Here is the message that I just sent to my representative and two Senators in the U.S. Congress about the Bush administration's $700 billion-plus bailout plan for its Wall Street cronies:
I am writing to urge you not to approve a $700 billion blank check for the Wall Street investors who did so much to foul up the nation's economy.
All my life, I've played by the rules, telling the truth about my income, paying my taxes and not skipping out on my debts. When the price of homes in California exploded, my wife and I refused to lie about our incomes to get a mortgage, and we refused to take out an Option ARM mortgage (like so many people urged us to do), because we knew we wouldn't be able to repay it if home prices went down. Which they did....
We need to fix the nation's housing market, but not in this way. Not with another multi-billion-dollar blank check for the Bush administration. And especially not after the way this administration botched the Iraq war. Please, for those folks like me who played by the rules, who acted with responsibility and who didn't mortgage our future on risky investment schemes, please vote NO on this bailout plan.
The rest of my letter, and how you can help, after the jump.
Here is the message that I just sent to my representative and two Senators in the U.S. Congress about the Bush administration's $700 billion-plus bailout plan for its Wall Street cronies:
I am writing to urge you not to approve a $700 billion blank check for the Wall Street investors who did so much to foul up the nation's economy.
All my life, I've played by the rules, telling the truth about my income, paying my taxes and not skipping out on my debts. When the price of homes in California exploded, my wife and I refused to lie about our incomes to get a mortgage, and we refused to take out an Option ARM mortgage (like so many people urged us to do), because we knew we wouldn't be able to repay it if home prices went down. Which they did.
So we're still renting. (BTW, we have an income in excess of $120k/yr. How ridiculous is this that we can't afford a home?) But now, under this proposal, my wife and I will be stuck paying the bill for those who lied and cheated their way through the whole mess.
We need to fix the nation's housing market, but not in this way. Not with another multi-billion-dollar blank check for the Bush administration. And especially not after the way this administration botched the Iraq war. Please, for those folks like me who played by the rules, who acted with responsibility and who didn't mortgage our future on risky investment schemes, please vote NO on this bailout plan.
Please demand, instead, a plan that requires real lending standards for government-backed mortgages, compensation caps for managers at participating firms, and prosecution of people who encouraged mortgage applicants to lie about their incomes. That is the way that we'll get families like mine owning our homes and how we'll get this economy moving again.
Please, hit up house.gov and senate.gov today to send your personal message to your reps. This is an issue that's united activists from both the left and the right. They're as ticked off about this bailout as we are, but we all need to move quickly we're going to keep the Bushies from getting another blank check from Congress. Please, send your message against this bailout... today.