My Response to "Why Kline Voted Yes"

Here is my response to Janet Beihoffer, who is a great American and great conservative that I just happen to disagree with at this time. The person who forwarded this to me I wish to keep anonymous.

Janet:

_______ forwarded me your email, and, as a fiscal conservative, I have to honestly disagree with your assessment.
Part of the problem our party is facing is the fact that we talk about offering free-market solutions to government problems. We, as fiscal conservatives, are against government intervention in the private sector. The market will correct itself if we just let it.
Does that mean that some businesses will go belly up? Yes. But new businesses will be created to fill the void. Does that mean that some people will lose their homes? Probably. But these are the people who shouldn't be renting their homes from a bank or mortgage company to begin with.
Look at the housing market, to begin with. I, personally, have a credit score of approximately 600 because of bad debts that I incurred (student loans). For any type of conventional mortgage, I do not qualify because my debt service subtracted from my income, does not leave me with enough to make mortgage payments at the high interest rates I "might" qualify for. Does that mean I should go and take a mortgage from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and expect to stay in my home when I could not afford the mortgage to begin with?
We fiscal conservatives stress the principle of "let the market decide." If the market decides that I am a poor risk to lend money to (like a mortgage), then they have every right to deny me financing.
The problem occurred when government mandated that certain income groups or people groups (minorities and first time buyers to name two of the groups) must comprise a certain percentage of mortgages underwritten.
Since these people should not have qualified for financing to begin with, and Wall Street firms (starting with the mortgage originators and moving up) bought the "safe" mortgage-backed securities, I do not think that the U.S. taxpayers, like me, need to be on the hook for someone elses problem. The Federal government is not bailing me out from my student loan debt, despite the fact I've had occasional bouts of underemployment or unemployment that have prohibited me from paying them back right away. Still, it is not the government's fault that I took the money for school. I incurred the obligation and therefore I am left with the debt. (By the way, for the record - I never asked the Federal government for a bailout and don't expect one either. Besides, should I have made the cop out of going through bankruptcy instead of doing the right thing and just paying down my debt, student loan debt is not dischargable through bankruptcy anyway).
Essentially what I am saying is this bill, regardless of the money for ACORN or other liberal special interest groups being stripped, was a bad deal because nobody wanted to assume responsibility for anything and put we taxpayers on the hook for the whole amount. It does not matter if smaller businesses are involved or not. Further governmental intervention will not solve the problem but only make matters worse. Government (Federal, State and Local) has to just step out of the way and let the markets work.
That is a core principle of being a Republican and that is the type of fiscal responsibility we fight for in our party's platform. Why change now? Just because President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson have gotten away from fiscal conservatism? Believe me, that's what's gotten our party in the sad state that it's at. That's why we lost the 2006 elections so bad and that's why it has taken so long to get the momentum rolling in our direction in 2008.
As our beloved 40th President, Ronald Wilson Reagan once remarked (and I paraphrase), "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem."

Best wishes!

Jeffrey S. Williams
House District 55A Co-chair
4th Congressional District Vice Chair

(I am sending this on my own accord and not "officially" on behalf of the BPOU or 4th Congressional District)

P.S. I have CC'd (names are being withheld) and am posting a copy of it on my blog, http://nationaldebtbusters.blogspot.com I hope you don't mind.

P.P.S. Just so you don't think I'm too critical, I do want you to know that I appreciate all that you have done and continue to do for our great party. This is just an area where we might have some vehement disagreement.