Well neighbors, it took a while, but the chickens of Reaganomics have finally come home to roost. This morning, Sunday, September 21, 2008, Treasury Secretary Paulson was shown on CBS’s "Sunday Morning" calling for a solution to our financial crisis, while George W. "Deregulation" Bush and John "Deregulation" McCain called for a new agency to buy up all the unsalable mortgages that they say are the source of the problem, at a cost to Joe Paycheck of as much as another TRILLION DOLLARS.

        This Republican proposal would have the effect of allowing those who caused the crisis, the greedy, rich investors and speculators, to walk away with our money and without harm to themselves while, at the same time, forcing the poor and working class, who have been the victims of inflated housing prices and the resulting inflated mortgages, to pick up the tab, again, just as they had to do in the S&L crisis, twenty years ago.

        We agree that the economy should not be allowed to collapse, but the solution must be equitable. Those who neither caused the problem, nor profited from it, must not be left to pay the cost for those who did. Two elements MUST be added to the solution in order to achieve equity.

        First, laws must be restored controlling all banks, both commercial and investment, as well as other financial institutions such as insurance companies, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc., laws that were abolished by the Republicans under Reagan, which strictly limit the permissible size of banks, the compensation of their executives, the transactions these entities can engage in, and the degree of risk which they are allowed to take. Rules against mergers must also be tightened. These limitations will stimulate the formation of new banks and other financial institutions, and will diversify the risk, so that a failure of any one will not stimulate a general run or sell off, and can not be catastrophic. Politicians must take care to listen to no lobbyists and leave no loopholes. If they do, the can will only be kicked down the road and, next time, we may not have the will or the resources to recover.

        Second, the greedy opportunists who caused this crisis must pay the bill for their sins. This is the easy part. Tax them out of their socks. Teach them that the American people are not to be made a mark for any greedy scheme, whether it be stock and mortgage speculation, short selling of securities, monopolistic mergers, or price gouging on commodities such as gasoline. We must convey the basic message that wealth must come from honest work, and never from clever, evil manipulation. Somehow, I fear the Republicans won’t like my proposals. That’s what they do. That’s why they are Republicans. And if anyone out there who works for a living votes for the greedy bastards, they deserve what they get. We citizens must also listen closely, and if our honorable representatives in Congress, of either party, obfuscate or procrastinate at this critical time, we should send them home to reflect on their conflict of interest, or send them to jail if we can find an excuse. On the other hand, it is far more important that we get it right, than that we get it quickly. It’s the Republicans who insist that we only have days to decide. That’s their best chance to get off the hook.

        NO, SECRETARY PAULSON, WE WILL NOT STABILIZE THE MARKETS NOW AND TALK ABOUT REFORMS LATER. NO REFORM - NO BAILOUT!

        Let us be clear. We know how Washington works as well as you do and we have had enough of your manipulations. The basic evil is the concentration of wealth in the hands of an economic aristocracy who have acquired their wealth by immoral practices, while debt and risk were foisted on the innocent working class. We propose to redistribute the nation’s resources to the innocent, and penalize greed and arrogance. You are not going to get away with fast talk this time. The only alternative I can imagine is for the people to exercise their constitutional right to revolt against an oppressive government.

        Finally, we would like to correct George Will who, on ABC’s "This Week," this morning said, "Populism is pandering." George’s statement proves what I have long suspected, that his Republican intellectualism is a facade of his arrogance. George, it may be pandering when some rich and powerful person, such as yourself, espouses populism, but we are not pandering, WE ARE THE WORKING CLASS! It is the epitome of arrogance for you to imply that we can not think for ourselves just because we do not live our lives by your amoral values. In the vernacular of the people, which we realize you may not understand; you don’t have to like us, but you will learn to respect us, or we will kick your scrawny tight ass!