Have you wondered what all the commotion about this 700 billion dollar bail-out? We have had several bail-outs and no arguing. What makes this one different? This proposal gives Paulson the privilege of printing money, taxing American citizens and the ability to spend the money without a budget proposal or even informing the taxpayers or congress. I'm glad that John McCain is taking time out to try to re-write this proposal to something more reasonable.

Lawmakers are uncomfortable giving Paulson - and his successor - the sweeping authority the plan seeks. The plan shields the Treasury Department from legal challenges and does not require any reporting to Congress. Treasury, which has proposed a two-year program, would hire Wall Street firms to manage asset purchases. These guys caused the problem, why should we employ them to supposedly fix the problem? This is not free money they are spending. THIS IS A TAX BILL YOU WILL PAY!!

"It's unprecedented, unfettered power," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. "The intrinsic nature of our Constitution ... was always checks and balances."

The way to solve the problem so this doesn't continue is derivatives need to be outlawed. This was illegal until 1982. This does NOT have to do with greedy Americans buying more home than they could afford. The derivatives market is estimated to be a 1 quadrillion US dollars. This is not a mistake I do mean quadrillion. We can't bail this out even if we wanted to. We have to let the free market work this out. In the 700 billion dollar proposal there is no mention of STOPPING DIREVITIVES TRADING. If we are going to bail-out a gambler, wouldn't you demand they stop gambling. Common sense says YES! Trading derivatives is gambling. Nobody owns the underlying asset! Selling short a stock you don't own is an example.

Shouldn't we protect the taxpayer? Bernanke pointed out that when the Fed provided an $85 billion loan to insurance giant American International Group, it made a claim on nearly 80% of AIG stock. But he said the proposed bailout program is a different matter. Companies whose troubled securities would be bought are not necessarily failing (they will continue trading derivatives) and the American taxpayers get no collateral to get repaid for this LOAN.

Another way to spend 700 billion dollars could be give each state about 14 billion dollars to each state to build or repair their infrastructure. This would put millions of Americans back to work and improve the country we live in. It would also DECENTRALIZE the money control. Under this scenario more control would be given to the people as opposed to giving ONE MAN (Paulson) all authority. How come something like this hasn't been proposed? Don't react in FEAR. Use your brain. Think about what we are doing.

This is a power grab not a fix for our ailing economy. Please contact your representatives and let them know how you want transparency on how our tax dollars are being spent, checks and balances, separation of power, and protection of our CONSTITUTION. Also, let them know we will hold them responsible for any legislation they pass whether they read it or not. Don't let the free market system die. We don't want our government to own all the banks (your checking account, savings, CDs), all the mutual funds (your retirement funds), and all our real estate (repossessed homes). You will be living in a dictatorship if you don't voice your opinion now.

If you are interested in learning about diversifying your portfolio with gold or silver call Tamara 303-771-5825 at Golden IRA's & Investments, Inc. in Denver, Colorado. I love to educate others about protecting their accumulated wealth. You may also visit www.goldeniras.com to learn more.