If No Bailout, What Should We Do?

I have an idea. Let’s give the bailout money to the US Treasury department and let them function as our nation’s bank While simultaneously abolishing the Federal reserve. The federal reserve is niether federal nor does it have any reserves. It is a private bank run by private citizens that exists to profit themselves and their shareholders at everyone else’s expense. No pun intended. The US Treasury could then function as a bank would and extend credit to deserving folks and businesses. They would then fire and /or prosecute and incarcerate the irresponsible greedmongers of the financial fiasco that is now our economy, rather than reward them for inexcusable incompetence and wanton greed by giving them our hard earned cash that only enables them to reperpetrate this fraud.Everyone should be very angry about the way this has been mishandled. We should do something about it by not reelecting any of the ignorant uncreative boobs who were so frightened by the status quo that they went against our wishes and voted for this hoax transparently disguised a bailout.

Don't worry - once we become Meximerada, Canada & Mexico will bail us out financially. The 536 have it all figured out - they don't need any input from us.

Can you give us a description of why comments are not posted to the site? I'm just curious to see how Fox and the moderators implement the "Terms of Use" that are linked to when we comment... I would not call what is happening now "unprecedented." We have had a S&L Crisis in the 1980s (for the most part) and something called "The Great Depression." What we see today is not unprecedented, just, perhaps, new to those who haven't studied what have come before, to those "caught up" in their description, or ... Public records show that 300,000 foreclosures happened in August 2008. FHA loans average 180000 USD. Multiplying those numbers gives you about 54,000,000,000 Dollars. Yes, 54 Billion. If home values have decreased 25%, those "institutions" that loaned that money are out 13 Billion USD--for the month of August... The cause of the foreclosures is due to several issues: mortgage originators, "Joe Public," and lending institutions. Originators make money by making loans and selling those loans to a institution--the originator has no care as to whether the loan is foreclosed on--as long as the loan is taken, they are paid. Alter this so that the originator must repay the person/party applying for the loan or the lender if the loan does not work--the originator should have some responsibility to make sure the loans are good. Perhaps a good start is getting rid of ARM loans for residential mortgages... "Joe Public" needs to not sign something when they do not know what they are signing. Blaming the originator, who might be to blame, for not describing the loan to you when you could have read the "fine print" or done research at the Library or on-line does not "cut the bacon." You are responsible for your actions--take responsibility for your actions. The lending institutions are foreclosing on homes/property often contributing to their loss. One of my clients tried hard to get the bank to let them "rework" their loan, but the bank said 'No." The bank took the property back (foreclosure) and sold it "on the courthouse steps." My client bought it back... Saving himself millions that the bank might not have lost if they had been willing to renegotiate... Just as the FDIC was NOT needed to bail out Wachovia, the 700 Billion is a guarantee. Wells Fargo has made the Wachovia deal MUCH better for the public and for the government--apparently Wells sees value in what they are buying. Just because Citi "got good financing" from the fed does not mean it was "good" for anyone else. As a perfect example, GE could have sold stock to the public to raise 3 billion dollars without having to make it preferred stock with a 10% interest rate AND letting Buffett buy another 3 billion in stock over the next 5 years at a price lower than GE sells for today... Stop making the "rich" richer, and things will get better. Remember, the average person getting more money is what stopped the Great Depression and what made the economy swing after WWII... History teaches us much that we have, apparently, missed or refuse to see...

Blame: The blame goes to all the politicians in government for being bad budget managers, bad regulators, bad police. Government is out of control. They spend too much, borrow too much, and bicker too much about their narrow ideologies and prejudices. They complicate things and allow themselves, the instutions they establish, and the process to be corrupted. They govern too little, regulate too little, save too little. 305 million people don't control 536 politicians. Loose cannon. The IOU comes due.

To the guy that posted about giving the American People the $85,000,000,000.00. I would buy a house with my part....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Maybe one that's already been foreclosed on!! Umm...no really....and pay off my car...

Immediately disperse $600 billion dollars to taxpayers, rebuild financing institutions implementing the trickle down theory. There, I just saved the taxpayers $700 billion.

Now that the Senate has passed this "bail-out" package, against overwhelming public outcry against it, it becomes painfully clear that the tax payers are neither represented nor considered despite claims that this bill is for the public good. Although it is clear that action in some form is imperative, it is not clear that this bill is the solution. There have been numerous, intelligent objections to this proposal by many experts in the field. The need to provide available credit to the public aka "Main Street", can be accomplished by lending the 700B, or a portion of it, to institutions who are not at risk of collapse. The assumption being that these institutions making better business decisions, would use better judgment in extending credit to borrowers based on their good credit history and ability to repay!! Then rather than rewarding Wall Street's mismanagement & corruption by bailing them out, we are instead enabling Main Street to buy their car, make their payroll & obtain their student loans, while validating hard working, bill paying, credit conscious tax payers who've purchased homes they could afford !! We will avoid an additional 100+ million dollars in unnecessary add-ons and extend opportunity to smaller institutions who operate with good business practices and have the potential to provide jobs secured by stable corporate policies. I would like to request that Fox News post on their web site, a list of the Rep.s who vote "yes" and those who vote "no". Since it is clear that tax payers have no recourse other than our one vote, we should have the opportunity to either vote out or re-elect our Congressmen & women as we see fit. Voters who feel this bill was warranted are free to re-elect those in Congress who supported this bill and those who feel their wishes were not represented can choose to vote accordingly. The market has always had some degree of risk. Poorly run corps should fall (or be sold) if they fail, allowing for growth in smaller better run organizations which may provide additional employment opportunities. In every instance, free market solutions will always succeed where socialized government intervention will always fail. We are at such a crucial crossroads... Do we choose Liberty or Socialism??

First let me say I really enjoy the myopic view many people have, the reality is we have a large group of elected people in Washington who are clueless to the plight of the average working class citizen. Think about it, No guns for us to defend ourselves and yet they all have armed guards with machine guns. We should ride bikes or take mass transit, They get chauffeured around in SUV’s, mind you there’s always more then one SUV in the parade of security they need because they are so important. I’d say it’s time to clean house in Washington. Get rid of the career politician.

It should be renamed The Honey Ham Plan as it is full of sweet pork. Obviously it is the original plan but with goodies in it so the little weasels can go home and declare "I hated the bailout but look what I got for you". They think we are children to be bought with trinkets. We need 100% turnover in the Senate. I have already informed my senators they will not get my vote. The House verdict awaits.

People in Washington are not listen to us,the ordinary working class .We dont wont or need more government control. Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:This is from another site,but it makes sense Common Sense Plan. I. INSURANCE A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity. B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things: 1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage. a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes. b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives. 2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs. C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal. II. MARK TO MARKET A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate. B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing. III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing. B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

305,314,771 this is the current population of the United States. Let's round it off to 305,000,000. The current version of the Wall Street bailout package is: 1. The Senate-backed package extends several tax breaks popular with businesses. 2. It would keep the alternative minimum tax from hitting 20 million middle-income Americans. 3. And it would provide $8 billion in tax relief for those hit by natural disasters in the Midwest, Texas and Louisiana. Okay, let's be generous and say 1/3 of the U.S. population will see some (minuscule) trickle down personal benefit from the above proposed package. Well, what about the remaining approx. 203 million U.S. citizens who will see NO personal benefit what-so-ever? This package STINKS! Call or email your congressman / congresswoman and tell them to vote NO! I promise you the world will not come to a screeching halt. The sky will not fall! I (personally) am sick of the "chicken little" pre-election fear factory trying to manipulate America and the upcoming U.S. election. I lived in D.C. for 16 years and I am quite familiar with inside beltway politics and this "financial crisis" is skullduggery. If this package does pass, it will do nothing more than empower Wall Street and U.S. financial institutions to continue to be fiscally irresponsible because they know "daddy" (that's you and I...the taxpayers via Congress & the President) will come running with the U.S. Treasury check book to bail them out. Wall Street should be spanked with a huge paddle, better yet, WHIPPED...not rewarded for their mischief!! Wall Street is breaking the back of hard working Americans and it's time we "Main Street" Americans stepped up and put a stop to it. In November do your part by voting out of office every fool who votes "yes" to pass this bailout measure. Our elected officials need to get off their rear-ends and start using "checks and balances" instead of handing over what is essentially a blank check to Wall Street. Americans deserve so much more than to be plowed under by the few, the rich, the greedy.

After the Senate passes the Bailout bill? PORK!!!! PORK!!!! PORK!!!! PORK!!!!

Instead of a bailout, we need to throw the BUMs out.

Hey lets think outside the box. Get rid of the capitol gains tax & get rid of the death tax!! make a few changes in the banking regulations & I would bet that the stock market would go up 500 points in one day. NO BAIL OUT!! Then we should impeach/disbar/get rid of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the rest of the wealthy criminals-but leave them in Washington -i don't need andy more socialistic liberals in CCalifornia.

Dear Americans! Time has come to purge this nest of corruption and rot! Let these bankers and blood suckers go bankrupt, the creatures who feed on the bodies of US working men and women and children. The snakes who put hard working American citizens out of work, who outsource our jobs, who STEAL money directly from you and me by starting ILLEGAL wars! ENOUGH!! Enough attempts to steal the future of American kids and families. Enough painting America's name with the blood and carnage of illegal wars of domination and the creation of the NWO. Ruled by one elite, credited by one elite, enslaved by the same. Do we want to become slaves?! That is yet precisely what Congress will doom us to if they vote Yes on this dire bill. This is theft, this is putting EVERY American family in debt! This is the continuation of financing the multi-million dollar bonuses to the Goldman Sach's corrupt CEOs who contributed so heavily to this entire mess. Don't let the criminals walk out with America's money!!! DO NOT FORGIVE CONGRESS IF THEY BETRAY US!!! Senate already has!

Hi Alexis, Ever wonder why the Senate is so quick to pass this and the house has hesitations? Most bills blow up in the house and this is the Mother of all bills for blow-ups. Well let’s take a look at the dynamics. The average age of a Senator is 60. The average age of a House Rep. is 55. There are 435 Reps in the house and 100 in the Senate. That means that most house reps fall into the 40 something age range, and most Senators fall into the late 60 something age range. Hmmmmm….. Let’s take this a little further, who has pushed this bill the hardest? It has been Secretary Paulson (Former Wall Street CEO with a boatload of Wall Street options), Fed Chairman Bernake who inherited the mess from the enabler Greenspan and wants a semblance of a good legacy, Barney Frank who ultimately mandated Freddie and Fannie to give mortgages to low income individuals and the White house and leaders in both the House and Senate. So... after all this “Leadership” heavyweight pounding for the bailout, why did they fail passing the bill in the house the other day and have at best received hesitant support from the Jr. members of each caucus? The Senators and House leaders are pretty entrenched with their constituents and it is difficult to oust them, perfect example, Sen. Kerry, Kennedy, McConnell etc… and the Minority & Majority leaders of the house Boehner & Pelosi. Question: What do they ALL have in common that you, I and the Junior members of both houses do not have??? The answer: Big money from inheritances and massive amounts of money in the market growing tax deferred in protected inheritances and retirement funds, almost all of it in the market today in some way or another. They (And all of us) only pay taxes on our Income or capital gains that are outside of retirement securities, not the funds they have sheltered in these tax exempt vehicles that are active in the market. They have the least to lose with regards to being ousted as solid incumbents and the most to gain with this bailout passing based on their age and the fact that they will likely be tapping into these funds in the very near future. They are short on moving the money out of the system and all of them clearly benefit if this passes. If it does not, they ALL lose big time. The Junior reps: They are young (Literally our age with families) and subject to the local constituents whims. They are small business owners, carpenters, electricians, basic white collar workers like us etc. who have taken a leap and have recently dove into the national public arena, and in a lot of cases (Aspirations not withstanding), simply working folks. They pay mortgages, fund 529’s, pay a huge portion of their incomes towards basic commodities such as food, gas etc. and have a fraction of the sheltered savings in the market today that the Sr. members of the houses have inherited with their families long term standings in our society. Not only does this bill not help their constituents, but it does not help them either from both an income or job perspective!!! If they vote for this, they know that they will likely not only not be re-elected based on the 80% negative polling of the American public, but will also likely be personally poorer for it. Don't get me wrong, I am voting McCain for sure and am a registered independent that leans right, but this situation just smells on both sides and i'll tell you why... It is clear that the major losers on the 29th with the 777 point drop were NOT your average Americans, but by almost 80% the stock heavy bigwigs riding the market. 401K’s will easily recover in the long run for the younger lot of us. It is clear if you look at it with the facts that this is a total short term bailout. At a minimum this 700 Billion should go to local banks for local lending to all of us as individuals to begin boosting the economy based on end user spending with low or no interest rates, not the Wall Street coffers for trickle down economics and soon to be retired offshore accounts. The Senate passed the 450 page pork barrel pig tonight, but let’s see if there are still true Americans in the house on Friday. They really are the true Americans, not the Senators. Craig

As to those members of Congress who created this mess: Barney Franks personifies everything that is wrong with our Congress. In remembering the old saying"Ignorance is Bliss",Barney and his constituents are the most blissful people on this planet.Lest we forget these other blissful people: Harry Reid,Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, who all fall into the category of Ted(where did I leave my car) Kennedy and Christopher(No guns allowed) Dodd. Question what is Congress' next action? Answer:To resign. In the middle of a National Crisis they recess for a Jewish Holiday. If it were a national Holiday I would expect them to stay in session till they resolved this financial crisis.

It is obvious the Senate and House could care less what their constituents want regarding this bailout. The only way to contact your Congressman is to vote against those up for re-election if the voted for this bill

Bailout – Who does it really help? In a matter of months we have seen the Bank of America buy Countrywide; JP Morgan buy Washington Mutual and Citigroup buy Wachovia. No surprise, now there is a proposed govt. buyout of the liabilities associated with toxic mortgages. Who now has a largest chunk of them? (BOA/Morgan/Citi) Let’s call BOA/Morgan/Citi the “Megabanks”. The fix must have been in for The Megabanks banks to take on the risk and liabilities of the three largest toxic banks. Make no mistake this is the largest boondoggle of all time. The Megabanks will have gained all the assets with minimal liability. Public money will be used to make this happen. The result will be a concentration of wealth similar to that in Russia. The Congress and the Regulators have not learned their lesson about – too large to fail. We have just witnessed the largest consolidation of banking ever, in months. No less than one third of all deposits in the U.S. are now held by the Megabanks. This is too much power in too few hands. THE BAILOUT PACKAGE IS A CRIME IN THE MONOPOLIES THEY CREATE!

Stop the nonsense - all the politicians want is more $$ and more power to spend the $$ - the American people need to stop the nonsense as this will go on forever. You don't hire the fox to watch the henhouse especially when you have already got the hens on your side - STOP THE BAILOOUT NONSENSE.

So out of touch... So disrespectful... $250,000 FDIC insurance? The FDIC already insures up to $100,000 per depositor, AND up to $250,000 per individual retirement account at insured banks. Already. The FDIC can't cover $100,000. Who has more than $100,000 in a savings account? (Please speak up, so we know who needs adult literacy classes.) In fact, just how many people have $99,999.99 in a savings account? The majority of Americans have nowhere near $100,000 in an insured account. People are taking their money out of FDIC insured accounts because if the bank can't cover a withdrawal, the customer won't be getting instant funds from the FDIC. Liquidity? Not much. Increase confidence because the number got bigger? The number means nothing. Please explain why this increases confidence. Insured banks pay for this. Does this mean that insured banks will have to pay even more, just when they are strapped for funds? Well, not if the bailout bill passes--taxpayers will pay that bill instead. What the bill does is let the FDIC do business, irresponsibly, as usual.

"Let the free market work", US ended up in this buble because of lack of regulations and now the nay sayers are willing to let the free market take the economy down the tubes. The US has spent trillions on the Iraq war and now many are not willing to spend 700 bil$ to give the US economy some life. The governments have the means to inject some funds in the economy when needed and when the time is right it can be taken away.

Ms. Glick, you were just on the Fox Report with Shepard Smith. He asked (I'm PP) you mean if Congress doesn't act now no one will be able to get a loan tomorrow... or Monday? You answered " People who still qualify will be able to get a loan " If I missunderstood, I appologze, but by this do you mean only those who normally (without regard to no verification loans) are the only ones who will not get loans? If so, why should I subsidize those who shouldn't have a loan in the first place? I mean, along with Mark to MArket, FASB 157, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd (my senator), greedy CEO's, a disfunctional government, loans to people who could not afford them is how we got here. Please let me know your thoughts, I watch your show, its the best behind Bill O

The politicians are all saying that they want to help the economy to help the average citizen. They are so concerned that the average citizen will suffer as the result of our bankrupt economy. I doubt it. The politicians want to help because they are going to suffer. Trust them to fashion a bill that will keep them from suffering. If it also helps the average citizen, count your blessings.

It is time that we think about those living on Main Street USA and how we put a roof over their heads and a job for them to report to in the morning! Good Morning Mr. President, I would greatly appreciate your understanding and support regarding an idea I have for a bailout package that will most definitely put America back on track! Given time restraints, I do not have time to write out all the planks. In rough form: Have each and every lender of residential properties that are in foreclosure submit a detailed list of each and every property to the Federal Government within 30 days. The Federal Government than divides the $700 Billion dollars among these submitted foreclosed properties. The lenders who participated then receive their equal share of the monies disbursed, e.g. $40,000. for each and every foreclosed property on their books. The lenders now have immediate cash flow to right themselves. The federal government now owns all of the foreclosed properties in the U.S. The federal government then sells these foreclosed properties to those Americans who lost their homes and to first time home buyers for double the price, e.g. $80,000. The federal government now has received all of its $700 Billion dollars, plus another $700 Billion Dollars. The federal government then provided low interest loans to these home buyers to fix up these foreclosed properties, e.g. 2% over 10 years. The federal government then works out a tax write off plan with the lenders for the monies they did not receive, e.g. .40 cents on the dollar in tax write offs. The end result is clear: The lenders have immediate cash flow, and a tax write off; people who lost their homes now have a roof over their heads; first time home owners have the right to own a home; the stores that sell appliances and home repair products and materials will have consumers with cash to sell to; contractors will now be hired to refurbish these homes, and local governments will once again receive property taxes! The list of immediate benefits goes on and goes on!