My response to CNBC's "call to action"

In response to this article:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28756488

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Bob,

I appreciate your efforts to get folks to contact their banks about the bailout. However, I have a couple comments on your opinion on the TARP.

The bailout money was never meant to be loaned out. Paulson used bait and switch tactics and fear mongering to get it passed through Congress, even going as far as to threaten martial law if the bill was not passed. Once he got the largess, it was off to the races for him. Do you think he was stupid enough to "overlook" the part about banks being required to account for it? Of course not. Do you think it was coincidence that he scrapped the part about helping homeowners in the last moment, unbeknownst to Congress? Of course not. Paulson knew exactly what he was doing. There were even reports that Paulson encouraged banks to buy smaller banks with the TARP money. In the end, this is just a perpetual power grab for the banks (who control the government), a grand opportunity for consolidation of bank power, thus increasing exponentially their power over all of us. Lets not forget that Paulson was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Just about every power player in the Treasury or Federal Reserve is a former Wall Street tycoon. Lets not be naive about this.

Lets say that the money was given to the banks and it was loaned out to consumers. What good would that do? This country is swimming in debt, the average person is scared to death right now because they are losing their job, their home, and they have a mountain of debt riding on their shoulders. How can the solution to this problem be MORE debt? How can any logical person come to that conclusion? Sure, 72% of the economy is based on consumer spending, but that is the PROBLEM that needs to be corrected! We cannot continuously spend our way to phony growth, it just isn't sustainable. We need to get back to manufacturing things, exporting things, which creates REAL wealth, not some phony wealth created from the stroke of a keyboard.

Another scenario: what if consumers don't want any more debt via mortgages, loans, and credit card debt? Do our powers that be ever think of that? People are waking up to the fact that the banks are no good; credit card companies are mere loan sharks in the purest form. Companies that charge 30% interest rates and still cannot survive need to fail and fail miserably. The citizens of this country are doing what they need to do: paying off their debts and saving their money. They cutting back on their purchases and taking care of their basic needs to repair THEIR balance sheets (without the help of a government bailout, mind you). This is what needs to happen in order for this country to heal, and it won't be easy. However, if the government thinks they can ride in on their white horse and pour endless amounts of money into a rabbit hole to prop up prices and failing institutions, we are in for a gauntlet of misery for decades to come.

A little logic goes a long way.