Submitted by Mike Falatko, Sep 30, 2008 10:14

I would agree that it is time for the government to get out of this business. And sending a signal that low tax rates will remain on individuals, dividends and capital gains would help greatly. Also, sending a signal that we were going to reduce corporate tax rates would go one better. But there is another thing that would go a long way toward satisfying the American people and it is obvious that the politicians are not listening, and probably for good reason. Those of us who know anything about the history of this mess know that the core problem is Freddie and Fannie. We also know that there were multiple attempts over the past seven years to force more meaningful reform and oversight of the these two GSE's that could have averted this crisis. We also know that certain members of the House and Senate blocked all attempts at refrom. And finally, we know that those same people are now trying to get us to give them a huge amount of our money to bail them out and cover up their incompetence and mismanagement, some of which may have been for personal gain. What we want is our pound, or multiple pounds, of flesh before we agree to give up what we work so hard to earn. We need an independent investigation of this entire process starting with the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977 and carrying through to today. The committee needs to be fully independent with subpoena powers and have substantial backing including the use of the FBI and our "independent" agencies. It needs to be appointed now and needs to start work quickly. We should hold the members of Congress who oversaw these entities over the past 30 years to, at a minimum, the same standards that we would hold a corporate board of directors under Sarbanes Oxley. This is very similar to the immigration debate. You don't fix the outcome that the process created before you stop the problem from getting worse or happening again (i.e. secure the borders before you tackle the illegals already here). When the government shows the people that it recognizes that it is the foundation of the problem and takes major steps to ferret out the culprits and assure us that it can't happen again, then it can come hat-in-hand to us for relief. One last note. If they really wanted to get our attention beyond what I have already proposed, they would tell us they were going to cut $700 billion out of the expense of government to pay for it. As a long-time businessman, if you tell me you can't find a 20% reduction in a $3.5 trillion dollar budget, especially in a bureaucracy the size of the federal; government, I would have to call you a liar. Mike Falatko

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