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In a bold effort to deceive the public into believing that the United States Congress and lame duck president actually have the economic well-being of the nation’s citizens in mind, a $250 billion mortgage was placed on the future generations of this country. At this amount, our government has asked our children to bail out a bad economic and foreign policy to the tune of nearly $1,000 apiece.

The reality is that most of this fiasco will hit the streets too late to make a real difference in our economy. Recession is already dragging our nation down the road of more financial woes. Instead of reforming the gaping wounds in the banking industry by reducing interest on credit card debt which would have put money immediately into the hands of the most desperate sector of American society, Congress and the president decided to trade short-term financial maybes into long-term problems.

If the news can be believed, most people are planning to use the rebates of $600 for individuals, $1,200 for married couples, and $300 for each child to pay bills, pay down debt, or put it into savings. None of these solutions will add any stimulus to the economy. People are hurting because of low wages, high prices (especially on fuel costs), and burgeoning unsecured debt. This plan is like attacking giants with a pea shooter.

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The decision to extend the maximum mortgage amounts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by hundreds of thousands of dollars per loan just means that when the fall comes, it will be harder. Bailing out mortgages at this point really only pushes off the inevitable. The percent of mortgages in trouble is fairly small. This is especially true when compared to the nearly 50% of mortgages that failed during the Great Depression.

This package will make many at the low end of the economic scale happy for a while. Politicians hope that the joy will last through the first Tuesday in November. For the most part, the bump created by this package will be history by the end of June. The answer is to find a way to finance the war effort that does not include addition debt. We need to clean up the charge card industry.

Relaxing the bankruptcy laws will create an atmosphere that will encourage banks to work with borrowers instead of pushing them to the brink of financial ruin. If the giant banks realize that it is better to get a little than to get nothing, they will become much more flexible in working with those on the verge of default.