Can I Get a Bailout?

Seriously...can I get a bailout? I've been doing my job, going through the motions, lack motivation, lack innovation...but hey, I deserve to get paid, don't I?

That's basically what we've been saying to the American people with these bailout plans. $700 billion(!) to bailout the institutions that are largely responsible for our current situation. They've fostered a culture of careless lending practices. And now we, the taxpayers, get to foot the bill. Our country seemingly has been surviving largely on credit and this just continues the pattern.

But if we don't bail out our financial institutions and automakers won't our economy fail?

It may fail...but it is already failing. And why are we putting more money into a system that is failing? One of the main stipulations of the $700 billion bailout was a regulation committee to oversee the distribution of the money and monitor how the financial institutions appropriated it. Yet, as of last week, that committee had still not been formed and most of the $700 billion had been distributed.

So, today, as Congress tried to urge the Treasury Department to appropriate $25 billion to the Big Three automakers, we saw tougher regulatory language. Now, apparently, they mean business, and they are going to regulate.

I'd say too little and too late. We wrote a blank check and trusted Congress to follow through with their promises. But they failed miserably. And it's something they have to live with and something we, the average American taxpayer, have to pay for. Shame on you Congress and on the Bush Administration's about face on the purpose of the bailout bill(buy bad assets?! no, let's just give the money away to the banks!).

But what more should we expect from an administration that has us bogged down in two foreign wars, with a record national debt, tarnished international standing, fledgling economy, and a lame duck President with record low approval ratings?

This is not my grandparents' America, nor is it the America my parents grew up in. My America is one that has to pay the piper.