Money Makes the World Go 'Round

Life's not exactly a Cabaret these days, but the truism from one of that musical's most memorable songs is burning in my brain nonetheless. I ponder over many a quaint and curious volume of blather from the Internet as well as mainstream media, about the bailouts, the TARP, the rescue programs, grants, ad infinitum ad nauseum, and I still want to know: Why is the simple and most straight forward solution ALWAYS ignored by government? Instead of directly giving banks billions of dollars that they now refuse to lend to needy borrowers or use to offset cashflow cramps from negotiating down burdensome mortgages for those in financial desperation ... WHY didn't the government instead give vouchers to homeowners (American citizens over the age of 21 with social security numbers and a history of filing tax returns) for specific/restricted use only to bring their mortgages current (thereby avoiding all the foreclosures and short sales) and those vouchers then be paid by the government to the banks ... The banks would have STILL received the billions of dollars, but their books would be in the black, the mortgages would be current and the homeowners saved from rack and ruin, by their very own tax dollars doing the trick ....

Same thing with General Motors and the auto industry (is it ME??? Am I the crazy one?): take those billions upon billions of dollars and give, again, the tax-paying American citizens with social security numbers, vouchers good only for use in the purchase of a new American made automobile... The inventory would have FLOWN off the lots, the car manufacturers would have geared up production to all-time historic highs, the car buyers would have reliable transportation that produced American jobs (thereby driving payment of income tax and social security taxes etc.), and, in the end, the auto manufacturers would have been "bailed out" by having their profits soar, the inventories turn like proverbial hotcakes, their rank and file earn a great living, and so on and so on... Even the under-the-radar illegals that live here numbering in the gazillions (or thereabouts) would find a whole new selection of used cars available on those second-hand car lots with low price affordability as that market was infused with serious new inventory as well from the trade-ins!!! Seriously folks, am I the ONLY one who thinks of these things?