The economic portion of the so called debate Friday night was a waste
of time. Neither candidate provided more than a vague set of conditions
for evaluating any proposal. They want us to put them in charge,
but have nothing to offer for dealing with the current
crisis.

But their lack of any solution shouldn't be surprising. If either had a
solution to the credit he would have been in Washington trying to get
Congress to
adopt his solution instead of debating in Mississippi. Hopefully,
President George W. Bush will solve the problem before they take office.

Sen. Barack Obama kept trying to bring up the issue of health
care which is
irrelevant to the credit crisis. In general Obama seems more
concerned with playing the blame game than ending the crisis.
The important thing now is to end the crisis.

Both candidates repeated the old religions of their parties.

Sen. John McCain says he is going to freeze federal
spending except for defense and entitlement programs. It'll never
happen. Republicans have been talking about that for decades
and haven't succeeded.

Most programs have too many supporters in Congress to be reduced.
Federal agencies often have regional offices, and the communities with
those offices will pressure their congressional
delegation to keep those offices open. The
communities or organizations that benefit will also lobby
for keeping the programs.

Sen; Obama claims he's going to raise revenue by closing corporate
loopholes. Democrats have been promising to do that for decades
and haven't succeeded yet. Congress creates new loopholes faster
than it eliminates old ones. Even if Congress did eliminate
loopholes no money could be raised by taxing companies that are already
losing money.

McCain has a better chance to freeze spending than Obama has to
eliminate corporate loopholes. The president can veto spending
bills. The president cannot force congress to close tax loopholes.

McCain is correct that Obama's spending program would
require a general tax increase rather than a reduction. If Obama
really believes that he can cut taxes and increase spending, those nice
young men in their clean white coats need to take him to the happy
home.

According to the Main Stream Media, Obama is supposed to be stronger on
economic issues. I saw no evidence of that Friday night.

Based on the comments the candidates made on the economic
situation during the debate we would be better off keeping
President George W. Bush for the next four years or bringing back Bill
Clinton. Many people have forgotten that Bush
brought us through the economic crisis that followed
the 9/11 attack.

The primary purpose of any bailout should be to help people keep their
homes to prevent mass foreclosures from further damaging the real
estate market. The more houses that are put on the market the
lower the value of other houses. A major decline in the value of
houses in general would reduce the assets of banks
that have more conservative mortgage programs. Such a reduction
could create problems for these banks.

Payment for the bailout should come as much as possible from those who
created the problem including both creditors and debtors, instead of
taxpayers in general.

The federal government should buy up bad mortgages at full current
value for
homes that haven't been foreclosed on. If the lender has
foreclosed on the property the federal government shouldn't pay
anything more than the current market value of the home. The
foreclosed
homes should be turned over to the Department of Housing and Urban
Development to be used in part tor a program to help military veterans,
school teachers, law enforcement officers and firefighters to purchase
homes.

Payment to companies should take the form of Treasure bills redeemable
under a schedule that would allow 10% to be redeemed in one year,
another 10% in two years, etc. Alternatively Congress might limit
redemption of the bonds to 5% per year. Companies could use these
T-bills
to compensate employees or pay future federal income taxes.
Companies accepting
federal aid should be required to pay an extra income tax on total
revenue over the next 20 years with only limited deductions allowed.
Congress should consider a surtax on high executives in firms
that are in trouble, possibly applying the tax to all income above some
threshold without allowing deductions. The IRS
should audit these firms each year.

Homeowners with bad mortgages where appropriate would
have to file for bankruptcy to get out of any credit card
debts. Congress would create a special exception to
bankruptcy law to allow them to file "emergency" bankruptcy.
Eliminately consumer debt would improve their ability to pay on
the mortgage.

Homeowners who would still have difficulty making mortgage payments
could be allowed to trade for one of the lower valued foreclosed houses
the federal government takes over.

The interest on the mortgage would be the same rate as on the T-bills
used for the bailout. Congress should consider requiring
these individuals to have mortgage payments deducted from their
paychecks along with the money withheld for income taxes. These
homeowners would be helping to pay for the bailout.

HUD would offer former residents of the foreclosed houses an
opportunity to regain these homes at the reduced value
under the same conditions as those in houses that haven' t been
foreclosed on yet. These individuals would also help pay for the
bailout.

The Great Depression lasted so long not because banks failed, but
because the bank failures eliminated the assets of depositors.
Bank foreclosures of houses and businesses, particularly farms, further
eliminated assets held by individuals that might have been used to turn
the economy around. The foreclosures didn't help the banks
because few could afford to buy the foreclosed properties.