Bailout ... Why?

This week I attended the NAHB's Fall Boards leadership meetings in San Diego. Not surprisingly, it's been an interesting several days. Yesterday, the association met in emergency session to discuss and give input to the NAHB's final position on the $700 billion financial bailout. It's a hard pill to swallow, whether you're a builder, homeowner or a small business owner.

I don't know a single person who wants to use our tax dollars to bail out big money Wall Street tycoons who got us into this mess. Yet, to not act quickly is potentially more painful to the American public than passing some elite bailout. How did we get here?

I don't know one builder client of mine who is getting a bailout. I don't know of one home owner facing foreclosure who is getting a bailout. I don't know one single small business owner - carpenter, carpet installer, drywaller, marketer, Realtor, etc. - who will get a bailout! Yet, these are the very people who - as always - will pick up the tab.

Someone needs to go to jail! This is wrong and although I raised my hand to support passing a bailout, whoever put the American people in this position should pay more than a slap on the wrist and a golden parachute!

If we learn one thing from this crisis it should be this: any business - financial, banking, retail, software, auto industry or whatever - that becomes so large that their demise puts the American public at risk is TOO BIG!!

Small business is the backbone of this country, always has been. Nearly half of nonfarm GDP is a result of small business across this great country. Yet, they have little voice in this economic meltdown. Why, you ask? Because they don't have the money to line the pockets of self-interested politicians in DC, that's why.

May we escape this mess with our balance sheets intact and our sanity in place.

Brian Flook