2008 Soap Box Archives

Wool Pullers

Now that Congress has passed this gigantic financial bailout, only time will tell whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

On Monday the Dow Jones industrial average fell to below 10,000 for the first time since 2004, so at this point it's hard to see that our government really accomplished anything with our hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

But, as we all know, you can trust politicians about as far as you can push Mount Rushmore, so what they say means little or nothing when it comes to the truth. In this case, Wall Street's survival came packaged along with tax breaks for Hollywood producers, rum-makers in the Virgin Islands, and companies that make toy wooden arrows.

My opinion is this. If the bailout would work like the politicians said it would, it wouldn't be quite as bad, they'd sell off the mortgages later on and get the money back to the treasury, but I sure wouldn't count on that happening.

Let's be candid, most of these mortgages are on houses that have been vacated for some period of time and will continue to be empty until the government gets around to finally selling the paper which, knowing the government, could well be a few decades down the road.

We all know what happens to an empty house, or if you don't let me fill you in.

First of all the exterminator stops coming and the roaches and assorted bugs move in, not to mention the rats and snakes, squirrels and what ever other wildlife is indigenous to the area come in unmolested.

They chew away at electrical wiring and leave feces, nests and filth everywhere.

In the meantime the grass in the yard gets waist high, the paint peels and in the colder climates there's a good chance that the water pipes will burst, if they haven't been properly drained and I dare say that little care has been given to the closing of these properties.

I've had a little experience with selling a house to someone who had no intention of paying for it. This person turned out to be a drug addict and without going into the sordid details of being forced to take the house back after several years of missed payments and promises to do better, let me tell you the condition of the nice house we entrusted to this irresponsible individual.

He stripped every piece of wiring he could possibly pull out, pulled out the plumbing, took bricks off the side of the house and tried to tell the insurance company that a tornado blew them off.

He had a garbage dump in the back yard and I don't think I need to tell you the conditions of the yard.

I ended up being forced into taking this house back in this deplorable condition, sell it to a real estate agent for much less than it should have been worth and still had the unenviable task of cleaning the place up.

Now I'm not saying that every mortgage the government buys will end up as badly as my experience, but it is a prime consideration.

How much are these mortgages going to be worth when the houses they're on are in such sorry condition that they will require major remodeling or in some cases just bulldozing down

On top of that, consider the ineptness of the government when trying to accomplish anything practical, consider the crookedness of a government who can't even pass a bill for the betterment of the people without slipping in their own personal little pieces of pork.

And even as bad as it is, if I could believe that this would be the end of this bailout mentality, I could live with it, but folks this is not the end, only the beginning.

This is a huge federal power grab, a giant step toward socialism. A socialism that will come on so subtly and in the guise of noble sounding benevolent public programs that America will one day wake up and wonder how we got into this mess.

People please go out and vote this time. If you think McCain has the answer vote for him, if you think Obama has the answer vote for him, but vote. Let your opinion be known in the presidential and congressional elections.

Let the true voice of the people be heard whether right or left Democrat or Republican, let's get together and send a no nonsense message that we are watching, that we do care and that We The People are still in charge of The United States of America.

By the people, of the people and for the people. Remember that.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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