Big bailouts for ‘higher-ups’ anger left-out middle class

DEREK J. MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Despite his best efforts in his Tuesday night address to Congress, President Barack Obama isn’t going to convince Jerry Shimmel that government bailouts are going to the people who deserve them.

The retired Santa Rosa delivery truck driver, like a lot of Americans, is angry at the perception the government is rewarding bad behavior with taxpayer money. On Shimmel’s list of the undeserving are bankers, automakers and homeowners who are in over their heads.

“I’m not beyond helping people. I’ll give them a hand up, but I don’t want to hand them my arm, too,” Shimmel said.

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The massive government bailouts and Obama’s housing rescue plan have stirred passions across the nation as people debate whether such help is necessary or going to the people who’ve earned it.

“The folks who feel they’ve played by the rules and are being left behind while being asked to bail out folks they perceive as being irresponsible are rife with anger,” said David McCuan, a political scientist at Sonoma State University.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

He predicted such anger will lead to major political fallout or even rising crime rates and people getting ill from stress-related disease.

Full story here.

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