WASHINGTON — As the House prepared to take aggressive steps to stem the wave of home foreclosures, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Monday night endorsed the need for government intervention, saying that letting markets take their own course could "destabilize communities, reduce the property values of nearby homes and lower municipal tax revenues."

My gosh, you mean that the government–along with largely irresponsible homeowners–would have to live within their means? 

And just how is this a bad thing?

The way I see it is that yes, my property values may decrease because my neighbor thought it was a better idea to get a $700 tattoo than to actually pay his mortgage (thus losing his home) but I’d rather deal with the value of my home falling a bit by having an overgrown lot sitting next to me than having to pay for these people’s financial salvation through my tax dollars, all the while extending this insane inflation that needs to just die. 

The other issue here is that government may actually have to make cuts due to the lost property tax revenue (and we all know that government doesn’t make cuts, anymore).  Rather than making the cuts necessary, these political ass clowns would force those of us who’ve been responsible with our homes’ equity to pay astronomical property taxes to make up for the tax revenue lost through foreclosures, which they know would eventually cause the greatest tax revolt since the Boston Tea Party (not to mention another housing crisis of greater magnitude where owning a home becomes too much of a burden, tax-wise). 

Let’s call it as we see it, shall we?  The government could really care less about the economy at this point, because they’re behaving exactly like the homeowners who took out equity lines of credit on their over-inflated home values.  Those homeowners can’t possibly be expected to downgrade or–GASP!–rent, just as the government can’t possibly be expected to make cuts as necessary and allow this economic downturn run its course.

Any economist will tell you that economic downturns happen, and they always happen in an over-inflated market.  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that eventually the housing bubble would burst.  Home prices were soaring out-of-control in places like Las Vegas and Florida, and it was mainly due to people purchasing more home than they could afford by making rash and irresponsible decisions in a hot market.

I don’t plan on selling my home any time soon.  It’s not because I don’t want a nicer house on a nicer lot.  I think everyone wants that.  But I realize that if we stay in our modest home and continue paying down our mortgage, eventually we’ll come out ahead–even if the value of our home drops for a year or two.

This ‘mortgage crisis’ is only a crisis because we don’t see the value in lessons that must be learned the hard way.  We all may go through a rough patch over the next year or so, but government bailouts are not the answer to this natural correction of poor decision-making and a government that just can’t seem to control its astronomical growth.  We have to be willing to take the hit so that we can recover naturally, rather than encouraging inflation and excessive government that will only end in complete economic disaster, the likes of which may be impossible to recover from.