"The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled"

Do these words sound familiar? Wondering which politician said them? Well, it was a fellow named Cicero who lived from 100 to 43 B. C.

President Bush says our entire economy is in danger of collapsing if we don't pass a massive bailout plan NOW!! First, we might want to keep in mind that this is the same man who convinced the American people and Congress not to listen to the United Nations nor our allies when he wanted to invade Iraq. This is the same man who convinced the American people and Congress that Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction, which they were waiting with bated breath to turn over to Al-Queda.

Bush may be a liar, but he's a smart liar. He is setting the Democrats up to fail with this buyout plan. When the American people realize by election time that the buyout has failed, they will lay the blame on the Democrats who control the House and the Senate. Thus, voters will turn against Democratic candidates and elect McCain and a slate of Republican candidates riding his coattails.

Why will the buyout as it stands right now fail? Because it does not address the underlying problems of deregulation of the banking industry that led to this mess in the first place. It also does not address how this trillion dollar debt is going to be repaid, and it does not address the immediate problem already happening of people losing jobs.

Here's my suggestion for additional provisions that need to be added:

1. Reregulate the banking industry so that it no longer can act as a "regular" bank, buying up loans to use as collateral for securities on Wall Street. These Wall Street banking firms have traditionally been kept separate from the business of regular banks.

2. Forbid the resale of blocks of business That eliminates the fat cats making big profits in commissions and inflating their profits to collect huge bonus checks.

3. Bail Wall Street out but include a provision to tax every stock transaction until every dime of the debt is re-paid. Why should the American people have to pay this debt?

4. Enact a capital gains tax on big oil producers to be used to shore up the economy in the form of an immediate rebate of $2,500 to every American citizen .

No matter what happens, we are in for more lay offs and some tight credit, but I do not believe the sky is falling. We have come through worse than this.

And let's not rush into something. Let's be sure we get it right this time.