May I have my Country Back Please?

The latest word from DC is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many other prominent Democrats are asking Henry Paulson to carve $25 Billion out of the recent financial industry bailout package and loan it to the Auto Industry in an effort to “save” the industry. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/12/congress.automakers/index.html?iref=topnews This, of course, is in addition to the $25 Billion loan package already approved of by Congress. Of course, these loans will mean that the government will also now have equity in the U.S. Auto Industry.

Anybody else see a problem with this?

I’m wondering if I’ll ever get to see my share of those dividends, or if the new administration will decide who needs those dividends the most and funnel them in that direction? Who knows, maybe if we play our cards right, by the end of the next 4 years we can just sell everything to ourselves, er, our government. That way, we can always print more money, nothing will ever fail, the government can make all those hard decisions like what businesses are worth maintaining, how much of that money I’m entitled to, how much I get to retire on, what products should be produced, how much toilet paper my family is allotted every month, which doctor I get to see… We’ll never have to worry about inflation, deflation, or anything crazy like that. We can just ignore that disgusting old demand curve and enjoy the flatness of government funded, government directed mediocrity.

Frankly, it’s more than a little scary to me that our government has recently passed a $700 Billion Financial Industry Bailout package that apparently gives the Treasury Secretary power to loan U.S. taxpayer dollars DIRECTLY FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to any private entity he sees fit.

I’m not totally naïve about how things work in government. I get, and am frankly appalled at, the expansive power the executive branch has assumed through, inter alia, this wonderfully unconstitutional creature we call the administrative agency (and I also get that the US Supreme Court has said that they are constitutional – so what? It wasn’t the first “pragmatic,” extraconstitutional ruling by the Court – and it’s guaranteed not to be the last), but if Paulson really has this kind of power, that is a reach that takes uncabined administrative power to a whole new level.

What ever happened to minor government intrusion in the economy, giving American entrepreneurial spirits free rein to find success and enjoy the fruits of their success, and letting failed business fail because they aren’t economically viable? President Elect, Barack Obama, supports giving aid to the Auto Industry because it is the “backbone” of the U.S. economy. If that industry is failing it is only because it is NO LONGER ECONOMICALLY VIABLE. If it is no longer economically viable, then what good is it to our economy??? If it is no longer economically viable then perhaps what we need is a new backbone. Memo to Congress and the incoming administration: LET IT DIE!

I ask, whatever happened to having faith in American ingenuity to rise to a challenge, to survive and to create the next best thing? IMHO, politicians in this country have become so afraid of losing power that they are willing to sap away the strength of this great country by coddling its every special interest at every turn. Our government is no longer a government by the people, for the people, but instead has become the people’s doting nursemaid, willing to continually incubate future weakness because it is unwilling to endure present pain. Let the auto-industry die and many will suffer in the short term, but in a few short years, a new, strong, and independent industry will rise from the ashes as a true contributor to the American Economy, and not another leach on the American people’s wallet, sucking money into a government hierarchy where it is redistributed as an increasingly socialistic institution sees fit. Prop it up now with government equity and it may well survive and eventually become strong, but never independent, never as strong and as real as it could be, and the message will continue to ring true to the American Conglomerate – you need not be strong enough to survive in today’s American economy, as long as you are big enough that the government is afraid to let you die.

I did not live in the Great Depression, and I would never wish pain on any one individual, but I personally don’t think this country will ever get anything but weaker, morally, economically, and socially until we finally collectively remove our own diapers and training wheels and kindly inform our government that we are big enough to handle our own messes and our own scratches and even broken bones, thank you very much, and if doing that results in another Great Depression, then so be it. Maybe then we would learn once more to work together as a people in our own families, community’s, cities and even states. Maybe then we would learn once more as a people what things are really important, what it means to sacrifice and what it means to be strong and independent. Maybe then we would begin to remember God and finally start to realize that so many of our problems in society would finally be resolved if instead of creating more government oversight and intervention, we created greater spiritual insight and principled foundations in our own lives and in our children. Maybe then we would finally begin to realize that it isn’t our government and our schools that have left our children behind; it is we who have left our children behind. Maybe then we could get back to living as Americans, instead of begging for another shot of federal painkiller just before we get our next tube feeding and the doctor, er, Federal Government, finally shoves the breathing tube down our lifeless throat and turns on the machine.

As the fiery Patrick Henry infamously decreed: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

Somebody pull the plug. I want my country back.