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The current financial crisis demonstrates just how out of touch Congress is from the needs of our country and from their duties as elected representatives.

A forensic analysis of the crisis reveals smoking-gun type evidence consisting of the fingerprints, DNA and eyewitness testimony of both political parties standing around while a financial system was allowed to suffocate from the inaction of Congress. Still, the pundits, talk radio junkies and the Congresspeople themselves are pointing fingers at only the other party.

Arch Republicans attribute the beginnings of the crisis to President Jimmy Carter and the Democrat controlled Congress, who passed the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and started the ball rolling by trying to put unqualified low income borrowers into houses so that they too could realize the American dream.

The supposed infamous deregulation of the 1980s was accomplished by a Republican president and a split Congress, so no one party can blame the other party for excessive deregulation in that decade.

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 was a tipping point, adding more deregulation to the mix, and banning the regulation of those now infamous credit default swaps that led to the downfall of AIG and got the other heavyweight investment banks in over their collective heads. Simply put, this act, signed by President Clinton, along with a Republican controlled Congress, allowed for the types of fraudulent speculation and overextension in which the investment banks engaged in while craving ever higher profits.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were pawns in the mega chess game played by Congress and private banking institutions, all of whose last concern was for the soundness of the financial system of this country.

Finally, from 2000_­­ to 2006, the entire federal government was controlled by the Republican party, who put the finishing touches on the crisis by what they thought was benign neglect, although the result has proven to stem from crippling incompetence. One party or the other claims that at one time or another in the past 30 years the fox was guarding the henhouse, but really no one was watching. One party or the other (and one presidential candidate or the other) claims that they tried to do something but no one would listen, a childish attempt to deflect blame. One can imagine them as children pointing their fingers at each other as their mother asks, “Who did this?”

Since January 2007 the Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress, and there was time for them detect the situation and begin to do something about it. No action was taken, though plenty of blame has been spread like fertilizer in the hopes that something beautiful would grow.

Despite deregulation attempts by the Bush administration, plenty of regulations still existed that the government and Congress could have used to protect the financial system. How about the SEC? How about the respective committees in the House and Senate, whose duties included direct oversight of the banking system? How about Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs? Paulson of all people should have known the dangers of the shenanigans by Wall Street’s investment banks and the disastrous result they could have had on Main Street. His neglect is morally and ethically criminal.

Our current leaders have followed a troubled path trod smooth by years of neglect of the sound financial principles on which this country functions. This is the fault primarily of Congress, whose leaders remain in office and power for decades. A President who wields some power for a maximum of eight years has little opportunity, time or power to ruin a financial system. Congress has all three of those dangerous components. Add incompetence to that mix, and one can see how and why we are all in this mess. (This is not a good argument for term limits, which are not part of the solution.)

President Bush did have the power of the bully pulpit, and he used it with incomparable ineptitude. Terrorism is a threat to this country, to be sure; but President Bush and the Congress took their collective eye off the ball for so long that they neglected the financial system.

A lesson for us all—a sound financial system is the single most important aspect of our economy, our government and our way of life.

America can survive with poverty, racism, drugs, crime, hatred, abortion, a crumbling infrastructure, too much government intervention in our daily lives, fruitless military actions and a litany of other flaws. We don’t want any of these, but no country is perfect. A sound financial system is important for any country and its economy, but even more so for one such as the United States, which combines capitalism (expressed nowhere in the Constitution) with the freedoms and powers specifically granted by the Constitution, as perfect a mix of private and public cooperation as has ever been seen in history, and will never be equaled.

Our financial system is the single most important component of our very way of life and is vital to our survival. Any single threat, such as terrorism, is minor compared to the threat that has been imposed on us by Congress’ neglect of its single most important duty—that of ensuring a sound financial system for the country. Without it, we won’t even have a country in which to practice the freedoms we all cherish. Without it, we won’t have clean water, or water at all. We won’t have houses, cars, DVDs or even free elections. Everything we have will be in jeopardy.

This poses no solution, except for the wholesale replacement of Congress, which is not feasible or realistic. Congress still doesn’t realize the roots of the problem—its own failings—and how to solve the crisis. Their first and best response was to act too quickly, like cattle stampeding off a cliff, and throw incomprehensible amounts of money at the problem, which is what Congress always wants to do. Already they are saying that more money is needed.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt told the country, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Fear is an intangible concept, like the “war on terrorism.” Something more tangible is Congress, which has now proved that we have nothing to fear except an incompetent Congress itself.

This is no time for blame, says . . . Congress. Why? Because they know that all too many fingers will be pointed in their direction. It may be no time for blame, but attributing responsibility for the problem at hand is useful. Congress created this mess, and now we are stuck with trusting Congress to get us out of it. That is something to fear.