Thanks to Sen. Christopher Dodd, Rep. Barney Frank and others, the lending industry spent years issuing mortgages to millions of Americans who had no hope of repaying.

As everyone knows, the results were disastrous. The housing bubble they helped create and inflate has burst, driving the economy into recession, the lending industry into chaos and millions of Americans into foreclosure, bankruptcy or both.

Lesson learned? Don't be silly. In December, GMAC got $5 billion from the government's $17.9 billion bailout of the domestic auto industry,

and immediately lowered its lending standards. No longer would buyers need a credit rating of 700 or higher. Now, people qualify with scores as low as 621, which is 2 points above "poor" and 102 points below America's median. As columnist George Will put it, GMAC is using taxpayers' dollars (more accurately, money borrowed against tax receipts far into the future) to issue subprime loans.