Vincenzo Kolchak sent this open letter to House Speaker Pelosi and Senators Reid, Obama and Durbin.
Clearly the current economic crisis needs a legislative solution. An executive branch giveaway is not the answer, particularly a giveaway that neither shows little planning nor one that is being shoved down the throats of our legislators and, ultimately, the taxpayers.
In the last few days, we have heard a lot of fine creative ideas from legislators and economists. These are ideas that could restore confidence in our financial institutions. It would put the financial burdens and accountability with those who caused the crisis in the first place. Whether these ideas include tax surcharges on high income Americans or government equity shares in banking institutions or direct assistance to mortgage holders (rather than to banks) is less important than a solution that is fair, makes economic sense, and minimizes the risk of waste and ineffectiveness. Surely, the banks should not “profit” from these transactions – our Secretary of the Treasure has averred he does not want to be ‘punitive’ — he is clearly being ironic. If a trillion dollar debt underwritten by taxpayers isn’t punitive, I don’t know what is.
It is also the time to address economic aberrations of the Bush administration such as the bankruptcy law which have contributed to foreclosures and the erosion of property value.
If this issue is time-sensitive, our legislators are creative enough to come up with a temporary solution to give our nation the chance to develop a real plan that will work and is fair to those citizens who have the most to lose.
It is clear that Democrats have plenty of ‘cover’ in this endeavor. Given the broad consensus among economists, left and right and the many responsible Republicans who equally disgusted with the arrogance of the proposal, Democrats can act. I am tired of seeing our legislators fold in the face of Bush’s presidential power. Bush is a lame duck — McCain is totally at sea. Not only is there no political risk in acting boldly and decisively to come up with a just solution to the problem, there is no other choice.