I just sent this message to our Missouri representation in D.C. via their web forms and thought I would share, to encourage you to do the same. Whether your message be similar or different entirely, if you don't voice your wishes, can you really complain about how they represent you on the hill?
Re: Economic Feedback: Limiting Government Power, Involvement and The Federal Reserve
I voted for you because you are one of us, not because of your party affiliation. My son and daughter are counting on you as future entrepreneurs, future free individuals and future Americans. Please cast your vote with me and my son and daughter in mind and reject Chris Dodd's Financial Reform Bill that further empowers the Federal Reserve. We don't need the government to control commerce in America. Our dollars spent daily are our ever present vote for or against any industry or company. Don't bail out more businesses that we've voted against by spending elsewhere leading to their natural starvation. Don't think I want you to save jobs at that company or in that industry. Those employees need to be freed to work for the emerging companies and industries that we desire to grow and to start companies and industrial innovations of their own. Stop meddling, as part of a government body, in a system that will naturally fluctuate. We know there will be fluctuations and rely on that for flexible growth. Let it fluctuate because, through our spending choices, we are the guides of it. It shouldn't be falsely manipulated by government actions, and that governing body shouldn't have too much power to fix it or undermine it at any time. Lastly, please represent me by standing up for transparency by working for a standalone vote on Audit the Fed, S. 604. Thank you. Scott Bratcher
If you are insterested in speaking to your representation on any topic, find your web contact form links here:
http://www.chooseliberty.org/dodd_contact.aspx
This is another merging stream of the binary me. It may at times collide or overlap with the real me.
About Me:
I love to travel, then return home. In projects, I dig the details, when they compliment the greater perspective. I adore good design and applaud inspired implementation. Simplicity is king; functionally and in form.
This is another merging stream of the binary me. It may at times collide or overlap with the real me.
About Me:
I love to travel, then return home. In projects, I dig the details, when they compliment the greater perspective. I adore good design and applaud inspired implementation. Simplicity is king; functionally and in form.
Business services recommended by SwBratcher:
Comments 3 Comments
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April 30, 2010
Dear Mr. Bratcher,
Thank you for contacting me regarding financial regulatory reform. I appreciate hearing from you and I welcome the chance to respond.
Missourians are right to be angry about the financial crisis. Large Wall Street firms packaged risky subprime loans into securities which they said were as safe as government bonds, and investors made reckless bets on these new products. The new products were so complex that, when they started to go bad, no one knew which securities were affected or to what extent. Firms borrowed huge amounts of money to buy these products, which ultimately endangered their creditors as well. When subprime borrowers began defaulting, losses cascaded through the system. Through all of this, federal regulators were asleep at the wheel.
The crisis has made it clear that we need to reform our financial system. There have been several proposals in Congress designed to help fix the security and stability of our financial sector. Addressing institutions that are "too big to fail" is one of the primary goals of the proposals for financial system reform. For instance, some have suggested creating a "systemic risk regulator" charged with identifying firms and practices that could pose a risk to the financial system if they became insolvent. Many have also advocated that higher reserve capital standards be put in place for financial institutions, so that banks and financial institutions have the reserves to stay solvent in the event of serious losses. Another suggestion is begin regulating over-the-counter derivatives, complex financial instruments (like the "credit default swaps" that caused AIG to fail) that have been traded without any oversight. Some have pushed for the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, arguing that the crisis would not have happened if regulators had curbed the aggressive marketing of subprime mortgages to consumers who could not afford them.
As our financial sector is interconnected and critically important to our economy, these and other proposals will need to be carefully considered so that we can avoid a crisis like this in the future. I am closely following this debate and the proposals being made and will be sure to keep your views in mind as I consider any financial reform proposal.
In my view, as Congress considers financial reform, we need to focus on bringing an end to situations where financial institutions can be "too big to fail" and seeking to better protect consumers. However, we need to be careful that reform proposals do not have unintended consequences that end up punishing good actors. Community banks, for instance, largely stayed out of the problem, and reform proposals need to reflect that.
You may be interested to know that I have worked on legislation intended to rein in Wall Street's greed. When I learned that banks receiving federal emergency funds were still paying out huge bonuses, I introduced legislation, S.360, the Cap Executive Officer Pay Act, which would have prohibited any employee of a private company that accepts emergency federal assistance from being paid more than the President of the United States (approximately $400,000 a year). The restriction would be in place until the company repaid the government. While this exact provision did not become law, I am pleased that similar restrictions on excessive executive compensation were included in legislation that provided assistance to financial institutions that were in crisis.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance to you on this or any other issue.
Sincerely,
Claire McCaskill
United States Senator
P.S. If you would like more information about resources that can help Missourians, or what I am doing in the Senate on your behalf, please sign up for my email newsletter at www.mccaskill.senate.gov.
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Let the big banks fail. They screwed themselves and they knew the risk. What will happen when they fail? The community banks will thrive and the system will be subject to a natural balance that ethical and insightful business practices cause. This is true, even if there is discomfort in the shift, as a consequence of allowing an unhealthy situation to take root.
Let me be more clear: THEY DESERVE TO FAIL!
Back away slowly, take our money out with you, and let them topple. It may hurt for many financially, but when the dust clears our future generations will have a shot at a healthy system with a good foundation.
We want freedom, not freedom from lessons learned. We want free markets, not freedom to shop under false market ceilings created by fear-based regulations. Your laws often have the effect of relieving individuals from needing to educate themselves, moderate themselves and their communities, communicate with their leadership and behave ethically by their own motivation. This is unhealthy for all of us.
Preach this and teach this: In business and in life, treat others how you would want to be treated. Blow the whistle in your community and country on any company who behaves otherwise to let us all know that we should vote against them by spending elsewhere. Capitalism IS regulation every time a bill is paid or a contract is signed.
Free our market. We wish to relieve the federal level from many duties that are not being effectively executed.
WE ARE NOT AFRAID! FEAR IS A TRAP. YOU WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ACTING AS THOUGH IT IS YOUR JOB TO LIVE IN FEAR ON OUR BEHALF.
Teach us what caused the situation, what the consequences are and how to most effectively recover and we will know you did your job representing our LONG TERM best interests.
Comfort that costs us our freedom is sloth and unearned, comfort taken from wise planning and independence is the only comfort to be had.