Don't be bamboozled by rhetoric! Congress and Wall Street wizards are now calling the Wall Street bailout an "investment in our future" - a purchase of assets.

In plain language they are talking about a $700 billion buyout of bad debt that should have never been loaned out in the first place.

According to an Oct. 2 Pantagraph article, here is what $700 billion could buy: six years of universal health care for all Americans; an upgrade of the country's bridges times four, financing the National Institute of Health for two decades; one year of health care for 85 million seniors; pay-off of student loan debt.

The article further states that when FDR's New Deal lifted the country out of a banking crisis, they did it with public works projects - building 8,000 parks, 40,000 public buildings, 72,000 schools, employing hundreds of thousands of workers.

With this bailout, the average American gets nothing: no additional jobs, no new or improved schools, no health care, no research, no infrastructure repairs while the big corporations get their mistakes paid for by us taxpayers.

The bailout is akin to being rewarded for making a bad loan. If average citizens make a bad loan and get burned, we have to learn our lesson, tighten our belt and no one bails us out. Why are big businesses exempt from these responsibilities?

And once again, our politicians and CEOs are threatening us with, "If you don't approve this bailout, you'll lose your 401(k)s and your jobs. If Americans can't borrow and spend, growth will stop."

Get real. The average American can't afford gas and food let alone saving and investment. Jobs have been going south for years. Wake up, America. You vote for bailout, we'll vote you out.

Peg Schickedanz

Bloomington