A Letter to My Representative

I was inspired by an article on Dave Ramsey's website to write to my representative in Congress. I just thought you might like to read it.

Dear Congressman,

As a taxpaying American, I am quite uneasy with paying $700 billion to bail corporations out of the trouble that I believe they created for themselves through greed, poor management, poor business practices and possibly even fraudulent behavior. I am a firm believer in the free-market and that the American workforce and the American entrepreneurial spirit can overcome difficult financial markets. This may take some time to accomplish but I do believe we are strong enough to persevere.

The ‘mark to market’ accounting law has forced these companies to mark down their sub-prime loans to market value each day thus freezing the market because no one wants to buy them. If we can change that one rule temporarily for the sub-prime market I believe that a good portion of the problem can be solved because their value will not plummet so quickly. In addition to this, extend the FHA insurance across the sub-prime market. I am not a huge fan of guaranteeing these bad loans but I believe it will be less expensive than the buying them outright. These things will create a market to sell these bonds in and reinforce the confidence in the stock market once again.

Please consider this. Do not plunge the American taxpayers $700 billion deeper into debt! That will hurt us in the long run. I want my money to provide a great infrastructure, great education, better law enforcement and greater security among other things. I do not want to pay for the mistakes of these companies. My vote for you will be determined by this and I hope that you, my representative in our great nation, are listening.

Sincerely,

Your Constituent