Netlets for Thursday, Sept. 25

A huge crisis and a radical solution? Last week the Bush administration was saying the economy was sound and not to panic. Now we have to give the administration sole control over a $700 bailout package by the end of the week or the economy will go over a cliff.

Hello? These are the people that gave us the Iraq reconstruction, the response to Hurricane Katrina and a thousand and one no-bid contracts in between.

Investment banks are stuck with huge packages of troubled mortgages. Somebody will have to decide what they're really worth. What's the most likely? Will the administration drive a hard bargain with these banks, all big campaign contributors, or give them sweetheart deals and stick the taxpayer with the debt? The administration's suggestion: give the Treasury Secretary sole authority to cut these deals in secrecy.

What do you think, folks? Should we go for it?

J. THOMAS NELSON, MINNEAPOLIS

Pelosi plays the blame game I was listening to the speaker of the U.S. House in a National Public Radio interview on Wednesday, in which she said the current economic crisis is all due to Bush policies, and her House of Representatives are to take no blame. I respectfully request that Nancy Pelosi reread the our government's source document.

United States Constitution, section 8, Powers of Congress:

Congress clearly has not regulated commerce.

Now I dislike President Bush as much as the next liberal, but everybody needs to take their share of accountability for this mess.

Some days it gets hard to be a Democrat.

GARY MINER, NEW BRIGHTON

Think of the election As a loyal American I share the deep concern for the welfare of New York's investment bankers. To help out I have identified to date 865,327 families who are too tapped out to contribute to income, sales and gas tax revenues. Their economies are locked up.

BRUCE D. SNYDER, MENDOTA HEIGHTS

American Economy, 101 To Cynthia Sobieski of Mahtomedi (front page, Sept. 24) and others who can't quite comprehend how we got into this financial mess, I offer the following.

According to our own government statistics, 70 percent of our economy is based on consumer spending. It has been that way for some time. In order to keep a decreasing number of consumers spending more, so that the economy can continue to "grow," our government allowed unlimited credit to everyone, whether they could repay debts or not. Our economy used to be based on manufacturing, but we shipped that overseas. It used to be based on farming, but we consolidated farms and imported more and more of the food we eat. We stopped producing energy here and imported it. All these actions meant that fewer and fewer Americans could afford to spend.

So our government encouraged more and more credit. We gave mortgages to sub-prime borrowers, cash rebates and zero interest loans to car buyers, furniture with no payments due until 2010, and 10 percent discounts to customers who sign up for a credit card today! Now our government wants to borrow more money from foreign banks, that it has no hope of ever repaying, to repay the debts incurred by its citizens who can't repay them. It is an endless cycle of debt.

Now the banks, American and foreign, that hold all that debt want some of it paid. Surprised? You shouldn't be. The United States is actually bankrupt. We should do what bankrupt people are told to do: Cut up the credit cards, pay of the existing debt, spend less and save more. It is hard, but we can do it if we are willing to try.

Holding out the cup, 2008 I suppose the new refrain for all the beleaguered fat cats and free-market fundamentalists could be Brother Can You Spare Two Grand?

RACHEL ZEMMER, ST PAUL

Stop, breathe and just say no Is President Bush up to the same ol' political tricks again? Yes, once you take a moment to think and breathe, you can see that he's trying to pressure Congress into taking action without proper time for deliberation. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." You must act today, or the world will collapse.

He got away with it when he asked for the OK to invade Iraq. He got away with it in pushing through the Patriot Act. This is how he advances his agenda.

With just a little over a month to go in this presidential election, he's doing it again now. Once again, he's redistributing the wealth from the poor to the rich. Don't let him get away with it. Let your elected officials hear from you -- today!

Two questions about John McCain's campaign The Republican candidate has suggested postponing the first presidential debate in order to focus on the economic mess. McCain: Too old to multitask? Palin: Too new to substitute?