85 Billion Reasons To Say ENOUGH!

Are we throwing good money after bad? Wednesday, we witnessed another historic moment in U.S. government. Our leaders scurried to put together a quickie plan to bailout yet another failing American business, American International Group, a major force in the insurance industry, whose failure would have far-reaching international implications. Did our government make the decision to jump head-first into this venture because of the company’s vast assets in Japan and China?

From what I gather, “we the people” can consider this a loan of our hard-earned tax dollars, and we should cross our fingers and pray that the company can sell off assets and restructure rather than sinking so low that we become the proud owners of $85 Billion pieces of nothing!

I realize that the Global markets rallied after the announcement, which is a good thing. However, I find it very strange that the story of AIG has all but vanished today. Yesterday, on FOX News(not sure which show), Judge Andrew Napolitano was asked by Shepherd Smith if this arrangement between our government and AIG was Constitutional. He said, no. He said that our government is not empowered by our Constitution to take over businesses from the private sector, and if this loan fails that is exactly what would happen. The government, i.e. "us," could end up with about 80 percent of whatever is left of the company. He went on to say that if someone chose to challenge this in court, it would be very interesting. I tried to find documentation of this interview to use in this post, but it is nowhere to be found. Did anyone else happen to see the show?

My concern is that our government is leading us down a very rocky road. We bail out airlines, bad-debt mortgage companies, failing insurance companies. What is next the auto industry? Will there be anything left to reform the Congress!!