Isn't this a gas?

It's often been said that $700 billion is a lot of money. You could say even $1 billion is enough to get one person by for, oh, say a lifetime.

But what our government is talking about here is staving off a catastrophic financial meltdown by using this bailout cash to buy up bits of firms close to going belly up, stopping an ugly "R" word and thus saving the day.

With stuff like this, we really need to get beyond the political. Naturally, that will never happen when you're about six weeks away from a presidential election.

Congress and the powers-that-be are dealing with numbers most people can't count to and a situation so massive that Charles Atlas would have trouble getting his hands around it. The American people need to back off and let those who know what's going on do their jobs and, just maybe, save our economy from seppuku.

You don't have to trust the politicians; I sure don't. But in these times, Joe American looks pretty dumb putting his two cents in on this issue. Wait to do your whining on Nov. 4.