McCain Should Vote "No."

I'm sorry, I've tried to be open-minded on this economic bailout of Wall Street but over and over my gut tells me this is just a bad, horrible idea.  What President Bush and the Democrats are proposing is a blank check over $700 billion to support corruption and hide government malfiecnse.  There seems to be no gaurenteed mechanism to get this money back.  Democrat calls for more regulation and halting corporate executive windfalls ring hallow when the names like Raines and Johnson and Gorelick are all over the Obama campaign.  Its not enough.  Its disgusting what these guys get as golden parachutes, but its a red herring argument thats a mere head-fake to keep Americans from seeing who these people are and what party they belong too.  

No.  This bailout is a terrible idea.  Its also incredibly unfair.  If I start a small business and I commit fraud and cook the books I'll go to jail.  Thats what happened to Enron and WorldCom, and those CEOs went to jail.  Why aren't we applying the same standard from the energy and telecom frauds to Fannie and Freddie?  Because the government got into the business of insuring loans, this failure has created a hostage situation where many think the government has to act.  

But people are smarter than that.  In capitalism, nothing should be too big to fail.  I'm terribly sorry that so many people are suffering because of this, but those people also have to hold themselves accountable for gambling with so much of their money.  People took loans when they should have known they couldn't afford it.  And from the video I blogged about earlier, its clear that there were dire warnings that were pushed aside because of politics and race-baiting. .  Its not the governments job to save failing companies.  These companies have failed, should be allowed to fail, and the market should be allowed to correct itself.  Should there be a government role?  Perhaps.  I look at what happened with Washington Mutual as a perfect example of how the government should operate in this situation.  There are a lot of problems that the government can help fix, but the answer to fixing the economy is not, and should never be, the government taking it over.  There is no better man to look too for guidance on this issue than Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana:

Dear Colleagues,

Our nation has been confronted by a serious crisis in our financial markets. The President and this Congress were right to act with all deliberate speed in addressing this crisis.

We now have a deal that promises to bring near term stability to our financial turmoil, but at what price?

Economic freedom means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail.

The decision to give the federal government the ability to nationalize almost every bad mortgage in America interrupts this basic truth of our free market economy.

Republicans improved this bill but it remains the largest corporate bailout in American history, forever changes the relationship between government and the financial sector, and passes the cost along to the American people. I cannot support it.

Before you vote, ask yourself why you came here and vote with courage and integrity to those principals.

If you came here because you believe in limited government and the freedom of the American marketplace, vote in accordance with those convictions.

Duty is ours, outcomes belong to God.

We have fought the good fight. Now we need to finish the race and make sure that posterity and the American people know there were conservatives who opposed the leviathan state in this dark hour.

And if you do this I promise you, I will stand with you and, I believe with all my heart, the American people will stand with you as well.

Mike Pence

Comments

[200 Grande]

Great Post!

If the stock market goes down it goes down in order to correct itself.

If home prices go down, they go down because they are over-valued.

Recessions are inevitable especially when a Nation's economy is rife with poor business decisions.

The market must be allowed to correct itself.

A problem caused by government intervention cannot be cured by more government intervention.