I have been keeping a close eye on the bailout bill and the twist and turns it has been through. My interest in politics really keeps me interested, even though I am totally opposed to what is going on. Unlike most people, I am a
constitutionalists, someone who actually values the constitution for what it said, and for what our founding fathers intended it to do. I am a member of the libertarian party, and libertarians are not total left wing like many people think. Libertarians believe in total economic and personal freedoms, and this bailout obviously limits our economic freedom. The role of government is not to "bail-out" failing industries or pay for peoples bad judgement, it is to protect us from enemies and others, and ensure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The bailout will only lead to more of the same. The idea of moral hazard will really become an issue in the next few years as well. Moral hazard is when companies take things less seriously, or make riskier investments, because if they go wrong, the government will bail them out. This removes all responsibility and also the economic freedoms of others. We should be able to spend our hard earned money how we want, it is ours in the first place.
It amazes me how we are spending $778B to "boost" the economy. This "boost" is only putting us farther in debt, which will not hurt in the short run, but this will cause many problems for my generation and my children's generation. Is $5,000,000,000 (yes, billion) to the United Nations really necessary to boost our economy? That money is leaving the US, which is the root of the problem. Not to mention all of the money that will be lost in transition, which is what we saw with the TARP (bank bailout) bill.
Hopefully this magically works out, but I seriously doubt it. Obama has been very popular with the public ( a 76% approval rating), but so did George Bush at the same time during his presidency.
If I were president, I would make citizens and businesses more responsible for their actions, giving people their money back into their own pockets, which will create jobs and lower unemployment, without inflation spiraling out of control. I would eliminate the income tax, which would be possible by having a foreign policy we can afford, bases in 180+ countries is unnecessary and who said that we were the world police. We have problems that we need to fix domestically.
I would also eliminate many failing government programs, such as the IRS, DEA, FDIC, FCC, the Federal reserve and others as well. The IRS is unnecessary because taxes are too high and if we reduced spending we could afford to do without it. The DEA has done a horrific job on the war on drugs; Pineapple Express was the #1 movie on iTunes for heavens sake! We have spent millions of dollars to stop American's from hurting themselves. I would give people the right to do what they want with their bodies, and it is not the governments place to give you moral standards. As long as you are not hurting others, there should not be a problem. The FDIC creates moral hazard and the FCC violates the constitution (freedom of expression). The fed has caused the dollar to depreciate 95% since it was created.
