I suggest that Congress post their draft, this time, for public Notice and Comment.
Why should we, as an educated public, support a solution to which we did not contribute, and legislation we cannot review and ponder?
For more from FDR:
The “bailout” or “rescue” bill as described and first proposed is also just plain not the answer, not a solution, and not the right remedy. As Roosevelt said:
Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
What is needed is control over leveraging, control over greed, ownership where there was only looting in any area where tax payer dollars are used to clean up after private greed.
Again, another quote:
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.
Why should I – or any other citizen – trust those who looted banks, corporations, and the public? There must be checks, firm regulation, and transparency – and not a “bailout” done behind closed doors, in a rush, with the words “trust us”.
Anyway, here is a link to the whole of Franklin Delano Roosevelts’ First Inaugural Address:
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pr…
