Where has all the accountability gone?

It's official. Our "Limited Government" government has signed into law the $700 billion bailout bill. Why? Because some clever people found a way to add around $1oo billion in pet project "pork" to the bill.

So who is going to be held accountable? Is it the sub-prime lenders who enabled the mess? Is it the idiots who bought homes well beyond what they could afford because the sub-prime lenders told them they could? What's going on? Allow me to illustrate with an example from Bob Cringely:

Take our current national economic mess, the so-called sub-prime mortgage crisis. I like to think that I'm not a subprime kind of guy, but pretending to work as I do (my kids think I TYPE for a living) the world may not always see me the way I would like to be seen. So last year, in what we didn't know were the waning and idyllic pre-subprime days, I tried to get a new mortgage. Of course I used the Internet to get the loan because, as we all know, when banks compete I win. And within a few days, without having to actually meet with or even speak to another human, I found myself offered a $336,000 mortgage.

It was SO easy. Fill out a few online forms, make some choices, and there I was, about to close that loan. But then I did an odd thing. I carefully read the papers I was about to sign (I'm one of THOSE people). And in that residential loan application, right on line something or other, was a number that didn't make any sense to me at all. It was labeled "total household income" and was almost twice the pitiful amount I actually earn.

From where did that number come? It certainly never came from me. Since my signature would be at the bottom of this application I wanted to make sure everything was correct, so I called the mortgage broker. For the first time we spoke. She was a very nice lady, too, and explained that number was the variable required for all the ratios to be correct so I could qualify for the loan.

"But it isn't true," I said.

"Do you want the loan or not?" she asked.

Not.

I wasn't so principled as cowardly, but maybe that doesn't matter: I did what I knew was the right thing for me, which was to walk away from the loan. But evidently a lot of other people took the other course and today are having trouble paying for their houses, which is a big part of the reason why we are in this current economic mess.

Now there is someone with a brain. "Oh, I don't think I can afford this house, I guess I won't buy it". Which brings me back to the main question: Who is going to be held accountable for this mess? Apparently not the people who made the poor choices, and apparently not the people who made it so easy for them to make that poor choice, but the everyday taxpayer, including those who were not even close to being in a position to make any choice on sub-prime lending, and including those who used their brains and chose wisely.

Oh, there's one more thing. Want to know two of the people leading the fight for the bailout to pass once the pork was added? Oh, a couple of guys named Bob Bennet and Orrin Hatch. Way to represent your constituents, guys.

Oh, and think that this pork that got added was all for the common good? Check this out: