The British Chancellor of Exchequer (CE) is the country's senior cabinet-level budget director. S/he prepares and submits the national budget to Parliament and is the equivalent of our Secretary of the Treasury and has the final administration say over financial and economic affairs. The CE determines tax rates, the budget of other government departments and affects the monetary policy of the Bank of England (the rough equivalent of our Federal Reserve). In short, the CE determines the level of taxation and how those tax revenues are spent. Let's relate this to the US. The US Treasury Department under Bush, along with the Republican-controlled Congress, decided that it was ok to spend about $3,000,000,000,000 (THREE TRILLION DOLLARS) on Iraq; that is a MINIMUM of what the war, debt financing, treatment and benefits for GI's, arms and equipment, construction related expenses will cost. And the biggest chunk of that money will have gone to defense contactors the oil industry and other giant corporations. Now, IMAGINE WHAT WE WOULD BE ABLE TO DO IN OUR OWN COUNTRY WITH THAT SAME MONEY -- it is much more than twice the amount that has been allocated for the stimulus that Republicans are continually grousing about (and this includes interest costs) -- the same Republicans who demanded that we spend all that money on Iraq, to begin with. Bush and the Republicans allowed an unregulated banking system to prop up the housing market and the economy with disastrous monetary policies and all kinds of phony financial instruments, hoping everything would stay afloat just long enough to get another Republican elected President. But the house of cards could bear no more weight and collapsed on Bush's head. Can you imagine John McCain as President? It would truly have been a third Bush term, since McCain clearly demonstrated that he knows absolutely nothing about either economics or finance. This is getting to long, so, in brief, I'll just say that it is time this country started investing in ALL OF ITS PEOPLE and not just those at the top. Our current banking and finance system is a parasite, bleeding working people dry. How else can a hedge fund manager be paid more than THREE BILLION FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS ($3,500,000,000) in ONE YEAR when his company has lost tens of billions of dollars of people's in that same year? And how can the US Government justify insuring a PRIVATELY OWNED brokerage firm for $260,000,000,000 for only 7 billion dollars in insurance, while the brokerage is liable for only $30 billion, max? But it get's worse -- the same brokerage was allowed to continue to own the "toxic" assets, which, if they ever increased in value, all of the increase would go directly to the brokerage firm -- and not one penny to the government that bailed them out? Individuals like you and I get stuck holding the bag, scrambling to pay our bills, feed our kids and keep a roof over our heads, while the same people who brought us to our knees are taking junkets to 5-star hotels and gambling in Las Vegas with multi-million dollar bonuses. The Republicans are geniuses to have been able to sell their garbage policies to hard-working rank-and-file Republicans. Either that, or rank-and-file conservatives are truly in the negative IQ range. Unless the banking system, the SEC and the FED and their minions are properly regulated, this will happen over and over again just as has periodically been the case, almost like clockwork. They screwed us for tens of billions before, but now they're screwing us for trillions at a time -- and we can't afford another hit. We need to change our laws so that those at the top cannot profit from wrong-doing. Any loss of 1 billion or more should be punishable by 25 years to life and ALL of the offender's assets should taken away. They should have to go on welfare. If somebody can steal, say, $50 billion (like Madoff) and serve a few years in jail and then come back and enjoy what they have stolen, wouldn't that few years be more than worth the trouble to most? If Obama tries to regulate the banks, he may be assassinated by some very rich and powerful figures -- but if he doesn't, our nation doesn't stand a chance -- it will mean the assassination of our country. WE NEED TO BACK THE PRESIDENT AND AT LEAST GIVE HIM A CHANCE TO CHANGE THE WAY THINGS ARE.If we don't, then we don't deserve him, anyway.