That’s how the Reno Gazette Journal summed up the bailout package this Sunday in their lead editorial. The funny (not ha-ha) thing is that it was how they summed up a positive editorial on the situation.
The only thing worse than the summation was the headline:
“Americans Need to Have Faith in Treasury Secretary Paulson”
Gag.
Well, guess what. I don’t have faith in Treasury Secretary Paulson, whether I “need to” or not. Why should I? What did he do during his tenure to prevent this problem in the first place? I mean, now that this deal is done, and he has the blank check, I wish him well. I “hope” he does well. But I don’t have a single bit of faith in him, and I intend to plan accordingly.
The frustrating thing is that I shouldn’t have to.
The whole point of limited government is that we DON’T just have to “hope” that the people in charge (Read: One unelected and unaccountable guy who was instrumental in creating this mess in the first place) know what they’re doing!!!
When individual liberty instead of top-down societal control is the foundation of government, bad governments can’t hurt us very much. But after Bush’s Big Government “conservatism” compounded by the last two years of Democratic control of the purse strings (the party who gets the vast majority of donations from the now-failed financial institutions and shielded them from regulation, despite Obama’s lying campaign ads to the contrary), we see clearly just how Big Government can hurt us badly when it’s allowed to grow too involved in our lives.
But the editorial wasn’t done being ridiculous:
Give Congress credit for doing what was necessary last week, thanks in part to the work of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who reached out to his colleagues in the Republican Party to pick up the pieces left from the House’s rejection of the bill earlier in the week.
After three days of post-bailout stock tanking, the RGJ has yet to “give credit” to Congress or Harry Reid for their colossal failure, although there was plenty of space to scold over cell phones in trains.
That also took up all the available space they would otherwise have used to explain what was “necessary” about the bill, or how specifically it’s going to solve a damned thing.
Not that they could. This intervention will not make things better. Europe is far more regulated than we are (and as a note to the peaceniks, spends way less than we do on Defense), and their nosedive makes our mess look like a picnic. I could be wrong, but I’m not.
I used to think that the silver lining of this horrible bailout was that an Obama administration wouldn’t be able to afford the kinds of massive government spending on huge government programs like socialized medicine. But now I’m not so sure. It sure didn’t stop FDR, despite the fact that not a single bit of it did a thing to end the Depression (and in fact probably prolonged it). The same “Do Something!” disease that inspired the bailout int he first place won’t suddenly lead to economic understanding or sanity.
And you can take it to the bank that if when it’s Jimmy Carter bad in 2011, it will still be the fault of Republicans.
Oh, well. At least the government will pick up the tab if I decide to stop making house payments…
Good to read your comments. I disagree with you almost across the board, but always good to hear what you have to say. Perhaps we can chat on the phone sometime soon.
Best,
Ben