As I write this, Congress is debating the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street.  I am opposed to the passage of this law.  Why in the world do we want the people who created this mess (a mess that a small amount of common sense would have avoided) to have a huge pile of our money to fix it?  It’s interesting to me that the $700 billion that is being asked to clean up this mess is the same amount of money we send abroad annually because we refuse to tap our own energy supplies.  If this amount of money were invested in America in homegrown energy programs (private programs–not government programs), it would be a homegrown stimulus package that would turn a lot of this situation around.  Also, if we allow each person in the US to acquire $2300 more in tax liability (under this plan), what happens when Social Security fails (probably within the next ten years)?  Do we just add more taxes on everyone and reach a point where 75% of our income goes to taxes?  We already pay a larger percentage of our earnings to the government in one form or another than the medieval serfs paid to the manor lords of their time.  Congress got us into this mess when they refused in 2003 and 2005 to accept changes in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The reforms were blocked in both cases by the Democrats and a few Republicans.  I refuse to give a Congress that accepted tons of money from these institutions and then blocked reform of them in return a chance to pick my pocket to do the same thing again.