Politicians really irk me.

And it is their urge "to do something" that is the most annoying part about them.

That's because in their push to be seen as "doing something", they inevitably end up with their hands buried deep in our wallets.

Take the mortgage mess for instance.  It's the "do something" cause du jour.

In fact, one politician after another lately has grabbed a hold of this one and just won't it let go. 

The problem is that every one of their "solutions" to this "crisis" involves a bailout of some sort.

That means that in order to save the day, our politicians have decided that it is perfectly okay to require responsible Americans to pay for the monumental idiocy of greedy bankers, flippers, and homeowners who bought homes that they knew they never could afford.

That to me is an absolute outrage and an affront to the 62 million households that are either paying their mortgages on time or own their own homes outright.

That's not to mention the 35 million renters that refused to participate in this orgy.

So forgive me when I get more than a little irritated by all of this talk of bailing out the very folks whose greed created this gigantic mess in the first place.

Greed after all is has its price--or at least it was supposed to before our politicians decided that it was just fine to socialize the losses of other people on the backs of the rest of us.

But here's what really gets me about all of this bailout talk.

Every bit of it is really designed to prop up home prices at levels the market has clearly proven are unsustainable--no matter how low rates may be.

And while our politicians frame all of this talk in their usual "I'm for the little guy" spiel, propping up home prices is really about helping the big banks cut their losses instead.

The bigger problem though, is that no matter how much money they feel they may need to grab from me in order to help their banker friends, all of their attempts to "do something" will ultimately fail.

That's because the truth is as simple now as it was before the bubble: Home prices and incomes go hand in hand.

And until home prices actually fall to the point where a buyer can afford one using a sane mortgage product, the decline in home prices cannot be possibly stopped--or avoided.

But that bit of logic won't be enough to stop our politicians from "doing something", even if it means punishing innocent first time buyers all along the way.

Because lets face it, you can't possibly be for both affordable housing and propping up home prices at the same time.

That is, unless of course, you are a politician.  

Talking out of both sides their mouths is as natural to them as putting their hands in our wallets.

They irk me to no end.