks are willing to lend to is the federal govt, then a better bailout would simply be to borrow a bunch of money from the market and re-deposit it back into the banks (effectively lending it back to the banks). But this sounds a lot like what the federal reserve ALREADY does!!! Furthermore, a treasury bailout will DELAY the financial restructuring that's required and will encourage FURTHER excesses in the future (or at least prevent learning the important lessons that banks need to be more conservative with insured money). The fed's maintenance of liquidity has the effect of minimizing a credit crunch but still punishes banks that were too excessive. The reason is that the liquidity the Fed injects is spread very widely. A treasury bailout focuses on the bad loans and securities and thus REWARDS companies with bad loans and securities. Lower capital gains and all the other house/senate republican solutions are not necessarily bad, but just irrelevant (they have absolutely no connection to the crisis).

Limit the term the of senate and repulicans can serve to 2 terms this way we would always have new ideas and they could not became career politician and that is what got us into the meesy we are in

1) government to stay out of the markets 2) if nobody wants to buy stock, then the market has spoken, let it fall 3) do not let government create nearly a trillion in debt, to buy stock that the market has said is worthless 4) abolish the fed, or at least audit the fed. stop the inflation creating machine from killing our dollar 5) end the debt. stop endless government expansion and debt creation. get back to small government ideals. cut much of the unconstitutional programs in the 3 trillion dollar federal budget, since the other 3 trillion in government spending is at the state and local level and much more important to Americans. reduce the federal government as much as possible, at least to gain the ability to allocate funds for social security - which government has forced citizens to rely on. 6) stop trying to scare Americans into this massive debt creation, telling them they wont eat and wont get paychecks if this does not pass. it is pure lies, to create fear, to pressure the citizen into accepting this massive debt. 7) get rid of every politician who supported this bailout. make sure they are never employed in Washington again. they are thieves, and will do anything to funnel millions and billions into the connected pockets.

I wonder what kind of cut the lobbists working for these companies will get out of this and future promises congressmen and senators are making to them. I'm also very puzzled on how the crisis average Americans are facing was trumphed by a holiday. It makes wonder what the real drive of the plan is, if it's not we the people.

Let the market correct itself..........we will fill the pain........but we will only be in this same place again by having the "government" controlling the money..........and this "next" time the government will have nobody to turn to........and we will be in a "great depression"!

I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey’s plan! Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps: Common Sense Plan. I. INSURANCE A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity. B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things: 1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage. a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes. b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives. 2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs. C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal. II. MARK TO MARKET A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate. B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing. III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing. B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

What we have here was created by people who made bad financial decisions. Whether it was corporate or private homeowners, to have a 3rd party (government) move in now and attempt to remove the negative consequences of these decisions could in fact make it worse in the long run. My sense is that some sort of Darwinian economic evolutionary forces should be allowed to play out here. The idea that the economic environment should be one of perpetual sunshine and upward movement strikes me as unrealistic. In the short term many will suffer, in the long run we will have a healther economy. Finally, it is somehow missed that thousands (millions?) of people are doing just fine in homes they acquired (or made money from construction related business) during this period of easy credit. So many were able to refinance or in some other way make it work in their favor. I did. The corporate bigwigs were not the only beneficiaries. Since I took advantage should we include taking my paid up home away as part of a bail out plan?

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. Common Sense Plan. I. INSURANCE A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity. B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things: 1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage. a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes. b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives. 2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs. C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal. II. MARK TO MARKET A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate. B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing. III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing. B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

Dave Ramsey's plan is super-disappointing in its absolving irresponsible homeowners of any consequences to their foolish actions and choices. Let them just walk away from a mortgage? No penalties? An interest rate equal to what many have been paying because they feared that while the low initial rate of an ARM was mighty sweet, they might not be able to afford the payments once the rate adjusted? So they've been paying the higher rate for all these past years and now the gamblers automatically get their rate? It's about as bad as the house bill that wanted interest rate and *principal* reductions for anyone not paying their mortgage. Sorry to be hard-hearted, but if people can't pay for their mortgages under the terms that they originally agreed to--like all the rest of us are doing, despite whatever scrimping it may take to do it--then why should the government have the right to nullify the contract? As Dave Ramsey himself likes to suggest each night: sell your car, get an extra job. Be responsible. Congress and the administration should quit trying to pass an unconstitutional takeover of our financial industry. Look to other solutions that will create a fertile business environment. Don't use taxpayer money to assume control private company assets and then use the proceeds to dole out prosperity to whom each congressman thinks his largesse should benefit. For instance: Ramsey's suggestions on mark-to-market and capital gains, however, are good ways a government can work with a free-market system. Lowering income tax rates, vote aye. Eliminating corporate taxes, ditto. And make these changes permanent--something we can count on and plan accordingly in the long term. And if Congress worries that they need to cut spending somewhere, I wholeheartedly concur with joe valcourt's suggestion to cut the salaries of Congress and the Executive Branch. And a commission needs to be set up immediately to shine some disinfecting sunlight into the dark nooks and crannies of this mortgage debacle. The Democrats can't be trusted to investigate themselves. All the rotten deals and congressional boondoggles that got us here need to be exposed and banished from ever occurring again.

These are all very common sense decisions - unfortunately common sense isn't so common, otherwise everybody would have it. More than half of the politicians have ivy league degrees and we (the common folks) have better ideas on how to get out of this wall street greed than they do, and we're trusting them to run the country??

Bail-out or rescue, whatever you call it, is not necessary. . change the " mark-to market" rules . eliminate the capital gains tax

Analogy - Bailout plan is just like paying one credit card with another. Never a good plan. Pull out of the war. At 6 to 9 billion a month this can go along ways for helping pay off our national debt. This will force the other countries to step and carry some of the burden. No Bail out required - due nothing. Allow the market to correct it self. Allow impacts to happen, even if it means a number of banks and financial institutions closures. Situation will correct itself and become stronger over the recovery time. Banks and financial institutions will be much wiser in their investment strategies. Allow the the financial crises resolve itself. As we have already seen with the failed (voted out) recovery plan. Impacts to the market is relatively limited, will hover, stabilize and rise to the occasion in time.

1. offer low fixed rate mortgages to those whom are credit worthy to refinace there primary residence only. 2. pass legislation to allow only fixed rate mortgages for a primary residence. 3. tax payers will purchase the worthy assets of the failing companies. This will offset some of the failing companies losses. Resell the worthy assets to the surviving companies. The taxpayer recoups their investment. Let the failing companies fail and the share holders eat the loss. 4. Those companies participating in this plan will forfeit all "golden parachutes" (bonuses,stock options and plans and any severence pay/plan)and be limited to a maximum $325,000.00 annual salary. 5. Immediately halt all foreign aid and establish voluntary world disaster/relief fund that Americans can decide for themselves if it is a worthy cause. We need the money. 6. Let some other country host United Nations. We need the money. 7. Immediately pass legislation that requires ALL the money contributed to Social Security, medicaid/medicare to be returned. No more borrowing from this fund for any reason. Period. 8. Immediately pass legislation providing SS benefits only for those whom have contributed to it. We need the money. 9. Immediately lock down ALL the borders to the U.S. 10. ALL residents-legal or otherwise will be required to verify that they have paid their Federal income taxes. Those whom cannot provide proof will have to immediately pay up. No exceptions. Should you be in the country illegally then upon payment of your tax bill you will be immediately put on a bus and deported to the nearest border. Don't worry about being seperated from your anchor baby (family). The taxpayer will purchase a bus ticket for them too. Anchor babies will be welcome to return when they are 18. We need the money. 11. Immediately pass legislation criminalizing politicians that fail to take action when they have been warned about a pending crisis for which they are responsible for the oversight. 12. ALL aliens in the country will have to pay an entry fee AND a user fee when they are in the country legally to work or get an education. We need the money. 13. All persons seeking to be elected or re-elected to any office of the Federal Government will be permitted to receive a maximum of $100.00 from each registered voter annually. No other contributions will be permitted. 14.All elected officials will be limited to six years in office in their lifetime. No more career politicians.

1. Explain to Americans what "liquidity" means... ie. If banks don't have money to lend... businesses fold... no jobs... downward spiral. 2. Market the plan as something OTHER than a "bail-out". Americans could stand to make a profit on this deal! 3. Vote people like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank out of office. They have been at the helm... of the Exxon Valdeez that is our economic situation.

Fix it from the bottom up. Main Street to Wall Street, not vice versa as is being proposed.

I am not qualified to debate the subtleties of finance, government regulation, and all the options available to us. That is why we elect officials to represent us. But, we, the people, need to take responsibility for our inaction as well. If we want an effective plan, and long-term correction, this election is time for us to clean both Houses. Nothing makes a stonger statement than "You're fired!"

I was just reviewing the revised Senate bill on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and I just cannot understand why they would burden consideration of the bill with such other provisions such as Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, Alternative Minimum Tax Relief, Additional Tax Relief and Tax Provisions, Payments for States and Counties Containing Federal Land, Special Projects on Federal Land, County Funds, Disaster Relief, and Spending Reductions and Appropriate Revenue Raisers for New Tax Relief Policy.

In addition to whatever is done to directly address the sub-prime mortgage mess and all of the attendant complications (whether one labels it a bailout or rescue or something else), some things need to be done to rejuvenate the overall economy. In the long run, that will be of greater and more lasting benefit to the country as a whole and to individual citizens than a (hopefully) one-time bailout. Therefore I suggest the following: Permanently eliminate federal income taxes on dividends. Eliminate the capital gains tax. Permanently cut the federal corporate income tax rate by half. Tax the small business owners who currently file a personal income tax return at the lower of either the personal rate or the reduced corporate rate. Reduce the federal personal income tax rates by one third. The economy, employment and federal tax revenue will all skyrocket. People and companies will be incentivized to grow and capital will pour into this country from across the globe. It will become the best place in the world to invest, to do business. It will be the best place in the world to be a worker because of the reduced income tax rates and because of the boom in employment. The dollar will strengthen, which, among other things, will help lower the cost of imported oil. In spite of a strengthened dollar, export-oriented businesses will remain attractive to investors because of the low corporate tax rate.