September 29th, 2008
Bailout of Financial Institutions Rewards Risky and Greedy Investments by Big Business
by Rachel Alexander

The Republicans are becoming more like Democrats than the Democrats.


The proposed bailout of failing financial institutions has the Republican and Democrat Parties looking like they are about to switch roles again as they did at the turn of the last century. In a sweeping move toward socialism, our Republican president, his Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Republican Congressional leadership are leading efforts to try and push through the largest bailout of big business since the Great Depression. The Bush administration additionally wanted to exempt executives making millions of dollars a year from any ramifications, allowing them to continue to receive their gargantuan salaries – paid for by the taxpayers. Democrats in Congress rejected that provision. A bipartisan Congressional plan was crafted over the weekend to provide certain preferred failing financial institutions with $700 billion in taxpayer funds. The bill will go to the House today for approval, followed by the Senate on Wednesday.

Over the past eight years while Bush has been in office, Republicans have gradually became disgruntled with him as government spending increased at alarming levels – the biggest increases in history. This final slap in the face dramatically increasing spending and government regulation in the free market is the last straw for many Republicans, who wonder what happened to the conservative principles Bush ran for office on.

Let’s take a look at how we got to this crisis. Lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac chose to give loans to high-risk consumers; borrowers they knew were likely to default. 15% of their total mortgages went to “Alt-Aâ€