I Didn't Ask For A Lifeboat

I don't blog about politics because I think there is so much of that on the internet already. Really, the most political thing I've done with this blog is slap an Obama banner up. But with the passing of the financial bail out package, I feel that it's time to rant a little.

The biggest thing I have to say is that I agree with Gov. Palin:

"Let's do what our parents told us before we probably even got that first credit card. Don't live outside of our means. We need to make sure that as individuals we're taking personal responsibility through all of this."

I understand that the country is in an economic crisis, much of which as a result of a failing mortgage industry, again as a result of lenders baiting borrowers into deals that were too good to be true. The burden for this crisis rests just as much on the American public that keeps borrowing as it does the banks that keep lending.

I have to love Gov. Schwarzenegger's quote about the bail-out:

"The federal rescue package is not a bailout of Wall Street tycoons -- it is a lifeboat for millions of Americans whose life savings, businesses, retirement plans and jobs are at stake."

I don't know about you, but I didn't ask for a lifeboat. I just bought a house--responsibly. I have a 30-year fixed mortgage. I'm able to make my payments on a monthly basis and yeah, sometimes it's tight, but my wife and I made sacrifices to make it work. And if even if I wanted a lifeboat, cut me the check.

When I see stories like this, about a woman who's debt was forgiven because she shot herself twice in the chest after sheriff's attempted to evict her, I get really upset. It doesn't matter that the woman was 90, it matters that the women took out a $46,000 dollar mortgage and an $11,000 dollar line of credit in 2004, it matters that she kept missing payments, it matters than she had been served eviction notices 30 times before this incident. Don't get me wrong, I feel for anyone who's home is taken away from them, but where was this woman's sense of personal responsibility? And where was this woman's common sense (she had 90 years of it) when she refinanced and took out a line of credit. Now she's a damn national hero.

This sort of stuff upsets me. The government has rescued the banks and now those individuals that are defaulting on their mortgages, those actually in financial need, are going to want their own bail out. The average American in mortgage trouble is now going to feel entitled to money in hand, for someone else to fix their financial problems.

I think my biggest bother about the whole bail out is that we're not looking for accountability here. The banks over-stretched themselves with the amount of money they've lent and the American people have over-stretched themselves by borrowing too much. And all that we're learning from all of this is that it doesn't matter, we'll just buy your debt, forgive what you owe, or print more money (oh wait, that's our next rescue plan).