Get ready to pay the piper, and pay big-time. If we’re going to avoid a full-scale, depression-style, real estate-fueled meltdown, Americans are going to foot one heck of a bill to pay for all the special government loan programs, guarantees and financial band aids.

How much? By the time the tab is tallied in 2010, I think were looking at a cool $1 trillion.

And that’s the good news. That’s assuming Washington takes swift action soon after the new administration takes office next January 20.

But if Washington can’t get beyond partisan paralysis, the catastrophic cost for delay will make $1 trillion look like pocket change. Our economy will sink into a deeper recession that really will morph into a depression for the first time in 80 years. And the ultimate price tag to fix this mess will grow exponentially just like it did when the government finally bailed out the Savings and Loan industry in 1991.

It’s part of the Ronald Reagan legacy you won’t find under a spotlight at his presidential library. Instead of taking aggressive steps to diagnose and repair the S&L debacle, President Reagan chose to ignore it, leaving it for his successor, Bush #41, to fix on his watch. What should have been solved for $16 billion in 1987, ballooned to 160 billion taxpayer dollars when President Bush finally bit the bullet four years later.

In 2008, it appears that delay and denial are rampant on both sides of the aisle. And the leading candidates for the White House don’t offer much hope.

It would appear that the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, is more intent on pandering to the core “less-government-is best-government” free market conservatives than facing reality. “I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,” said McCain in a speech to the Orange County (CA) Hispanic Small Business Roundtable on March 25. “Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.”

Thanks for the tough love Senator, but we just can’t afford to pay the price for your economic principles. Even if you win the November election, you’ll still have to deal with Congress, and it’s been a while since they’ve over-ridden a presidential veto. But go right ahead, just try to stop a substantial mortgage bailout bill. Our nation is in extreme pain, and extreme pain leads to extreme measures, regardless of which party controls the House and Senate.

Plans from both Democratic contenders are weak on specifics, but strong on conviction. At least Hillary and Barack acknowledge that the economy is in really, really bad shape, and extreme measures are required if we’re to avoid a full-blown depression.

But even if the Democrats do come up with a real plan to rehabilitate the economy, and even if they regain control of the White House and the Senate, the fact is that nothing is going to get done until early February of 2009.

That’s far too long to wait.

Wake up, Washington! We need a wide range of government intervention...NOW. Quit pointing fingers and assessing blame. We need to isolate and treat this economic cancer immediately. Whining about whose fault it is, parading bodies to perp walk in front of Congress and hunting for scalps will only delay the inevitable and super-size the costs.

I don’t care what you label this inevitable government intervention: If you’re against it, call it a bailout. If you’re for it, call it a rescue. Just do something, and do it sooner-rather-than-later, because the real long-term damage caused by your delay will never show up on a government tally sheet.

Today’s horrific financial realities are numbing. Every day, families are being put out of their homes. Family pets are being locked in closets and left to die, abandoned by their now-homeless owners. Expect to see the rate of alcoholism, family violence, broken families and divorce soar. The rate of foreclosures is rising in lock step with the rising volume of adjustable rate mortgage resets. Tack on soaring prices at the gas pump and grocery store on top of skyrocketing credit card debt and the stage is set for one of the ugliest periods in our nation’s history since the 1930s.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”

Whoever ends up being our next president must have the guts to be anything but neutral. We need them to be bold and to be a leader capable of rallying bipartisan support and to, well...lead.

When it comes to taking the actions necessary to control the economic crisis mushrooming before our eyes, there is no room for neutrality. We need bold leadership in Washington. And like the unity we displayed as a nation following September 11th, we need to support our new president and lawmakers. We need to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent the darkening skies from becoming a devastating economic hurricane.

If we choose to ignore the hard lessons learned from the Savings and Loan scandal, then we are doomed to pay a price far more expensive than dollars. We’re about to waste American human capital a resource whose value is not only incalculable, but irreplaceable.

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