September 18, 2008

Another day, another government bailout. Where will it end and when?

The rescue of the giant AIG insurance firm isn’t technically an American government bailout, of course. Since we are running a huge deficit thanks to the overspenders in Congress, the money will have to be borrowed, most likely from countries that don’t like us, such as China and Saudi Arabia.

The wisdom of Calvin Coolidge could apply here. On the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Coolidge said, “The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws that creates the character of a nation.”

Tell that to contemporary politicians, who act as passwords to a giant ATM that subsidizes people in their bad decisions and taxes them if they profit from making right decisions.

All of this talk about change is baloney. Change will come to Washington when politicians and the public change their attitude about government and their own responsibilities.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.