Will the credit card companies have their hands out next?

While a lot of people have been concentrating on the $700 billion bailout that is supposed to benefit mortgage companies, what happens when the credit card industry starts asking for cool, free money from the federal government?

According to this story right here, we could be looking at a looming credit card crisis as banks are expecting to charge off $96 billion in bad debt next year. That, of course, could lead to some trouble for the wonderful folks in the demonic credit card industry.

Should they come calling, I hope the federal government lets the bastards rot. Those people deserve absolutely no sympathy and we'd be better off as a nation if we were rid of a bunch of companies that are predatory by nature.

Before I get into all of that, I'll allow myself a small rant about the bailout. Frankly, it's shocking how willingly the people we elected to represent us have embraced this big, stinking pile of socialism and have attempted to convince us that a bailout was necessary.

The federal government set mortgage companies up to fail, starting with the Community Reinvestment Act, a nasty bit of legislation pushed for by Jimmy Carter that "encouraged" banks to give mortgages to people who probably shouldn't have had them. Bill Clinton expanded the government's freewheeling pressure on banks to hand out junk mortgages. Ah, and we can't just blame Democrats here -- that idiot George W. Bush and his gang of morons looked the other way as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fulfilled their goody-goody low income housing goals by purchasing subprime mortgages.

So the government helped create this mess and this bailout nonsense is the ham-fisted solution the feds have come up with the solve it. The most obnoxious thing here is that John McCain suspended his campaign to rush to Washington and join in the chorus of the rest of the pinheads braying for socialism.

It's no surprise that Barack Obama voted for the thing as he has Marxist leanings anyway. He may have come across as a moderate as of late, but he's just another leftist out to expand the government and screw the middle class to the wall. Remember, kids -- it's just downright patriotic for all of us to head to work every day and do our part to support an ever expanding, increasingly intrusive federal government. Everyone with a functioning brain understands that Obama is a fan of big government, so his mamby-pamby embrace of this bailout was no shock.

McCain, on the other hand, is supposed to be a Republican. Perhaps true conservatives really don't have a party that represents our interests anymore, thanks to the influence of both George W. Bush and his worthless father. There were a lot of us who hoped McCain would show up in Washington for the purpose of joining other congressmen who were fighting this bailout mess. Instead, he let us down and went right along with it. Thanks, Johnny!

So, McCain, Obama and that lunkhead Bush joined the chorus of people who have decided that free market capitalism doesn't work and have allowed the feds to get their filthy hands on a larger chunk of the economy. Again, Obama's actions didn't surprise me. Hell, Bush's didn't either as he's a full-bore lunkhead who delights in making the completely wrong decision on most major issues presented to him. McCain's part in this mess, however, is disappointing.

How does this relate to credit cards? The precedent has been set for begging for help from the taxpayers whenever a segment of the financial industry gets in trouble. I hope the government tells the credit card industry to go to hell if they come begging as letting a number of those companies fail would amount to little more than justice.

My wife and I refuse to carry credit cards, due in a large part to the years I spent practicing law. I filed a lot of bankruptcies back then and most of them had to do with too much credit card debt. That's not a shock, seeing how someone who was 18-years-old and breathing could get a card back then (and probably still can) regardless of whether they had jobs and could demonstrate they could repay their debts.

When lenders are that irresponsible, they pretty well deserve whatever calamity heads their way. That's particularly true when the goal of credit card companies is to keep people in debt forever through high interest rates, the easy ability to raise credit limits and the nonstop encouragement to carry revolving debt. Throw bankruptcy reform in the mix (some nonsense bought and paid for by the credit card industry and signed into law by that Bush fool) and you've got an industry that's just begging to get hammered.

When their irresponsible lending, filthy habits of doing things like cranking up interest rates on a whim and everything else finally bites them, we ought to let them face the consequences. I seriously doubt the feds will, however.

That's just pitiful.