tax payers fleeced..

no pretty image here -- but this is a great article today in the WSJ outlining how we the taxpayers are getting absolutely screwed in these bail outs. this is primarily about fannie mae and freddie mac and not about the 300 billion in the works to bail out all of the irresponsible lenders and home buyers.. but they point is good. what do we get, as tax payers, for our bailout of these people ??
the article really takes to task democrats chris dodd and barney frank (gas). republican lawmakers haven't been a bright light on the topic, either. read the article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121659681885068955.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
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The real priority ought to be protecting taxpayers in return for bailing out these vehicles of Capitol Hill privilege. Taxpayers have already coughed up once, in the form of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's explicit pledge last week to save the companies and let them tap the Federal Reserve's discount window. Now taxpayers are being asked to pay again, via legislation allowing the government to increase its credit line to the companies and to inject capital if needed to save them from failure.

For all of that, taxpayers have so far received nothing -- no stock warrants, no discipline for the management or shareholders of Fan and Fred, no guarantee that the companies won't pocket this bailout and emerge even more powerful down the road. At least Bear Stearns went out of business when it had to be saved by Uncle Sam.
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They made this mess by creating these beasts that combine private profit with public risk. And they made the mess worse by fighting, over many years and despite accounting fraud, any limits on the ability of the companies to grow with taxpayer subsidies. Mr. Dodd and Congress owe Americans an apology, not more ransom demands.