Every week it looks like the taxpayers are the proud owners of more and more companies as decades of bad decisions and corrupt policies play out in failures of vital companies.

This week, the Treasury has asked Congress for $700 billion to buy assets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but anyone believing that this is the final cost is living in Santa Claus Land. These two GSEs (government-sponsored enterprises) hold or guarantee some $5 trillion in outstanding mortgages, more than half the nation's total.

Taxpayers may have to assume final responsibility for the whole thing before the "crisis" is over. This amounts to an astonishing $15,000 for every man, woman, and child in the entire country. That is $60,000 for a family of four.

If you believe this figure is illusionary or that it does not affect you, think again. Your little puppy-dog government has just sent you an IOU for a bill you were not expecting. Our Nanny State will take that figure out of your paycheck, out of your retirement account, out of the value of the money in your pocket or out of your quality of life until every penny is paid off.

Who is to blame?

Both political parties are pointing to the other, but you should note that no one is calling for a hearing. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by the U.S. Congress, and the companies spread a reported $80 million over the past five years to keep the powerful in Washington happy. Both Fannie and Freddie have hired former White House officials and lawmakers. Members of Congress have received fat checks, especially those on committees with regulatory jurisdiction over the companies.

The Dems are into this up to their Fannies, and the Republicans up to their keesters.

The socialists are blaming capitalism and "greed." Yet both Fannie and Freddie are about as close as you can get to having government control over a private company, and it was congress and government regulatory agencies and investigators who turned a blind eye to accounting tricks and outright lies.

There is also a hint of liberal policies gone amuck in the whole mess.

Who maintained that housing was a right? Who said that denying a mortgage to unqualified persons was tantamount to racism? Who made it perfectly clear to everyone involved that these companies' main function was to get people into homes that they could not afford?

There seems to be enough "greed" here to pass around to everyone. Home buyers wanted to buy houses they could not afford, insured by someone else's money. Executives wanted to pop back and forth between government and semi-private positions with huge paychecks at every juncture.

Congress gentlemen and ladies wanted cash for re-election coffers, and jobs for all their big government buddies and pimple-ridden nephews.

Ideology and greed demanded that another tit be added to the taxpayer cow and everyone wanted some of the milk.

Our government is incompetent and corrupt, run by people put into office by incompetent and corrupt voters who can be bought off by promises of something-for-nothing that even children should scoff at.

There is not a chance in Vegas that Barack Obama can fix this.

His instincts are all wrong for this type of thing. He will, by his very nature, want to correct this by the strength of his intellect and his ability to direct the lives of other people. He will put into play socialist solutions that will put a Band- id over the problem, but which will absolutely guarantee endless economic downturns until the final collapse that will put in a reactionary government.

Obama will not realize that his policies are fascist for two reasons.

He doesn't know what a fascist economy actually looks like in the real world, and he, like most liberals who value intent more than results, couldn't possibly believe that his good intentions could lead to such evil.

McCain wouldn't be much better.

He is so focused on being a maverick that he forgets that running right down the middle of issues, especially economic ones, is simply being a good statistical mediator instead of a visionary.

At least John McCain has an outside shot at making our government look like one run by adults, but I'm afraid that this dying breed is going away, leaving us alone to play with our toys until the lights go out.