How about we address problems a little closer to home.
"We want to make sure we never wind up facing the sorts of choices that Greece now faces ... Everyone always wants the deficit to be addressed but they're against everything you could do to address it. " - Peter Orzag, Director, Office of Management and Budget
He said this to Reuters upon the announcement that the U.S. deficit is about four times what it was this time last year.
This is largely due to the economic bailouts. But those were unavoidable as part of the successful steps that were taken to prevent this economic downturn from being much worse than it is. Because it COULD have been much, much worse.
15 years ago the total of the assets of the 6 largest banks in the U.S. was 17% of the Gross Domestic Product. Today the total of the assets of the 6 largest banks in the U.S. is 63% of GDP. That gives me a better understanding of "Too Big To Fail" and why we desperately need financial reform that doesn't set these banks up for bailouts if they screw up again.
As we speak, the U.S. Senate is debating and voting on Wall Street reform. I tried to call but was unable to get through, so I used the contact form on their websites to email my two Senators.
WEBSITE
This is the message I sent: "As the U.S. Senate is debating and voting on Wall Street reform, I'm writing to urge the Senator to vote to let states play a role in consumer financial protection and not to let the big banks avoid state rules and enforcement. Every other industry is subject to state rules and enforcements, and banks shouldn't be different. Thank you for your time and attention."
By the way, long term planning, such as speculating about laws you might think should be passed, have two obstacles. 1) They may take too long to process for our immediate needs and 2) 75% of Americans currently distrust Washington, so they're likely to be in a "throw the bums out" kind of mood when elections come around this fall, Democrat and Republican alike. Any long term planning may have to reboot at that point.