Who is truly worse: Dubya or Reid/Pelosi?

The current congress has the lowest approval ratings in history. Even lower than Bush.

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have been dubbed the "Do-Nothing Congress."

During the height of the bank failures and economic concerns among all Americans, Reid and Pelosi went on vacation - early. (Did they go to the same spa that AIG executives went?) When Americans couldn't afford to put gas in their tanks to go on vacation or had no home to vacation from, our elected officials broke early to relax rather than deal with our country's economic problems head on. Pathetic.

Yet somehow, the Dems can just keep repeating how Bush caused everything that's wrong in America. And people seem to believe their lies. I'm not saying Dubya has been perfect. He has made mistakes, and I don't agree with everything he has done. But the main economic debacle that everyone seems to blame him for is all due to the Democrats.

The Dems were the cause of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's meltdown. It began with Clinton when he forced these two banking behemoths to make mortgages to low-income families, regardless of their ability to pay the loan. Actually, this idea was relatively good. But...

Problem 1: Clinton created a quoto, and a mimimum percentage of the banks' portfolios had to fit this criteria of money lent.

Problem 2: In 2004, when Republicans tried to sound an alarm over the record number of loan defaults and mortgages at FMae/FMac, Dems (Barney Franks, Maxine Waters, etc.) said there was no problem. See: http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/sep/28/shocking-video-unearthed-democrats-in-their-o/

Problem 3: W. tried to implement greater oversight at FMae/FMac, but again Dems, who had taken money from the banking leaders to keep regulators out, fought Bush's attempts. See: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/easescredit.asp

Problem 4: Pelosi and Reid's ONLY solution to fix the mess that they blamed on W. was to pass a pork-laden bailout bill with barely any criteria to hold these provenly inept bankers accountable with this new money.

Bush and the Republicans tried over and over again to create oversights for FM/FM. The Dems fought it over and over again. Then Reid, Pelosi, Obama, et al., had the audacity to praise Barney Franks and slam W.

If I had any say, here's how I would have "fixed" this mess:

Solution 1: Make all adjustable mortages illegal. People shouldn't lose their homes because they were offered only an adjustable-rate mortgage; they can afford the mortgage payments based on the monthly payment they start at, but once the rates skyrocket, they can't keep up with the payments and end up losing their homes.

Lenders will say that adjustable rates are a tool that allows them to lend to poorer-risk clients. Bull! I've worked in the banking industry. Lenders just apply higher rates for those with less than perfect credit scores, tighter income-to-bills ratio, etc. But people should not have to face ever-increasing monthly payments. There's no way that they can stay afloat financially with an adjustable rate on their home.

Solution 2: These lenders who were so quick to foreclose and evict people but then stick their hands out for a government (i.e. taxpayer-financed) bailout to cover their bad debt should be forced to refinance these loans at fixed rates. By refinancing, their borrowers still owe the money but get a clean slate in that nothing is past due anymore. They start fresh with payments.

This allows borrowers to stay in their homes, take these houses off an already oversaturated housing market, allow the lenders to move the loan from the "red" to the "black" (meaning that the loans are being paid), and improve sales of other real estate across the nation.

For borrowers who already lost their home: if they can prove that they were evicted because of an adjustable-rate mortgage that spiraled the payments, then the original lender must make them a new loan to purchase another home. Again, this would improve the housing market while allowing more people access to home ownership.

Cost to the taxpayer: $0.

And no pork for Hollywood and Arrow Shafts.

Shame on Pelosi and Reid!