Bail out citizens with health care legislation

With the current economic concerns, I found the past history of government bailouts interesting, especially the president at the time of the bailouts. Monies spent were defined by 2008 U.S. dollars. These bailouts were:

Penn Central Railroad (1970-Nixon) $3.2 billion, Lockheed (1971-Nixon) $1.4 billion, New York City (1975-Carter) $9.4 billion, Chrysler (1979-Carter) $4 billion, Savings and Loan (1989-Bush) $293.3 billion, Airline Industry (2001-Bush) $18.6 billion, Bear Stearns (2008-Bush) $30 billion, Fannie/Freddie Mac (2008-Bush) $400 billion, A.I.G. (2008-Bush) $180 billion, Auto Industry (2008-Bush) $25 billion, Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008-Bush) $700 billion, Citigroup (2008-Bush) $280 billion, and Bank of America (2009-Bush) $142.2 billion.

It was also interesting to see that President Obama was not the first president to remove a corporate CEO as he did with General Motors. In the 1984 Continental Illinois bailout, President Ronald Reagan, the FDIC and Federal Reserve devised a plan to rescue the bank that included replacing the bank's top executives.

If we can bail out corporations, it's time to help the common citizen! It's time our elected representatives support health insurance legislation for all Americans.

Evelyn Peter

Manchester