Crazy Idea No. 1.

President Barack Obama has said that now is not the time for ideology. What does this mean?

Ask yourself, “What is ideology?” Simply stated, it is “idea-ology.” So President Obama does not want you to think or to pass your ideas on to others, including your congressional representatives and state legislators. Who knows? You might have some better ideas.

What President Obama really means is that his ideology is the only one that counts. Sure, he denies that he said or meant that. He will refer to statements he has made asking for ideas, for example.

At the heart of it, though, while he asks for ideas, he says that only his ideas count.

Crazy Idea No. 2

Suppose that you owe $15,000 on a car loan. Thankfully, you are still working and finding a way to pay your bills each month. But to help keep our financial markets and some other industries from sinking, President Obama says, “Dear taxpayer, to help bail out our financial markets, I am going to borrow money from you, the taxpayer, now, and I’ll let you pay me back later — say, after the Bush tax cuts expire.”

Wait. He borrows from us, and we pay it back. That’s crazy.

Crazy Idea No. 3

OK, so I’m crazy, too. At least I think I have a better idea. Why not forgive everybody — or nearly everybody — of their debts. Everybody gets a fresh new start.

Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s relieved. Markets still flourish. People buy. Others sell. Banks loan.

And we don’t spend more than we did on the bailout proposals that we’ve funded, instead.

Maybe in this bailout, there are at least two buckets, and I believe my bucket is more efficient than the one we are using.

How about you? Do you have any ideas — crazy or sane — that you believe would solve our problems? Let us hear them!

Kevin Snashall

Suffolk