Scoop’s Views

It seems just about half the members of the U.S. House of Representatives have half a brain, or, if not that, then at least the commonsense God gave to individuals fiscally responsible for managing household budgets.

Barack Obama, however, is not among that crowd: he had this strange idea that the very CEOs that got the financial institutions into a mess should receive “reasonable compensation packages.” Those CEOs should be paying compensation to the U.S., to the homeowners they helped defraud by giving mortgages to people who never should have qualified for them in the first place.

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Congress has approved a $300 billion funding measure to help people who are at risk of losing their homes due to foreclosure, and now, it seems, almost every media outlet in the country is busy touting the ways to stake claim to your chunk of change from that bailout.

To be in foreclosure means you haven’t paid your mortgage. Wow! What a concept. Most of the people in the current mortgage crisis are people who managed to get mortgages from lenders who offered sub-prime loans. The loans were given to people with a variety of options, but many people who never would have managed to get a mortgage from traditional lenders managed to buy a home. Great. Until the taxpayer-funded bailout.

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Ed McMahon, the former face of Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes, who teased Americans for years that he could show up at the door of anyone’s home, at any time, and make them a millionaire, seems to be in need of a sweepstakes win these days.

In recent days, McMahon’s financial woes have gone public, and now he says that he is “representing many people in the same situation.” What a crock! Perhaps he should ask one of his neighbors, such as Britney Spears, if he represents everyday people.

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Despite already being rewarded for bad behavior and bad business practices by means of a bailout by the Federal Reserve, Bear Stearns’ stockholders are getting rewarded this time by its buddy, the Federal Reserve, as well as the U.S. Treasury Department.

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