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Why should taxpayers pay for real-estate roulette?

Date published: 4/25/2008

I do not support "foreclosure bailout," but please answer me the following questions ["House Democrats target help for homeowners," April 9].

Why is it that our elected officials and activist groups spend most of their time attacking and taxing businesses that provide jobs and strengthen our economy, while scheming about ways to bail out people who act irresponsibly or believe it is their right to dip into my bank account when they can't afford their McMansions?

When did owning a home become a constitutional right in the U.S.? We have a right to acquire property. We don't have a right to own property if we can't afford it.

Would the subprime mortgage crisis have occurred if executives of lending institutions had focused on the long-term financial health of their companies and their shareholders, rather than posing for corporate social-responsibility awards by providing loans to people who were ill-equipped to pay them back?

Is it the social responsibility of those of us who actually pay taxes to bail out people who played real-estate roulette and lost when interest rates went up and home values headed in the other direction?

Is it fair and just that the 5 percent of American taxpayers who now pay 60 per-cent of all federal taxes be required to pay even more in order to bail out the individuals who were absent from class when their sixth-grade teacher said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"?

Is it acceptable governance when the response by local authorities to the decline of property values is to propose raising property-tax rates so the local bureaucrats won't have to tighten their belts?

Is there any wonder that 80 percent of adult Americans recently told pollsters that America is headed in the wrong direction?

However, I must admit that I have had it up to my eyeballs with being told that there's a hidden bailout clause in the U.S. Constitution that requires anyone who earns a living and pays taxes to kick in more cash to the government when other people act irresponsibly.

Aubrey Saunders

Stafford

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Date published: 4/25/2008