Rebuttal to Senator Collins’ Oct. 8 editorial

To the editor:
    In her October 8 editorial, Senator Collins assures us that Big Government is the cure for what ails our financial system. She claims that the so-called “economic stabilization bill” she helped ram through Congress is necessary for the public good. However, when we consider the circumstances under which this bill became law, it quickly becomes apparent that the public good was the last thing considered.
    The original bailout bill failed in the House of Representatives. Perhaps the bill, which, among other things, delegated near-dictatorial powers to the Secretary of the Treasury, violated the principles of the majority of House members. A more likely explanation was the millions of calls, faxes, and emails that poured into congressional offices in opposition to the bailout. In any case, the bill was voted down. This is the way our representative government is supposed to work; the people determine the policy through interaction with their representatives. On that day, the people won a victory. We the people refused to allow yet another massive government handout to take place.
    Then, the Senate stepped in. With two Senators running for President, one for Vice President, and a third of them up for re-election, they couldn’t stand by and allow the people to influence the mighty cogs of the Washington Machine. So instead of taking a step back and exploring other options, they went ahead and amended the failed House bill, tacking on millions of dollars in utterly superfluous pork, and then voted on the bill disguised as the “Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act.” While that name is strangely appropriate for what the bill actually contained, it was nothing more than a ruse, a bit of technical maneuvering to pass a bloated, immoral, and largely unconstitutional brick of a law.
    A bill of such vital importance should be able to stand on its own, not be tacked on as an “amendment” to some other piece of legislation. This bit of political trickery indicates that something about this “necessary” bill isn’t quite right.
    Senator Collins trumpets the “taxpayer protections” that are built into the bill. Perhaps further explanation is needed, because it is difficult to see how we will be protected when the Fed is handing out billions of dollars to people who have already proven themselves incapable of handling large sums of money. Whether it’s Secretary Paulson or some other unelected bureaucrat handing it out, our money will eventually end up in the pockets of the bankers who caused the disaster in the first place, because they are the ones who are drowning in these so-called “troubled assets.”
    What Senator Collins fails to address is the role of the Federal Reserve. Their own Web site claims that the Federal Reserve is a semi-autonomous government agency responsible for regulating our financial system. Their job is to prevent instability from occurring. In short, the job of the Federal Reserve is to prevent meltdowns like the one we are embroiled in now. While Congress is quick to call for hearings to look into the nefarious acts of evil bankers, no one has mentioned the colossal failure of the Fed. In fact, the semi-autonomous quasi-government agency that sits in the eye of this financial hurricane stands to gain even more power than it had in the past. If rewarding people for incompetence is standard procedure in the financial industry, it is hardly surprising that the current economic situation is such a bleak one.
    If Senator Collins wishes to protect the taxpayers of our state, she should look no further than the Constitution of the United States. This document, when followed, offers us all the protection we need. The Constitution clearly limits the Federal Government to specific powers, and all other powers are relegated to the individual states, and to the people. Limiting the government to its constitutionally sanctioned powers will in turn limit the amount of money they require to carry out those specific duties. Lower taxes will encourage innovation, investment, and savings, all of which are indicators of true prosperity.
    If the honorable Senator needs to sneak it by her fellow Senators, she can just call it the Economic Stimulus Act of 1787.
Michael LeReaux
Danforth