The $700 billion bailout was passed off on the American people as a necessity to save our economy, and as Rep. Mike Thompson put it: “Voting yes was the only responsible option.”

This bailout, called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, and signed into law on Oct. 3, provides authority for the federal government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability in the financial markets.

Because these massive lending institutions and banks have been caught with cooked books and gross mismanagement, the American people must bail them out to reward incompetence and perhaps even criminal activity. CNSNews.com reports “the $700 billion bailout bill passed by Congress today includes provisions that authorize the Treasury Department and other federal agencies to buy deadbeat mortgages and lower their interest rates and principal at taxpayers’ expense.” A closer look is in order to see exactly what Mike Thompson wants U.S. citizens to forfeit.

First off, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution to grant Congress the option of a bailout — an unprecedented federal intervention into the private capital markets. The Senate has added billions of dollars of pork in this bailout to make it even worse.

We will now give $192 million for Caribbean rum producers so the pirates can feel good plundering. Millions of dollars will be given to Hollywood producers, stock car racetrack owners and Alaskan fishermen. Landmark health provisions requiring insurance companies to provide coverage to mental health patients and an exemption from excise taxes for wooden arrows made for children are some other items in the bill. Just whom are we bailing out?

This bill isn’t just a “rescue” to recapitalize banks. It gives the IRS immunity from federal laws making an already unconstitutional force even more fascist.

But wait, there is more to offer. Included in the 451-page monster bailout bill is a tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide” and a “carbon audit of the tax code.” We have here the foundation for a carbon tax like the cap-and-tax system that is now destroying European industry. In one of my commentaries more than a year ago I warned of a coming carbon tax that can kill the remaining U.S. industry.

The bail-out’s author, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, stated “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Sounds a little fascist, doesn’t it?

The dictionary I have defines fascism as “any program for setting up a centralized autocratic national regime with severely nationalistic policies, exercising regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance, rigid censorship, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Was there “forcible suppression of opposition,” as well?  Rep. Brad Sherman of California’s 27th Congressional District spoke before the House to say he personally knew of several congressional representatives who have said they were threatened with the prospect of martial law should they vote in opposition to the $700 billion bailout.

“The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. That atmosphere is not justified,” Sherman stated. Remember when the administration used the bogus term “weapons of mass destruction” to force Congress into the Iraq war?

This bailout bill is not even remotely constitutional and looks to force the U.S. into hyperinflation. Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, has stated, “We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed.” In simple words, Congress is trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

If this bailout is so bad, why would anyone in their right mind support it? To start with, the American people did not support it. Calls to the congressional offices were 10-to-1 against the bill. In some cases it was 100-to-1. It was pressure from the top only. The president, McCain, Obama, and other members of the Council on Foreign Relations pressured the rest of Congress into passage.

The best solution to this kind of a problem is to vote out the politicians that have no respect for our constitutional republic.  Mike Thompson has never respected the Constitution. This holds true for both Sens. Obama and Senator McCain. If you believe they are the only candidates running, think again. Take a look at Chuck Baldwin, for example.

(Snyder lives in Napa.)ꆱ