“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Edmund Burke

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, while the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery.”

Sir Winston Churchill

”To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”

Confucius

”A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”

Dwight David Eisenhower

”Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

Albert Einstein

”I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things.”

Benjamin Franklin

”For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ”

Matthew 16:26

”Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Proverbs 29:18

”As a rule of thumb, Congressional legislation that is bipartisan is usually twice as bad as legislation that is partisan.”

Thomas Sowell

”There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation. ”

Herbert Spencer

”We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.”

Mark Twain

January 19, 2009

Dear kids and grandkids,

I want to apologize to you and your families for my part in the 2008 Financial Meltdown; what your history books will record as not only the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930’s but also the beginning of the end of the free enterprise economic system of what was once the greatest country the world has ever seen. Your historians will note that I and my generation squandered away your financial futures to satisfy our own narcissistic, partisan greed. In the years to come, as the United States moves away from a free enterprise economy to a more socialistic one with the federal government controlling banks, insurance, mortgage, auto and airline companies; guaranteeing health care for all including  tens of millions of illegal immigrants who will pay nothing into the health care system; when gasoline is  ten dollars a gallon and your personal income tax rate is 90% you will have every right to be justifiably angry at me and my historical peers as you realize that what should have been your day in the sun has been stolen from you. I am sorry that I had a part in allowing this to happen.

I know that you will probably never forgive me but let my mistakes be a precautionary tale to you about what happens when you are not vigilant in exercising your rights as a legal citizen of our country and you allow emotional political partisanship to blind you to the truth.

In order for you to fully understand my part in stealing your financial future let me give you a brief personal and political insight into the fifteen years leading up to the 2008 Financial Meltdown.  In 1994 I voted to help elect the first Republican Congress (both House and Senate) in 40 years into power. The Republican’s had united and run their 1994 congressional campaign under a legislative plan called the “Contract with America”;  a ten point plan to cut federal taxes, balance the budget, and dismantle a host of welfare programs enacted and expanded during decades of Democrat rule. Under the leadership of Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich the Republican controlled Congress enacted nine of the ten points of the “Contract with America” within its first 100 days in power. The only item they failed to enact was a constitutional amendment mandating term limits on Congressional members. Looking back, this single failure should have raised a red flag of concern for me but I was so happy with the other nine successes on their agenda and the partisan joy of putting Republicans back into political power that I chose to turn a blind eye to the term limits issue. For twelve years (1994-2006) Republicans controlled both the Senate and House of Representatives. They set the legislative agenda and they controlled how and to whom all tax dollars were dispersed. There were still plenty of Democrats in the Congress during these twelve years and being just as partisan as the Republicans they opposed and obstructed as much of the Republican agenda as they could but they were not in control of the Congress until the mid-term election of 2006.

In 2006, the Democrats took back control of both the Senate and House from the Republicans. Ironically, besides the Iraq war, one of the primary reasons Republicans lost power in 2006 is that they had become the party of big spenders and budget busters. Had I been vigilant in exercising my right to vote, and held my own Republican Congressional members accountable for not living up to the pledges they made in 1994 perhaps I would not be apologizing to you now.

From 2006 to 2008 the newly elected Democratic Majority, were back in power in a closely divided Congress and they were the ones who set the legislative agenda and controlled how and to whom all tax dollars were dispersed. Just as the Democrats had done when they were out of power the plentiful and partisan Republican Minority in Congress opposed and obstructed as much of the Democrat agenda as they could.  Then came the last half of 2008 and the disastrous meltdown of the US economy. While Republicans and Democrats had been obstructing and opposing each other’s agenda’s in the many years prior to 2008 they had completely ignored their mutual responsibility for Congressional oversight of mortgage lenders, banks, financial insurance companies, and investment institutions. The combined assets of these institutions, valued in the trillions of dollars, were the financial backbone of the entire US economy. The failure of any one of these institutions would have resulted in devastating consequences for the US economy. In 2008 they all collapsed!

Looking back now it is easy to see why the financial collapse happened. In the years leading up to 2008 an institutionally corrupt and partisan Congress had legislated, financed and promoted the fiscally irresponsible  policy that every American deserved to own a home; even people who could not afford to pay for them! In order to assure the implementation of  this ridiculous policy Congress then protected and promoted the two largest mortgage companies on the face of planet earth (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and gave them a mandate to make questionable mortgage loans to people least able to afford them. As political favors Congress then placed corrupt political cronies from both political parties as managers and directors of these two companies. Under the direction of these greed-driven managers trillions of dollars worth of bad mortgage loans were made.  As if that wasn’t bad enough Congress allowed these bad mortgages to be packaged as “investments” and sold to banks and other financial institutions.  These “investments”, like cancer cells, infected just about every financial institution on Wall Street and when the housing market (think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages) collapsed the entire cancerous financial house of cards came crashing down.

Despite the partisan finger pointing by both Republicans and Democrats history will show that the 2008 Financial Meltdown was a completely bi-partisan effort. Neither party did anything when they controlled the Congress to prevent the financial meltdown from occurring. Neither party did anything to stop the corrupt activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to 2008. In fact, Congressional leaders from both parties, including members of banking oversight committees, had been taking special interest contributions from Fannie and Freddie for years prior to the meltdown.

Now when I realized that the very people I had helped elect and politically supported were directly responsible for the 2008 Financial Meltdown and had done nothing when they were in power to prevent it from happening I became angry. But when these same Congressmen and women who had allowed this mess to happen in the first place decided that they needed to cover their political rear ends and were going to take my tax money and mortgage the financial futures of my kids and grandkids to bail themselves out I became furious! And that is when I also realized my own culpability in what had happened. It is personally devastating to acknowledge my own failures of responsibility as a voting citizen of our once great country but here they are:

1. Thoughtless Partisanship or “my congressional member is ok but all other congressional members (especially those who do not share my world view) are the problem.”  While I will never apologize for having a politically conservative world view I must apologize for thoughtlessly placing my trust in partisan congressional members who shared my world view.  I naively thought that congressional members who shared my world view would be people I could trust to protect me and my family from disasters like the 2008 Financial Meltdown; people who despite their partisan political biases would always do what was right for America and American’s despite their strong world view.

I was wrong.

I realize now that voting for someone strictly because they espouse a particular world view means nothing if their actions accomplish nothing or are directly counter to what is best for America. That analysis is valid no matter what world view a politician has.

2. Lack of Accountability.  I did not use the power of my vote to hold my congressmen and women accountable for their actions. I continued to vote for them even after they became the party of big spenders and budget busters. There is wisdom in the law that limits a US President to only two terms (eight years) in office. No Congressman or woman should ever be allowed to remain in office longer than one term (four years for a Representative; six years for a Senator). After the betrayal of 2008 I have vowed to never vote for an incumbent again. By not holding Congress accountable I became an enabler to an institution fraught with cultural and special interest corruption; an institution so partisan, so self-absorbed and so greedy for power that it failed in one of its fundamental duties to protect its own citizens from financial chaos. The only way to change the institution and culture of Congress is to stop enabling them with my vote. I am sorry to admit that it took me sixty-one years to acquire this insight.

It is probably too late but I want you to know that I will dedicate what is left of my short-sighted life into sharing my failures with other voters in the hope that they might learn from my mistakes and become empowered to utilize their vote to not only punish Congress for the 2008 Financial Meltdown but to insure that the cultural and institutional corruption of incumbency will never again threaten the American way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  I have set up my own informational website: http://www.throwthemalloutamerica.com for this purpose.

I love you all,

Dad/Grandpa G.