Unfettered Letters

Government out of control

American International Group bonuses and millions of taxpayer dollars sent to European banks continues to distract us, and the mainstream media keeps it in the forefront while a discreet outrage is going on. The Treasury has the printing presses on overload, printing money and devaluing the dollar. Runaway inflation is next — right before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bankrupts the U.S.

We, the people, are in charge, and the executive office and Congress serve at our discretion. We need to exercise our constitutional rights and hold them responsible and accountable. Aren’t you sick of the lies?

Do we allow the Congress and executive office to treat us like we are too stupid to recognize that the Constitution is being ripped apart and that the American way of life is being destroyed? Do we allow the mainstream media to continue to occupy us with things that are surely important and maybe even newsworthy while the “behind-the-scenes” strategies continue to erode our economy, our livelihood and the future of our children and grandchildren?

I don’t believe that this out-of-control government has delivered the “change” the country needs. Do you?

J.G. Loman
Kansas City

Foreclosures are sad

As I watched the news last week concerning the foreclosure auction, I could not help but feel sorry for those individuals who had lost their homes.

It seems the local news anchors were so excited about what a great deal we could get buying these homes. Did they stop and think that perhaps the families who lost these homes were viewing the news as well?

Debra Luptak
Lee’s Summit

Fox guarding the henhouse?

Regarding the article “Stopping another AIG; Greater governmental authority requested over the troubled nonbank financial companies” (3/25, Business): How can the government, which is a bunch of crooks and thieves, stop the greedy and inept activities of a global financial company, which is a bunch of crooks and thieves?

Bruce Erickson
Lee’s Summit

AIG bonus debacle

Dear President Obama,

Do not underestimate the outrage toward American International Group and the overall negative effect this is having on the economy, the market and all of your efforts.

Do not tax the bonuses. Delete the amount that is not returned from the next installment. Verbally chastise those who do not return the bonuses and put this to rest.

Finally, there must be mandatory requirements each and every time that federal (or state for that matter) dollars are used to bail out, aka loan, any entity our tax dollars, and this must include no bonuses of any kind or raises for the duration of the loan period.

This is only common sense, and it baffles me that this was not a condition to begin with as I, and millions of others, have asked repeatedly for these types of guidelines.

If our leaders — elected or appointed — do not understand this, then God help us all.

Audrey Casassa
Mission

President Obama’s goal of having a more “transparent government” died a quick death. Washington Democrats have given so many conflicting statements lately that they’re either liars or idiots.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd have known all along about the AIG bonuses to be paid with our tax dollars. Geithner lied to a Senate committee March 3 when first asked about this but has now admitted otherwise. In my book, that makes Geithner a liar and a cheat. (Remember his failure to pay income taxes?) For years Dodd has been on the very committee that was supposed to be providing oversight of our banking and financial institutions. This mess all came about under his watch.

Stop pointing fingers at the last administration, because it just doesn’t cut it anymore. Everyone in Washington owns blame, and we’re part of the problem. Quit your bellyaching, lying and whining and start earning your big bucks. Or are you representatives in Washington only there to enrich yourselves and feed your own egos?

Buy Geithner a bus ticket home, and kick Dodd off the banking committee now.

Joyce Howard
Lee’s Summit

Madoff robbed victims

Jon Hudson (3/18, Letters) doesn’t think Bernard Madoff’s victims should get their money back.

Doesn’t he realize that Mr. Madoff committed a heinous crime against the people he stole money from? They were robbed, just as surely as if he had stuck a gun in their ribs and stole from them. I do not see the comparison at all.

Many of the foreclosures are on houses that the people could not afford in the first place, or they had refinanced them to the point that they could not afford them. The stock market is always a risky business. The recession did not take the Madoff’s victims’ money. He did. That is why he is jail, and that is why everyone associated with him should be in jail.

Nina Gennetten
Gravois Mills, Mo.

AIG bonuses

So, the House decides to put a 90 percent tax on the bonuses of some American International Group employees, and the people rejoice (3/20, A-1). The Congress acts outraged, although many of them were aware of what was going on.

Before rejoicing, I think you should give some thought to what other group the government may decide to tax and what if you are in that group. It is disheartening that the government can decide to punish people by making new tax laws at the drop of a hat.

If you think the AIG employees didn’t do their job and don’t deserve a bonus, then we’ll have to tax Congress at 99 percent.

Loretta Childers
Olathe

Those of you complaining about how an American business spends its profits dug your own hole when you agreed to the initial bailout. You can’t mix socialism and free enterprise.

President Obama was wrong to sign the check over. He should have let AIG fail, and a better product from a smarter American would have taken its place. That’s how free enterprise is supposed to work.

Russ Bliss
Gladstone

I want AIG to immediately publish all the candidate names and amounts to whom they have given campaign contributions since 2000. I want those contributions back or a 110 percent retroactive tax on them.

Jim Sissel
Raytown

Blame Democrats for mortgage mess

Democrats, including President Obama, act surprised by the fact that so many owe more on their homes than they are worth.
When Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros demanded that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invest 42 percent of their assets in buying low- and lower-middle-income mortgages, and when his successor, Andrew Cuomo, raised the quota to 50 percent, what did they think would happen?
When they explicitly told Fannie and Freddie not to insist on down payments in the mortgages they purchased, how did they think the purchase would be funded? Obviously, if you don’t require the borrower to put money down, the full purchase price must be covered by the mortgage.
The banking meltdown, and being upside down in mortgages, is a Democrat-caused problem, so they shouldn’t be surprised.
Chad Kincham
Liberty

Put conditions on bailed-out banks

The Star's editorial "Just 'close them down' is dangerous advice" (3/11, Opinion) gives an excellent explanation of why letting major banks fail is dangerous. It also promulgates the false choice between bailing out and not bailing out major banks.

A better choice is either to bail out banks conditionally or unconditionally. One condition should be that these banks terminate the CEOs who mismanaged them into bankruptcy and perhaps pave the way for civil and criminal prosecution of them. New CEOs could not be recycled from other bailed-out companies. Before hiring any new CEOs, bailed-out banks must have them vetted before Congress.

Congressional vetting is not the nationalizing of banks. It is congressional oversight, a duty Congress failed to do when it did not enforce existing bank regulations years earlier.

Holly Slegman
Leawood

Banks’ merger mania

About 15 years ago I was a depositor and employee of Sentinel Federal Savings and Loan in North Kansas City. Sentinel Fed was a small institution that had recently converted from a mutual company to a stock company. In three years it merged with Roosevelt Federal Savings and Loan, which merged with Mercantile Bank, which merged with Firstar Bank, which merged with US Bank.

We were lead to believe that all these bank mergers were good for everyone because they “reduced cost.” Now the banks are “too big” to let go, and we are pumping money into them to keep them afloat. How has that reduced our cost? We were fooled again by Congress with policies that benefited the big corporations and not the common taxpayer. Maybe it’s time to consider letting the big banks go belly-up.

Ed Casey
Kansas City

Cut bait on AIG

Our political leaders, both former and present, have allowed their decision making to be influenced by a possible fear of failure, a fear of the unknown. The government’s additional $30 billion investment in American International Group now has taxpayers on the hook for more than $163 billion in a single company (3/2, A-1, “More bailout funds to AIG”). Projections of additional needs suggest the possibility of additional infusions of up to $250 billion.

There have been four separate interventions with AIG, each based solely on Washington politicians’ fear of what could happen if they allow AIG to fail on their watch. This is enough for a new television series.

Whatever happened to “Once burned, twice shy” or “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?” How about “Fool me four, or even 163 billion times?”

Nobody knows with absolute certainty the consequences of an AIG failure. Historically, capital markets have used business failures as cleansing or purging tools. Washington politicians should not continue to allow themselves to be deluded into acting solely out of their fear of failure. We’re long past the time of cutting bait on AIG!

Mark Mandelbaum
Overland Park