BAILOUT MANIA - WILL IT EVER END !

First it was the mortgage bailout that now is being used to buy shares in failing banks rather than purchasing high risk failed mortgages, which is how the package was promoted to the American people. Either way a bad idea !

Now after a 25 billion dollar loan from taxpayer dollars that has already been issued, the big three automakers, GM, Chrysler and Ford at the insistance of President Elect Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are possibly getting another 50 billion in bailout money.

Claiming that GM will go bankrupt after the first of the year and using the health care benefits for retired employees as a reason for the ,"need," GM is at the top of the list for the bailout.

What Washington and Detroit is NOT telling us is that after December 31, 2008 GM will no longer pay for health care benefits for retired employees regardless of whether they recieve the bailout money or not.

A retired GM employee has informed me that more than a month ago he recieved notification from GM that as of January 1, 2009 his retirement package would no longer include any health care benefits. He is now looking for health care that he can afford on his pension money.

Additionally if GM declares bankruptcy the company will NOT close. Money will come from the private sector to keep the company running while they reorganize and possibly get new management to clean up some of the mess that is causing the insolvancy.

Of course the massive expenditure required by the Unions is also causing problems for GM. An average of $1500 dollars per vehicle made by GM goes to paying costs that Union involvment has brought upon GM.

In addition to the 50 billion dollar bailout for GM, Congress is also looking at another 139 billion in loans for struggling General Electric whose failed management has destroyed the company.

Are we the people through our government in the business now of rewarding failure with taxpayer money ? This has to stop. It is not always bad for a company to bankrupt because under bankruptcy bad management is replaced, new ideas are instituted and companies are propped up by private sector money and NOT taxpayer money. This is part of a free market economy, an economy that we are quickly drifting away from in favor of government control and partial ownership ff private companies and banks also by the government.

The free market works ONLY if it is allowed to by preventing government involvment. The free market even works when a company is struggling WITHOUT government intervention. The feds and the people cannot afford continual bailouts. The money comes from somewhere and that somewhere is from the pockets of we the people!

Ken Taylor