The Bush administration has begun begging Congress to save the global finance system by bailing out two mortgage lenders -- Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
But the price of Congress' cooperation should be simple: Bush and Cheney resign, immediately.
Because by asking for tax money to save the worldwide economy, Bush and Cheney are admitting the failure of their "free" market ideals.
And this failure of their ideals is so spectacular, they should not remain in power.
More importantly, they should not be allowed to keep power and continue destroying our nation.
Under the plan promoted by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson:
Congress is being asked to support an extended line of credit to Fannie and Freddie from the government, and to grant permission for the government to buy equity in the two companies when they need to raise capital for new mortgage lending.
Some of our heroes are so eager to bail out the world economy that they were already promising to vote for the Bush bailout Monday:
"It’s a kind of reassurance to people that help will be there even though we don’t think it’s going to be needed," said Barney Frank, the chairman of the House financial services committee. Chris Dodd of the Senate banking committee said: "I think the message it sends will be important".
They don't sound panic stricken, but they must be: otherwise, wouldn't they demand more from the White House rather than rubber stamping the first idea out of Paulson's mouth?
Freddie and Fannie buy up home mortgages from smaller banks. The two big lenders are in trouble because so many good home mortgage are going into default because so many bad mortgages were sold while Bush wasn't regulating lenders. The bad mortgages defaulted first, weakening the housing market, which weakened the good mortgages.
This threatens the world economy because banks around the world are heavily invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Congress should look Bush in the eye and tell him to leave town, clean out his house immediately for Nancy Pelosi. Then they should save Freddie and Fannie.