Enough is Enough

Michele Bachmann | September 19, 2008 4:50 PM

Yesterday, I joined several House colleagues to urge the Democrat controlled Congress, the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve to act with greater transparency and responsibility for the taxpayer when it comes to the financial markets crisis rattling our nation.

Check out the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch coverage of the press conference here.

Taxpayers must not be left on the hook to the tune of billions of dollars -- possibly in the ballpark of $500 billion -- in government-backed bailouts. If government is propping up Wall Street and taxpayers foot the bill for the government, that makes Americans the last line of insurance in these unstable financial times.

The question becomes: Who will left to bail-out the taxpayer who is already saddled with a debt of about $455,000 per household just for runaway entitlement spending?

The government is embarking on a very dangerous path, and the recent financial takeover of AIG Insurance is an action we must not be quick to replicate. Privatizing reward and socializing risk is essentially rolling the dice with our nation's financial security and it is a surefire recipe for disaster for our economy.

If we bail out one, another lines up for their hand out, then another, and another, and another. If this keeps up, everyone from Starbucks to JC Penney's will see themselves as too big to fail and they too may be knocking on the doors of the Treasury looking for their bail-out.

Investor's Business Daily had a great editorial on this issue yesterday, too. Check it out here.