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Call the Congressional switchboard, ask for your representatives, and let them respectfully know that you have had enough.

How does a very bad situation get worse? Easy, when members of Congress that created the meltdown of the nation’s financial systems are given unfettered access to a trillion taxpayer dollars to supposedly fix it. Rather than calling for an independent investigation of those politicians responsible for this debacle we get more game playing.

Now we know why they were asking for authority to spend the money without oversight or legal review. It turns out that they are taking this opportunity to hijack the money requested to buy bad debt and expand its purpose to student loans, car loans, and credit card debt! And they were being sneaky about it.

The warning came from Stop The ACLU that picked the story up from the Washington Times:

In the dark of night over the weekend when most people were snoozing, the Treasury dramatically expanded its bailout plan to include buying student loans, car loans, credit card debt and any other “troubled” assets held by banks.

The changes, which were included in draft language that also opened the bailout program to foreign banks with extensive loan operations in the United States, potentially added tens of billions of dollars to the cost of the program.

Although it was a major addition to what was already the nation’s largest-ever bailout, it did not become part of the debate between Democrats and the Treasury over details of the program. A Monday counterproposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd included such consumer loans as well as mortgages, just as the Treasury’s draft did Saturday night.

“The costs of the bailout will be significantly higher than originally considered or acknowledged,” said Joshua Rosner, managing director of Graham Fisher & Co., who charged that the Treasury and Federal Reserve have not been “forthright” about the ultimate cost to the public. The plan gives Treasury the discretion to buy the non-mortgage loans and securities in consultation with the Fed.

The people responsible for this expanded coverage should be publicly identified. One can only hope he or she is up for re-election.

For his part Treasury Secretary defended the expansions which should be expected. He is a Democrat for all intensive purposes.

Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) reminds us why we shouldn’t trust Paulson’s judgment:

“His predictions have been consistently wrong in the last year,” he said. “It’s a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration. … There are much better ways of dealing with this problem than forcing American taxpayers to pay for every asset some investor doesn’t want anymore.”

Call Congress and let them know that the free ride is over. We need accountability and answers; there is no need to rush into a bailout foolishly.

See also: Michelle Malkin

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