Friday, August 01, 2008

One more thing about the economy

Louisville blogger Jake Payne raises some key points in his missive about the economy yesterday:

First, the "Republican meme" is that the economy is bad and that it is the Democrats' fault. That works out pretty well because the Dems say it is the GOP. Partisan rancor is fun!

But they are both wrong. The economy is, as recently as a month ago, still growing. We are so far from going to hell in a handbasket -- as far as the economy goes -- that it isn't even funny. But Republicans in general aren't fighting the mainstream media sales pitch on this, they are just trying to reach a point of political advantage. And maybe that will work.

But if we are going to hold reasonable discussions, we need to be straight about what the facts are. The economy isn't the problem; government involvement in the economy is the problem. If you say you are worried about your ability to survive in this economy and yet you pay to watch television, pay to eat out as restaurants and eat popcorn at movies, spend money you don't have running up credit card balances and driving around in fancy cars instead of saving for retirement, you aren't worried about the economy but are instead counting on a government bailout.

That's the bad plan here.

We have a lot of economic freedom in this country and that works very well. It works so well, in fact, that we risk blowing the whole thing because we have been able to afford so much government nonsense for so long.

Just as we should get rid of some of the luxuries listed above in the name of belt-tightening, we should trim back the government we can't afford before it is too late.