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Are bailout proponents con artists?
While I normally respect Congressman Campbell, he is dead wrong on this. If government could “profit” off the bailout, it wouldn’t be necessary. Private investors would be buying up these assets now.
And if this is a good investment for taxpayers, and they will get a good return on it – members of Congress should be persuading taxpayers to voluntarily invest our money, not take our my by force of law to give to Hank Paulson invest.
Instead, changes like the mark-to-market accounting rules, lowering taxes on investments, and privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would free up the private sector to invest, rather than government.
Finally, looking at a one day stock market loss as evidence this plan is needed, as proponents have, is silly. Stocks rebounded on Tuesday, and fell after the Senate passed their version of the bailout. In fact, 90% of stock market gains occur when Congress is not in session. So the best thing Congress could do is simply go home.