Bailout...

Election year politics have struck again, to wit, Congress is proposing a multi-billion dollar bailout of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac.

i've had my dealing with Freddie Mac 10 years ago when i applied for a 203K loan to rehab a dilapidated house. i was under the impression that these entities were meant to serve the people and provide affordable leanding. i learned real fast that they were purely a money making quasi-government entity with special priviledges. I was sucked into paying interest on the entire $110,000 loan at 8% (construction loan) even though i only drew a maximum of $20,000. it took me a year and a half to increase the value of the rundown house sufficiently to apply for a equity loan at a real bank and pay interest only on the amount of money actually USED.

the former CEO of Freddie Mac, Franklin Raines, received compensation to the tune of $20 million before he was forced to resign several years ago. that's a lot of money that could have been applied to low interest loans.

propping up the housing market will merely delay the necessary correction to prices that rose to ridiculous levels and reward wreckless lenders.

now we the taxpayers have to pay just to clean up this mess... we can't afford this constant "nanny state" mentality.

on a personal level, i've got scads of civil servant employees from the county ginning up as many quasi-issues as they can regarding my current permit application, so they can appear busy. Building permit applications are down in the county and these employees are scared. now they are crawling all over existing applications trying to stay afloat and generate revenue. it's pathetic. for example: a Creek Permit so that rainwater can be discharged into a drainage ditch ($500.00)???