For what it's worth

Dear Senator Roberts:

I am writing to ask you to oppose the current banking bailout proposal that Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke are presenting before the Senate today.

The truth is that this bailout for Wall Street will not avert a recession, will not stop house prices from falling, and will not make more credit available in the economy. Like each of the half dozen plans Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke have implemented this year, from extraordinary lending facilities to the bailout of AIG, this plan is meant to reduce the impact of the banks' own foolishness by passing their losses off to the taxpayer. It is already reducing the value of the dollar and will cause imported items like oil to skyrocket.

Senator, I know that you know that a market economy is the strongest economy, and it is the strongest not only because it maximizes production but because it punishes foolishness. What the banks have done is foolish - that is the underlying problem - and the only way to maintain the strength of our economy going forward is to allow them to learn from their mistakes.

It is not, and can never be, in the interest of the nation to pass the losses of gamblers off to others and pretend it is really for the good of those who must pay.