The land of the free and the home of the brave… unless a housing bubble bursts and credit markets tighten up. For all our attempts to spread democracy with individual freedom, property rights, and opportunities afforded by capitalism, we don't seem to listen to our own advice. All the (overpriced) textbooks will tell you that government intervention prolonged the depression of the 1930's in this country. We claimed to have learned our lesson for over 70 years and vowed that no such downturn and financial upheaval could ever happen again. We prospered.

Then we decided that everyone is entitled to live the American dream of home ownership. It is as if we changed the ending of the Pledge of Allegiance to say "with affordable housing for all." We repeated the mantra that "everyone knows that real estate values only go up." Barney Frank promised us that there is no risk. We legislatively required banks and mortgage companies to make loans to previously unqualified (until we changed the qualifications) buyers (Community Reinvestment Act – 1977). We gave them increasing quotas to meet (HUD). To allow them to meet these aggressive quotas, we created a quasi-governmental body to buy back the questionable loans (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) so the financial institutions wouldn't have to keep the loans they made, and therefore would be free to make more. The market was incentivized to participate through commissions at every transaction - with no risk of their own. Lenders and brokers were willing to make loans with increasing competition for borrowers. Loans with terms that require no down payment and reduced first-year payments – anything to sign a borrower.We built a house of cards.

Now the house of cards has fallen. Hard. And now the government tries to rescue the market that it sabotaged. Congressional Democrats blame Bush for not regulating, when Congress pushed the mandates, and Clinton's HUD created the escalating quotas. The government intervention in the free market created this mess and more government intervention is not the solution. The government needs to undo the Community Reinvestment Act and the HUD quotas.

Today is October 14, 2008 and we have already seen weeks of financial institutions failing and market turmoil from this and TODAY I heard a mortgage broker on the radio advertising for HUD loans with no requirements for credit ratings and pushing the tax credits for first-time home buyers. This is insane. Stop it already!

I am calling for the replacement of everybody in Congress that supported the "bail-out" bill. All of them and from any party. Let it be known that we will not stand for any more of this. Maybe it is time to listen to the folks at the Constitution Party.