For me, the real fatcats aren't on Wall Street. They are the oil companies who drained mainstream America's pockets with $4 plus a gallon for gasoline.
Exxon, Shell, Phillips, and others had record profits this year. Ballooned mortgages aren't the only reason for foreclosures. In California, where I live, high gas and diesel prices have forced up the price of everything, because everything moves by truck. Central California is ground-zero for the foreclosure crisis and our gas prices ("zone effective pricing") are among the highest in the nation.
Yes, the prices are down again, but that won't replace the cash sucked from middle-class pockets when fuel was approaching $5 a gallon. Obama wants to put a windfall profits tax on the oil companies when he gets elected. I say, do it now.
Remember that you have paid twice for each tank of gas: once directly at the pump, and again for the war in Iraq which was all about securing that country's oil reserves. Is it any wonder that people have chosen to buy fuel to get to work so that they can feed their kids, and let the mortgage payment slip?
Oil company profits are obscene. They can and should fund the bailout of a situation they have helped create. They have sucked America dry; now they need to disgorge those gains.
Congress, are you listening?
Din