Effor.com

I ran across an interesting article in the NY Times today.  Gail Collins obviously believes in cradle to grave socialism, but she writes well. 

She sarcastically lambasts McCain for wanting the current crop of hustlers to fail on their own, and she doesn’t seem to understand the consequences of what she’s advocating.  If people (and companies) are bailed out for their bad choices, they will continue to make bad choices.  Even worse, others will be encouraged to make bad choices, thus compounding the problem in the future when more people need help.

This is no different than Medicare/Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, welfare, etc.  Let people fail - and let them bear the consequences of their failures - and they improve their decisions in the future.  Bail them out and they’ll continue to need help forever.

gk

The story is all over the news tonight.  Here’s the Washington Posts’ take.  A few choice quotes:

“But he (McCain)declined to embrace the kind of government intervention for individuals and institutions favored by Clinton and Obama, arguing that “it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.”

It’s about time someone said that the government shouldn’t bail out stupid people.  However, I don’t agree with McCain on who is deserving of being bailed out.  McCain also said “We have a responsibility to take action to help those among them who are deserving homeowners.”

Many (probably most) of those facing foreclosure were never “deserving homeowners”, they were idiots who lived beyond their means, they took out interest only or adjustable rate loans, and they somehow act surprised when the bill for their overspending comes due.  See my post earlier tonight for a prime example of this.

So obviously I disagree with McCain on the details, but at least he’s saying that not everyone should be bailed out.  On the other hand, Obama and Clinton seem to be in a contest to see who can give away more taxpayer money.

The same story attributes this to Clinton: ”McCain’s plan, she said, does virtually nothing to ease the credit or housing crisis. “It seems like if the phone were ringing, he would just let it ring and ring and ring,” she said.”

Cool - the less the government does to “ease” the credit and housing “crisis” the better I feel about it.

And - in what has to be one of the most futile efforts ever - Obama today “outlined what he called a second stimulus package that would cost about $30 billion and include assistance to individuals and areas hard hit by the housing crisis.”

Idiot. The Fed loaned $38 billion today, and is approaching $500 billion in new money give aways since September.  That much money hasn’t headed off the current credit and housing problems - and the $160 billion stimulus package coming soon to a mailbox near you won’t make a dent in it either - so why would Obama think $30 billion will have any impact?

Let’s put it this way:  All three major candidates are wrong on these issues.  The only consolation is that McCain is less wrong than Obama and Clinton.  But none of them have a clue, and I don’t see any hope that they’ll get smarter before election day.

gk

Based on what CNN and FOXNews are reporting, it looks like Huckabee will be the winner in Iowa with about 31% of the vote, followed by Romney at 23%, Thompson at 13%, McCain at 12%, Giuliani at 11%, Paul at 10%, and Hunter with less than 1%. That’s with about 40% of the precincts reporting. If these results stand, Huckabee and Romney have to be considered the front runners, with the foursome of Thompson, McCain, Giuliani, and Paul as second tier candidates - at best.

Since I had expected Paul’s supporters to be more motivated and possibly show up in higher numbers than others on a cold evening, I have to admit that I’m very disappointed in his (current) 5th place standing. That’s not going to get him into any debates, and it certainly isn’t going to build any momentum going into next week’s New Hampshire primary.

Maybe there will be a surprise later when more precincts report - but I don’t expect it.

gk