time to start digging holes in the backyard.

Oh wait… that's why I have a dog….

The latest tripe from The Anointed One's lips has my backside chapped. How else can I feel when I'm thrown opening paragraphs like this:

"If only someone in government had been looking out for consumers, the subprime mortgage mess might never have happened."

If only, indeed.

If only Fannie Mae had been properly structured and supervised, the subprime mortgage mess might never have happened.

If only mortgage lenders hadn't been forced by legislation to extend credit to those unworthy of same, the subprime mortgage mess might never have happened.

If only the likes of Barney Frank had kept to the Constitutional confines of a federal-level legislature and not dabbling in the financial markets, the subprime mortgage mess might never have happened.

But nooooooo… that, mere mortal, has nothing to do with what's happening today. The crisis occurred ONLY because there was no Consumer Protection Tsar appointed by His Holiness Himself -- THAT's why we're teetering on financial collapse. Enough of you civilian fools meddling about!

The proposal from the Anointed Administration of a Consumer Protection Agency, endowed with "unprecedented powers," is the latest attempt to consolidate every little piece of power possible under the aegis of the federal goverment. The likes of Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) is part of the push behind this. Yeah, that's the same Chris Dodd who had a hand in the Fannie Mae debacle. The irony kills me.

"The agency would have the power to make rules for the industry and to enforce them. "

Well, hell. I wonder why the founding fathers didn't think of this. Oh, that's right -- they didn't WANT government interference in private industry. They saw it as the totalitarianistic grab that it is. They read and accepted the theories posited by their contemporary and paved the way forward to allow capitalism to grow the young nation into one of the largest players on the international economic scene. They already knew what happened with over-regulation of all matters monetary.

"This is essential, for this crisis was not just the result of decisions made by the mightiest of financial firms; it was also the result of decisions made by ordinary Americans to open credit cards, take out home loans and take on other financial obligations," the Anointed One said.

See, this is the point I've been trying to drive home since before the damn election. In the eyes of the TOTUS and his myrmidons, one thing is crystal clear: 

You aren't smart enough to think for yourself. 

You must be guided in all matters. 

You must be protected from yourself.

And the Government is just the entity to protect you. You know, because it handles things so well. So smoothly. With so little red tape.

Let me make my point 100% clear. The Federal Government does not exist to handle every little piece of your life. It exists to handle the bare bones infrastructure of governance, lest society slide into anarchy. It provides the basic operational platform. You, as a human being, have an intellect and the free will to make your own decisions regarding your life, provided that you operate within the structure -- laws and ordinances that are designed to keep order. 

If you eff it up, it's your own fault. If you got yourself into it, then you need to get yourself out of it. If you signed a $300,000 mortgage thinking you could play the market until it was time to refinance, even though you only make enough for a $150,000 house, it's your own fault. If you hold a Visa, a Mastercard, an AmEx, a Discover, a Carte Blanche, three gas cards and four department store cards, each with a balance, then it's your own fault. If you mortgage your house three times over for frivolous reasons, it's not the government's damn responsibility to save you from yourself.

But no… no, the Intellectuals Inside the Beltway are going to CHANGE all that. Because they know better than you do how to live your life.

Analysts within the banking industry are already alarmed by this legislation.

"Such an agency would not have the same view that already-existing banking regulators have. Those regulators already know how to balance bank safety and soundness with products for consumers. A new agency without regard to safety and soundness could come up with burdensome regulations that would make it too expensive for banks to offer otherwise beneficial services to consumers."

Boy. If that doesn't want to make you hide your money in Mason jars in the backyard, I don't know what is. Get digging, Freckles. There's a pork chop in it for you.

Comments

[Cindy in Happy Valley]

I'm so glad there are people such as yourself, unlike me, that don't turn into blathering idiots when they hear this load of bullshit (pardon my language, do not let HRH read this comment). I just get so wrapped around the axle that I don't know how to organize my horror.

And scary worse, there are way too many idiots willing to believe it....

[Anniebananie]

I was wondering when you were going to get to this. I agree that it really was the government (in the early 1990s, mind you) that got us into this mess. Remember the homeownership commericals? "You too can own a home..."

Perhaps what we need is regulators to oversee the executive and legislative branches of of the government. Oh wait, we have that! It's called the PEOPLE. Perhaps if we got our heads out of our collective 4th point-of-contact, we could see that we are going down a river (with no paddle) that will soon turn into rapids and lead us straight over the waterfall and onto the jagged rocks below.

I'm going to construct a titanium barrel for myself, family, and friends for that little trip, I think.

[saintseester]

I just cannot fathom how so many people think this is what they want. They all base it on the "well those rich people have plenty, they don't need more so I don't care if the gov't takes it." They just have a lot of sour grapes and don't really care that this level of intrusion is absurd.

If I hear one more person say that people who work hard because they want to earn a good living are greedy, I'm going to pop.

Be careful out there peeps, pretty soon the regulation might include caps on YOUR line of work. Enough is enough!