latest from rpc

This disturbing debate marks yet another chapter in what has become the troubling mark of this Congress.  The regularity and scope of these massive bailouts should astound any taxpayer, yet Washington continues down the road to federal intervention and ever-more public handouts to private industries.

While I am certain we have long since passed it, at some point a line must be drawn.  We can no longer ask taxpayers to postpone their own prosperity so that select businesses can maintain the costly status quo.  Printing billion dollar sums of cash each time an industry faces turmoil is not an economic solution; it is a moral hazard.

The funds from the financial rescue package are going all over the place. They forced a quick vote on something because they were convinced that they needed to implement a plan immediately.Now they realize that the plan they envisioned does not immediately address our economic problem, and it’s a plan that they perhaps should not have implemented at all, and now they are changing directions.

I think the biggest reality in this is the so-called “experts” got it wrong. This is definitely one place where everybody is kind of feeling their way along. My concern was the Administration’s attitude focused on doing something quick, rather than making sure it was right.

We members from Michigan are often criticized for our strong defense of the domestic auto industry.  It cannot be denied that the domestic auto industry is crucial to the economy in Michigan, but others fail to understand how critical this industry is to our national economy and our national security.  Some say, ‘go ahead and let the car companies fail, let the market work’ or ‘they did it to themselves so let them fail.’  These ideas fail to take into account the impact on our broader economy, the impact on our national security and the human toll exacted by inaction.