Grand Theft Auto Bailout: Capitol Hill
Today is the day the Senate is supposed to debate and/or vote on the auto bailout/assistance/bridge loan to no where. Already we have Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaking out against it…
“There are many principled reasons to oppose this bill, but the simplest one is also the best: ‘a government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take everything we have.’ This is as true for individuals as it is for business. It’s the primary principle on which American industry, including the auto industry, was built. And even in turbulent moments like this — perhaps especially at moments like this — it’s a principle well worth defending.”
So he goes on the nice list with Sens. Coburn, DeMint, Vitter, Shelby, and Corker.
I was kibitzing with a coworker earlier aboot the conservative opposition to this and the many other bailouts. I put it into two groups: purely ideological and semi-ideological.
I’m semi. I worry aboot deficits and moral hazards and that’s where ideology comes in for me, though I’m not opposed to bailouts per say as much as I am opposed to have a gun pointed to my head. I get that things are “once in a lifetime” bad and that there’s a lot aboot the economy I don’t understand, so I’m willing to listen…as long as we take the time to consider a number of different options and get it right. Giving me only one option and telling me that if I don’t agree with it on Monday that it’ll be the Great Depression v2.0 on Tuesday…that doesn’t really work for me.
We had a gun pointed to our heads for the first bailout, and as far as I can tell no one knows where the money came from or went.
UPDATE: How does McConnell opposing the bailout “doom it to failure?“ There are enough D’s to pass the bill with three or four R’s. It’s not our fault they won’t man up.
UPDATE DEUX: We Wait.
UPDATE TRES: Bailout killed.
