Checks & Balances

Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives voted to reject the passage of a bill which would give billions of dollars to the treasury department to help bail out companies hither and thither.

Unless my blog is the first thing you’ve read since you came out of your nuclear bunker, you already know that.

I’m not here to express my opinion one way or another on the bailout and whether it’s a good idea.  I’m not an economist, and although I have a house horribly depreciated in value, I don’t feel that my opinion really means much on this subject.

Instead, I think it’s a time to celebrate.  Celebrate what, you ask?

It is a time to celebrate the government instituted 200+ years ago by our forefathers; a group of brilliant men who understood all too well how a government must be controlled by the people.

A group of men who had lived under the rule of tyranny for far too long and would have no part of a government which would give absolute power to a given person.

It is a time to celebrate George Washington who, upon being offered Kingship of these United States, refused to do so because he understood what the Revolution had really been about.

This week, the Executive Branch of the United States requested more power, and the Legislative branch — through the opinions of congressman and their constituencies — denied that request.

That is why they are there.  That is why they exist.

Whether you agree with the bailout or don’t, the fact is that the United States government has operated in one of its finest forms in my lifetime by rejecting the bailout bill.

The system has worked.  Now we must accept the consequences of our actions and weather the storm.  Sometimes the only way out is through.