In the last 4 hours I have received so many calls and eMails on the meltdown and cries for help from college-bound families that I have lost count! So I wanted to put up my two cents worth from my personal point of view as a college funding expert, a grandmother of two, and as a business owner.
This is an OPEN LETTER TO ALL POLITICIANS & THE MEDIA
You work for me. I vote, I pay taxes, and I love my country. I want you all to stop and listen to me - the voter - for a change. I didn't rip off anyone, I don't have a golden parachute and I didn't dump bad home loans on Wall Street. Yet I and my grandsons are the one who will ultimately pay for your programs, cushy pensions (which are not in the market) and for your blame game politics.
First, stop all the finger pointing. I DON'T CARE who created the mess. Stop bickering, grab a mop and clean it up.
Geewhiz, I feel like I am listening to a bunch of 5 year olds who think it's more important to blame the other person for playing with matches than stop and fight the fire. I want to grab both sides by the collar and give them a time out. WHERE ARE THE GROWN-UPs in all this? Talk to me like I have a brain. Stop trying to do 10-second platitude filled soundbites.
And oh by the way Ms Pelosi, don't insult the other guy when you need him to help solve the problem. Excoriating the current administration and the Republicans as being to blame (true or not) from the floor of the House and then expecting them to support your bill is NOT good leadership. We need people working together and blame (coming from both sides) is not good team building tactics.
Second, EVERYONE stop saying it was the "other guys" and explain exactly WHAT HAPPENED. Today's captain of the ship may NOT be responsible for the ship sinking if it was badly built and maintained by the previous captains!! Let's have a REAL examination of why it sunk so it DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN!!!! I'm an engineer and politics have no place in examining a failure if you want to learn from it and keep it from happening again. So . . .
Shut up about who's to blame and start bailing together or we all go down together!
Lastly, vague generalities and blame makes me think my elected officials on both sides don't KNOW what happened or why. As a responsible citizen, I have done my homework. I did the research, looked at the graphs and even I can see what happened when. WHY CAN'T YOU?!!!
How can I trust whatever plan you have to fix things IF you apparently don't know what you are fixing!!
I don't want platitudes and slogans -- I want facts and concrete answers that lead to reasonable and clear fixes. I don't want pages and pages of special deals and carve-outs and attached amendments. I want to be able to CLEARLY see what you are doing, what is supposed to happen and see accountability ON YOUR SHOULDERS TOO!
And oh by the way, all you "reporters", start REPORTING!! I don't want you to be a commentator who is parsing it for me into little bite-sized pieces like I was a child. Don't disguise the news wyhen it is clearly editorial opinion. WHERE is the neutral research about WHAT happened, the WHY and the mudraking for players on BOTH sides of the aisle? You are sooooooo transparently biased I can't trust you any more. I want facts not thinly disguised and sneering interviews.
I want someone to step up and say we had a good idea in making housing more affordable but it had unforeseen consequences because we measured success wrong. We had a good idea but making lenders lend when they shouldn't for political reasons backfired. Our programs encouraged people to cook books and dump risky debt. I want to hear you say it is not good policy to do the same old junk bills filled with special pork and singling out those who only took advantage of what you created.
Stop looking for whipping boys ("the rich"), stop pointing fingers ("them"), and start giving me answers. THEN I MIGHT want to elect/re-elect you to fix the problem no matter what party you're from. I want leadership NOT politics. I want answers, not slogans. I want accountability, not blank checks. I am not allowed to spend more than I make, not allowed to dump my bad debts and not allowed to stay in business by blaming the other guys for my mistakes!
So get together, stop name calling and get to work on something that I can understand and trust in. Let me know what you did, why you did it and TAKE RESPONSIBILITY if the fix doesn't work.
That's my two cents . . .
