BailOut Mania: This isn’t what America was Built Upon!

     GM, Ford and Chrysler have taken their public lashings, returned to Detroit, sharpened the pencils, and are now HYBRID-driving themselves back to Washington DC, the tin cups in tow, for a piece of the bailout pie. Co-President Elect Barack H. Obama addressed the Governor’s Meeting in Pennsylvania this morning, first with cameras present, then behind closed doors so he could “listen” to the needs of the Governors. In 43 states, there is a budget shortfall, and the Governor’s appear poised to ask the Co-President Elect for $170 billion dollar bailout as well.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry

      To their credit, and ultimately as a key focus in their possible bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2012, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina co-authored an OpEd piece in today’s Wall Street Journal in which they state that this bailout mentality IS NOT the American way. The two Governors wrote:

“As governors and citizens, we’ve grown increasingly concerned over the past weeks as Washington has thrown bailout after bailout at the national economy with little to show for it.

In the process, the federal government is not only burying future generations under mountains of debt. It is also taking our country in a very dangerous direction — toward a “bailout mentality” where we look to government rather than ourselves for solutions. We’re asking other governors from both sides of the political aisle to join with us in opposing further federal bailout intervention…
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In a free-market system, competition and one’s own personal stake motivate people to do their best. In this process, the winners create wealth, jobs and new investment, while others go back to the drawing board better prepared to try again.

To an unprecedented degree, government is currently picking winners and losers in the private marketplace, and throwing good money after bad. A prudent investor takes money from low-yield investments and puts them in those that yield better returns. Recent government intervention is doing the opposite — taking capital generated from productive activities and throwing it at enterprises that in many cases need to reorganize their business model.
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In Texas and South Carolina, we’ve focused on improving “soil conditions” for businesses by cutting taxes, reforming our legal system and our workers’ compensation system. We’d humbly suggest that Congress take a page from those playbooks by focusing on targeted tax relief paid for by cutting spending, not by borrowing.

In the rush to do “something” to help, federal leaders would be wise to take a line from the Hippocratic Oath, and pledge to do no (more) harm to our country’s finances. We can weather this storm if we commit to fiscal prudence and hold true to the values of individual freedom and responsibility that made our nation great.”

Wall Street Journal, Dec. 2, 2008

So. Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford

  Even as the Governor’s convened their meeting, California’s Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a finincial state of emergency, an action that forces the legislature to address the state’s financial situation within the next 45 days. (On a humorous side note, do we think the Co-President Elect and the Governator discussed Obama’s fitness needs, in light of Arnold’s campaign comments about Obama’s policies needing some “meat”?)

Governator greets the “meatless” Co-President Elect

Co-President Elect Obama and his YesMan Biden have not been sworn in yet, and Co-President Hillary Clinton has not been confirmed by the Senate yet, and already the posturing for 2012 can be seen. It will be important to watch the key players, particularly the Republicans like Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Gov. Rick Perry, Gov. Mark Sanford, Gov. Sarah Palin, Rep. Paul Ryan, and Gov. Bobby Jindal during the next two years, and what effect that they will have on the midterm elections in 2010.