Why Government Should Stick to Governing

As I often do, I was reading news articles online.  Today I saw a headline that intrigued me, and so I read it.  If you would like to see the original article, it is here http://finance.yahoo.com/news/usda-is-a-tough-collector-when-mortgages-go-bad.html.  As I was reading it I noticed it started talking about how the USDA backed rural mortgages do not have the same rules as more conventional private sector lenders.  It was a pretty sad story.  A gentleman's wife is losing a health battle, he is past normal retirement age, had worked as a truck driver, quite the American persona.  Bet he even worked overtime to afford nice things like his house.  But when he couldn't make the payments, Uncle Sam swoops in and takes his tax refund, and garnishes his social security check.  Now he takes odd jobs to make ends meet, quite the golden years huh.  If Citi Bank did that all heck would break loose.  Occupy Wall Street would set up a camp outside the CEO's house.  So here is the question:  Why aren't the OWS peeps outside the government's CEO's house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?

The Constitution gives certain governing powers to the people we elect.  I highly doubt that our founders would have in their wildest dreams thought government would be in the mortgage business.  And they are not properly trained to be bankers.  Seems they only know how to withdraw, and not deposit.

Local banks built this country.  They were on the scene to know the borrower.  They would work with them if times got bad, and yes foreclose on them if all else failed, after all they are a business.  But years ago, maybe decades, local banks started to disappear from the scene.  Instead we have Citi, Bank of America, US Bank, and a few more who have vast chains of retail banking locations, but are headquartered far from most of their branches.  They do not have the local insight we relied on in generations past.  And now the Chinese are buying into the financial system, albeit a small investment, however, how long will it be before we have a few International Banks that control the financial system?  Perhaps that would not be all bad.  Then our government would have someone to answer to about their spending habits, or perhaps they would be forced to have a plan to pay off debt, that doesn't include borrowing more.  Maybe they could foreclose on the White House, or Capitol Building to cover debts.

Consider personally pledging to, when all things are equal, patronizing local institutions, whether they are banks, stores, or craftsmen.  Maybe then we can grow again.  Perhaps we can take back the American Dream.