Time to tear apart some conservative mistakes...

However the points you're making really only apply to those whose economic decisions were at least partly responsible for the mortgage mess which led to the banking mess. By taking risks with the equity in their homes or pension plans to "cash in" on rapidly growing housing values it sure looks like they made bad decisions and as far as I'm concerned should suffer the consequences for them without responsible persons having to bail them out.

Hahahahahahahaha. Mental loops, hoops and hopping involved to understand just how large a swath of America you are trying to dismiss as being irresponsible with their money. They learned that the housing markets were increasing value from whom? These irresponsible reprobates were told of these ARM mortgages by whom? These irresponsible investors were introduced to CDOs by whom? The demands of short-term profits were placed on these companies by which shareholders? I am incredibly amused by your attempts to distance yourself from any participation in society. By somehow narrowing your influence on the world around you to the immediate decisions you've made (by omitting any of the knock-on effects from investment decisions or lack of regulations or general entitlement mindset of the investment class), or somehow conflating your narrow world-view with the majority you attempt to deflect and minimize the outright insanity espoused by the quotations that Andrew researched.

And here's the reason why...

But Democrats sure don't want to miss the opportunity to seduce a new voter onto their entitlement bandwagon.

Damn those dems with their NEWDEALWEALTHREDISTRIBUTIONSOCIALIST, or whatever the current GOP label for Democratic party policy is, damn them all to heck. So another conservative is upset that the idealogoy didn't live up to reality, and the party got repudiated in the polls. See, you gave it away by characterizing it as "seducing" for an "entitlement bandwagon". What was trickle-down economics? Seduction of the upper class wealthies. What was capital gains tax reduction and policies to remove the estate tax? More upper class seduction. Deregulation of the investment markets? Upper class seduction/pandering. And you claim its the Democrats doing the seduction. I am amused.

So we'll do what we can to reverse or mitigate those bad decisions. Being a more conservative person I never risked the equity in my house or retirement plans and retain a (albeit reduced) nestegg even after the recent sub-prime debacle. For being a prudent citizen and for not getting into financial trouble I am now rewarded by having my taxes increased and my future stock portfolio value placed at risk by the current administration's relentless efforts to "redistibute" the wealth. I guess the Democrats will only be happy when we're all dependents of the government and have to rely on their bailouts to survive.

Wow. I wish I was you. I wish I had the "administration" walk up to my door and ask to redistribute my wealth around, I'd love the personal attention!! Wait a minute, you didn't mean that literally... so... um... which program was it that was the wealth redistribution? Was it the program that will let Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy expire? That program, that was ill-conceived, and ill-advised at the time? Right. The canard that Obama's government is going to step in, snatch your paycheck, and give it to the homeless guy on the street needs to be buried, and buried quick. You are quite quick to hash some nebulous "wealth redistribution" polices without pushing some alternative.

I would like to read about what sort of recovery operation you'd like to invoke once your brand of economic stewardship is employed. IF all these companies that are having economic hardships were allowed to fail, how many jobs would be lost right then? How much money would go out in the form of unemployment checks? How many people would suddenly have financial obligations they couldn't meet because of the lack of employment? How many other businesses would then fail because of the lack of consumers with jobs?

Hard economic times have arrived. I would like to tar anyone that believes they can have their economic life like it was two years ago as Ostriches. In fact, I need to redesign the GOP logo with an ostrich instead of an elephant.

gedabo, I'm sorry if anything I may have written mis-characterizes you specifically. I offer by way of explanation of my tone: when I hear people say that they didn't do anything responsible for the financial mess, why should they have to suffer to help out those who got screwed by it... it chafes my ethical compass. I can't help but see that response as dishonest. Please haul out something that tells us that as the rest of the nation was rolling in the economic emperor's new clothes that you were shouting at the tailor to buy fabric. We, as a nation, enjoyed the economic good times. We, as a nation, have fallen on hard times. It is ignorant to declare yourself apart from the hard times.