DeMint V. Lindsey On Federal Bailout

Since South Carolina’s two U.S. Senators are both professional politicians, it’s not at all surprising that they’re talking about what everybody else is talking about right now – the collapse of Wall Street and what (if anything) the federal government should do about it.

Given the preponderance of public preoccupation on this issue, we found it rather predictable that both Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint put out statements yesterday offering their views on the Bush administration’s proposed $700 billion bailout of an easily-avoidable crisis that came from years of irresponsible, government-mandated lending policies.

Specifically, these policies.

What we did find interesting, however, was the stark difference in the tone and substance of these two Senatorial statements.

Graham, in his typical glad-handing “Gang of 14″ style, loaded up his comments with shallow Washington-isms and throwaway political pablum – saying inane and meaningless things like “now is the time to focus on solutions, not empty rhetoric,” or that Congress should “work quickly and cooperatively with the Administration to address our financial problems before they get worse.”

Actually, these politicians should have been working “quickly and cooperatively” a long time ago at not being so chronically brain dead, but that’s another story.

Anyway, Graham’s big solution to the current crisis (well, in addition to a bailout) is to create yet another Washington D.C. political entity that would be responsible for … wait for it … regulating the bailout …

“I realize any proposal will not contain all provisions I like or support. I do hope however we give further consideration to the creation of an independent board made up of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who would have oversight over any government’s expenditures on a rescue plan. There is merit in this approach and I hope it would be an essential ingredient in any bailout plan. We need to bring the best minds in our nation together to help solve a very difficult problem.”

Yikes. The only thing Graham left out was naming Oprah and Hillary to lead the effort.

Then there’s DeMint’s statement, which unlike the one you just read actually takes a definitive position on the matter at hand.

In fact, his statement is so damn good we’re going to publish it in its entirety, in the hopes that everybody in South Carolina will read it, especially Lindsey Graham …

“After reviewing the Administration’s proposed bailout plan, I believe it is completely unacceptable. This plan does nothing to address the misguided government policies that created this mess and it could make matters much worse by socializing an entire sector of the U.S. economy. This plan fails to oversee or regulate the government failures that led to this crisis. Instead it greatly increases the role for Secretary Paulson whose market predictions have been consistently wrong in the last year, and provides corporate welfare for investment firms on Wall Street that don’t want to disclose their assets and sell them to private investors for market rates. Most Americans are paying their bills on time and investing responsibly and should not be forced to pay for the reckless actions of some on Wall Street, especially when no one can guarantee this will solve our current problems.”

“This plan will not only cause our nation to fall off the debt cliff, it could send the value of the dollar into a free-fall as investors around the world question our ability to repay our debts. It’s also very likely that this plan will extend the cycle of bailouts, encouraging other companies to behave in reckless ways that create the need for even more bailouts, triggering an endless run on our treasury. This plan may make things look better for Wall Street in the next couple months, but the long-term consequences to our economy could be disastrous.

“There are much better ways of dealing with this problem than forcing American taxpayers to pay for every asset some investor doesn’t want anymore. We should start by reforming government policies and programs that created this mess, including the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, the congressional charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act. Then Congress should pass a number of permanent and proven pro-growth reforms to encourage capital formation and boost asset values. We need to make permanent reductions in the corporate tax and the capital gains tax rates. We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, which encourages companies to take jobs and investment overseas.”

“It’s a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this Administration. The Administration said the bailout of Bear Stearns would stop the bleeding and solve the problem, but they were wrong. They said $150 billion in new government spending using rebate checks would solve the problem, but they were wrong again. They said new authority to bailout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would solve the problem without being used, but they were wrong again. Now they want us to trust them to spend nearly a trillion dollars on more government bailouts. It’s completely irresponsible and I cannot support it.”

Damn, people.

We don’t say this often about politicians but DeMint just absolutely friggin’ nailed it. Not only did he nail the truth behind our current crisis, but he also perfectly nailed the perspective on government needed to solve it, which is coincidentally the perspective that this country was founded on and the perspective that the Republican Party is supposed to be, as the kids say, “all about.”

Seriously, we’re thinking of turning this glorious press release into a hymn (something in D Major, perhaps) and making our congregation sing it every Sunday.

We’ve talked trash about DeMint plenty of times in the past, but lately he’s been giving these jokers in Washington all the hell they can handle.

And good for him.

At least one of our U.S. Senators is actually concerned about the fact that … whether it’s Social Security, Medicare, these ridiculous bailouts or all the pork that flows through Washington … somebody is ultimately going to have to pay for all this crap.

And that somebody is every one of us.

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