So 6 big mortgage lenders -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide, JPMorgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo -- have announced efforts to help borrowers of all loans receive a "mortgage time-out."

These mortgage "pauses" should give every single hard-working, bill-paying American pause.  How did we come to this?   At what point did this proud and resilient country decide it was in our best interests to reward people who find themselves struggling with their bills?

I don't want to sound elitist.  God's been good to me, I make a decent living.  That wasn't always the case.  It seems like only yesterday when I was a kid just starting out in broadcasting making 10-12 thousand dollars a year so I could fulfill my dream to become a radio talk show host.  I was late on car payments, I was late in paying the rent.  At my lowest point, I was so late on my car payment that the guy from the finance company was threatening to come get the car and I borrowed a friend's car while he "hid" mine in his garage.  All these years later, I still get embarrassed just thinking about it.

So where was my "car payment time-out?"    I'm a nice guy, a good person.  Like many, I was driving a car that was over my means.  Instead of a beat-up junker, like I should have been driving, I wanted to have a nicer car and couldn't keep up with the payments on my 10 thousand dollar a year full-time salary.

I'll bet a lot of people would love to be rewarded by some kind of "pause" or "time-out" offering on just about anything.   How about a gas station time-out?  Or a utility pause?

All this talk about the mortgage companies being directed by the Bush Adminstration to try and bail out homeowners reminds me of one giant welfare nanny state.

It's total insanity.