The audacity of President Bush and Congress to say that the government will have the option of becoming a stockholder in the companies. It’s NOT the government’s money they’re using. It’s the taxpayers of this country. We, the people, are the stockholders. I also find it interesting that the politicians say if the automakers fail to prove viability by March 31, 2009, they will be required to repay the loans. What are they going to use as repayment - additional “loans” from the government? If they have the money to repay the $17.4 billion in “loans” in just 3 months then why do they need the money in the first place? Are they being charged interest on this “loan” like we, the people, have to on our loans even if we prove viability later on?

We shouldn’t have expected any financial responsibility or accountability from the same people who voted themselves a raise in this economic environment. The politicians haven’t frozen their salaries since 2000. They demand concessions from the very taxpayers who pay their salaries but make no such demands on themselves.

They approve billions of taxpayers dollars to bailout corporate execs who fund their election campaigns. Doesn’t anyone find this as a conflict of interest?

We, the people, will never see a penny of this money repaid. The proverbial fox is watching the hen house.

Allegedly a condition of this “loan” is that the corporate execs will agree to limits on their compensation. That’s mighty nice of them considering they only made $20 million plus the year before.
The combined salaries and benefits from the corporate execs at Ford, GM, Chrysler and AIG is more than the GNP of most Third World countries.

We, the people, have no one else to blame for this debacle but ourselves. We have empowered “big money” and their friends, the politicians, to control our lives and welfare by being complacent and apathetic.

The only people laughing about this are the corporate execs and the politicians…all the way to their bank, with our money.

Jim Probert
Valley Park