Thinking it over ... Just say no

By Félix Alfonso Peña
© 2008 Félix Alfonso Peña
All rights reserved
31 March, 2008

A message to Democratic Congressional leaders: No.

As you contemplate ways to help homeowners stressed to the financial breaking point by their bad decisions, just say no, you can’t do it.

You can’t do it because I and others like me don’t want to pay for somebody else’s mistakes, especially not if you oblige us to do it.

You may have been distracted by the green blizzard of dollar bills that you can generate simply by going along to get along or to get the other party, so I will refresh your memories.

Other people’s mistakes consisted largely of financing the purchase of overpriced real estate by going for an adjustable rate mortgage loan that could legitimately climb beyond their financial reach, which amounted to gambling that interest rates wouldn’t go up.

Now they’re welching on the bet and they want Big Brother to cough up the cash.

The phrase “good money after bad” comes to mind.

I and people like me do not want to pay for somebody else’s gambling losses, so just say no, because if you say yes and stick us with the bill, come election time we’ll do some sticking of our own, right back at you.

I should explain that people such as myself didn’t rush out with a gleam in our eye to scoop up dandy new property in ritzy places, and say “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

That’s because we know that it’s the torpedoes that do the damning, and we would rather sail along in our humble little scow than bet the salmon farm on a dandy little schooner that would dazzle the neighbors so much that they would have to upgrade to a clipper, which means we would have to get a bigger, faster clipper, setting off a vessel-buying frenzy that would drive the prices of ships to the point where we would all go broke buying what we couldn’t afford in the first place.

So we stuck with our scow, and now we’re rowing past these wrecks and wondering why their skippers didn’t read the handwriting on the wall, or at least a financial article or two that said, “Yonder lies disaster. It’s just a matter of time.”

Admittedly, we stuck with our scows because we are sensible and boring.

But we also vote, and your people get very excited every time they see us approaching the polling place.

Would you like me to look down at your glossy brochure — or nail file, or note pad — and say to that terminally cheerful person who just handed it to me, “Is this the bozo who stuck me and other sensible people with a $400 billion bill for other people’s folly?”

I don’t know that other sensible folks who think like me also talk like me, but I am loud, especially when I am upset.

And I’m upset at this bail-out for a number of other reasons.

The folly practiced by lender and borrower alike inflated the real estate market and made homes all the more unaffordable for sensible people. By pumping money back in, you would keep the prices high and out of the reach of people who could otherwise afford them and get a mortgage without lying about their income or gambling on interest rates.

I’m upset because you’re bringing up this vote over the $400 billion homeowner bailout to make the Republicans look bad, although somebody who votes against making people and institutions responsible for their folly looks pretty good to me.

I’m upset at you and the Republicans because when we were heading to hell in a hand basket because of unsound real estate practices, you as a legislative body did nothing to stop it. Too many people were making too much money gambling, I guess, and if people are making money it must be OK. Never mind archaic terms such as “value.”

And this makes you look like a typical modern Republican, who has abandoned fiscal responsibility in favor of things going to the highest bidder.

Please, somebody has to mind the bank.

If people made a mistake, they should pay for it. I have made many and paid my dues accordingly.

If somebody did something illegal, by all means go after them.

But don’t go after me and others like me. We didn’t do anything wrong. We simply said no. You should, too.