A real corker

[dougo]

CBS News:

Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said that the Obama administration's demands of General Motors and Chrysler set "a dangerous precedent."

"I think for all of us who believe in free enterprise, this is the crossing of a major threshold, and it actually should send a chill to people all across the country," Corker said.

This is incredible doublethink. The administration is asking for changes in the auto companies because we gave them billions of dollars and they're asking for more. If they don't want to make the changes, they are more than welcome to give us the damn money back. You know what's not free enterprise? Asking the government for free money, no strings attached. Corker (and the pundits who are echoing his talking points, or is it the other way around?) should be criticizing GM for wanting to go on welfare, not the administration for offering them a deal that protects the people's interest.

Comments

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Given that he thinks this is the major threshold, and not the bailouts three months ago, I'm guessing the former.

[ghudson.livejournal.com]

It is consistent and reasonable to think that bailouts are a waste of taxpayer money, and that bailouts with major strings attached are even worse because they are a step towards a command economy. Keep in mind that the existence of companies with significant government backing makes it hard for other companies to compete in that industry without similar government backing and thus similar strings.

(I'm not a free-market conservative by any meas, but I'm getting a little tired of the "these people hate X but think giving lots of free money to banks is fine" argument without any effort to show that the person in question actually supported the bank bailouts.)

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Corker didn't support any of the bailouts, and I don't really care. What I'm objecting to is the proposition that bailouts with conditions is worse than bailouts with no conditions. I blame the media for reporting it (and Letterman and SNL mocking it) as "President Obama can just fire CEOs at whim now", and Corker and others are making political hay of this egregious misrepresentation.