It is my firm belief that taxpayers should not take on the responsibility of bailing out those who have made poor financial decisions, whether big lenders or small borrowers.  For one thing, I think it only empowers people to go out and make the same mistake all over again, and does little to insure the American taxpayer that these same people won’t just turn around and do the same all over again, making an endless cycle of foreclosures and defaults.  For one thing, in all fairness, it should be done on an individual basis, and for the amount of people in various stages of default and financial difficulties that would be an enormous administrative task.  Add into that mix the fact that a lot of these mortgages are bundled into securities, with individual investors with different objectives, and you can see what kind of situation this would turn into.

Now we see folks on the Hill and those in Congress wringing their hands and fighting for their own brand of relief packages on both sides of the aisle.  Dems want to see some kind of homeowner assistance, and a housing bailout bill passed the House on Thursday.  It of course met with opposition from both the Bush administration and Repubs, who are looking at feedback from their constituency in states that are not in such deep trouble as others.  The failure of the House to adopt it by a veto-proof margin only shows that the bill is destined for failure. Senator Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who heads the Banking Committee, is supposedly working with his counterpart Repub Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama to reach a compromise.  Will it work?  Probably not, according to Mr. Dodd.  Any measure that does not have Republican support can almost certainly be destined to fail.

Senator John McCain, presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination for President, is now backpedaling on his former stance of no help for irresponsible borrowers and lenders.  His turnaround now calls for government aid to homeowners in danger of losing their homes.  It is certainly a ploy to win support of voters in troubled states like Michigan and Florida.  You can expect little less in an election year.  It is obvious that no one currently has a clue as to how to heal the country.

The Bush administration is holding the veto card over everything that the House and Senate can come up with.  And still, the average homeowner, struggling to keep food on the table and gas in the tank, has no idea of how this will spin out.  I don’t think anyone else involved does either.