Posted by
Jim Hunt on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 8:00:00 AM
Ronald Reagan once said that government philosophy towards the economy is expressed very simply: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it." That is just about a perfect description of what is happening today.
Think about this folks: the Federal Government, after years of doing everything possible to make life difficult for our banks (the Community Reinvestment Act), our auto manufacturers (CAFÉ) and every other business you can think of, is now spending or planning to spend over a TRILLION dollars of YOUR money to “bailout” the companies that it has (in many cases with their collusion through incompetence) severely damaged.
Based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the current population of the United States is 305,900,857. Assuming for a moment that the bailout total will be exactly $1 Trillion dollars (that is $1,000,000,000,000.00), the bailout is equivalent to $3,269.03 from EVERY man, woman and child in this country. Most estimates now believe that the total bailout bill will be much higher than that.
The executives from GM and Chrysler have said they must have the bailout because no one would buy a car from a bankrupt company. Yet a USA today poll released yesterday indicates that this is not the case. A full 61% of Americans say that they would be willing to buy a car from a bankrupt company. We know that it is possible for companies to come out of bankruptcy better and stronger (cf. United Airlines and Delta Airlines).
We (as in all Americans) have allowed the liberals and the media (one and same?) to stampede us into a panic that is causing us to not think clearly about what Congress and the White House are doing to us. We must stand up now, call our Congress-critters and the White House and tell them to stop the madness before it is too late.
Ronald Reagan knew what he was talking about. He has been proven right over and over again. His philosophies can help us now. “Government is NOT the solution to the problem. Government IS the problem.”
God Bless America