Senator Jim DeMint has been doing a fantastic job rising to the challenge of being a "voice in the wilderness" for conservatives in the US Senate. Add his calling bank nationalization by its real name [2]to his list of laudables.
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint said Tuesday the federal government doesn't have enough money to fix the banking and housing problems weighing down the economy and that the solution lies with allowing private markets to run their course, even if it means allowing some banks to fail. ...
DeMint, a Republican from Greenville, rejected the idea of nationalizing troubled banks -- an option that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has said should be left on the table.
"I think the idea of nationalization is the same idea as socialization," DeMint said. "I think we need to do everything we can to make the private markets work and not use this as an excuse to expand government into owning banks and other companies." ...
Amen. And Amen.
The rapid pace at which people in government are throwing around socialist ideas to "fix" our economy in the past few months is really breathtaking when you think about it. And worse still, some members of our own party are at least letting themselves get "a little pregnant" with the ideas.
DeMint goes on:
"There's a crisis of confidence throughout the market -- throughout the world -- even though the government has thrown nearly $1 trillion at the financial system," DeMint said. "We've started this vicious cycle. We don't have enough money -- we can't borrow enough money to take all the toxic assets off the books.
"We've got to let the market begin to absorb them at a loss, but they can absorb them. We just have to decide do we want a government-controlled economy, or do we want the private sector to work?" ...
This is very important folks. It's simple math. We DONT have the money. We CAN'T bail everybody and everything out. The just-passed "stimulus" bill was financed on borrowed money at best, and just running the federal printing press at worst.
If we don't allow the free market to work things out, rather than subsidizing failure, then we'll be in for a long recession, higher unemployment and, eventually inflation and higher interest rates.
And, even though you wish it didn't need saying, DeMint points out (what should be) the obvious:
Spending money now will eventually lead to higher interest rates and taxes, DeMint said.
I guess, in an odd sort of way, it's all good. Our federal government was already on a financial spiral that will leave it bankrupt an unable to finance the great welfare state and pay its debts within our lifetimes. To say nothing of what happens when it tries to impose massive tax increases in the future when they finally realize they can't dodge the bill any longer.
So now we'll just get there quicker. And when that moment in political time comes, the political party that is on the wrong side of the tax revolt will get killed at the polls.
The GOP needs some more DeMints in Congress.
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If you've had enough, click here and fax your members of Congress [3] and tell them to "Stop the Spending".
