Business, not citizens, should pay for bailout

During his 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton famously used the “It’s the economy, stupid” strategy. Though I do not agree with Bill Clinton on very much, he was right on this one. Clinton’s statement points out that the economy determines how we live. Often, we voters feel all we can do is watch as it goes up and down.

The economy determines almost everything in the political world. When the economy is down, so are approval ratings for both the president and Congress. Every politician dreams of high approval ratings. With a struggling economy, that dream turns into a nightmare.

This is why there is such turmoil at the highest levels of government right now. Not only because the economy needs to make a great jump, but because, if this was achieved, approval ratings would skyrocket. This would do nothing but help everyone involved. This is why action is being taken now.

Improvements need to be made in order to fix the economy. Whether the government can help us on this matter remains to be seen. The economy is staggering across the country, and we can see those troubles here in our own state of Nevada. We have a budget crisis in this state, and most of us also want to see an improvement in each of our own situations.

These are personal lifestyle changes that can’t be made by the president of the United States. The president can’t immediately change the economy, but the economy can affect what happens to the president. Sen. Barack Obama can’t instantaneously provide a “stronger economy,” as he has promised in his newest campaign ad, nor can Sen. John McCain. It will take many people and all branches of government working together to achieve a goal of this nature.

Billionaire Warren Buffett has called the current economy an “economic Pearl Harbor.” With this he is insinuating that action must be taken and has also said that Congress is on the right track. The government would do well to listen to a man of Buffett’s caliber. A billionaire, it hardly needs to be said, is a good businessman.

We need to look to strong businesspeople for advice. By bailing out Wall Street, government officials will look to their constituents for help—new taxes—and this is not going to be good for approval ratings or the economy. Raising taxes is a risk that Obama and McCain need to look at twice.

The possibility of a $700 billion bailout is already making constituents angry. Voters see this as the government’s way of taking more away from them, and this is not good because people are already spread thin.

GOP lawmakers suggest action that would not involve the government, and in turn would not involve raising taxes. This seems to be the most logical choice in the matter: Instead of demanding the people help, look to the businesses that are the root of this entire mess.

We all know this situation is delicate. But to look to the people for more help and increasing the size of government involvement would not help matters. People need to look at all the ideas that have been presented. Republicans have shown interest in attempting to solve this problem with minimal help from taxpayers. Congress can’t look away from this. If you want less money taken from you, expect less from the government. Less taxes and less wasteful spending are the only ways to walk away from this mess in a positive state.