I know, let's give it cancer!

It’s scary when intelligent, or at least educated, people say stupid things. Scary because when they do, they often present these stupid ideas in such a way that doesn’t look that bad to someone who might not be paying close attention.

I was reading a column by Erica Etelson this morning (I know, I could have avoided the heartburn by stopping when I saw Berkeley in the dateline), and as a whole I think she said fairly accurate things about the economy. But she also said this: “Meanwhile, the one measure that should and could be instituted immediately is a floor for the retail price of gas. If, for example, the minimum were $4 a gallon and the market price was $2, the government would pocket the difference and find itself with billions to spend on mass transit.”

When are these numbskulls going to figure out that the government needs to stay out of the economy? I’m not an economist. In fact, most of what I hear about the economy today goes right over my head. But I do know that the government is about as good at fixing an ailing economy as I am at fixing a broken space shuttle.

The economy (I’m already sick of saying that word) lives and breathes like an organism. Sometimes it gets sick. And then it heals itself. Government involvement is like a really bad episode of House where the patient gets exponentially worse and worse while the doctors try more and more. Then the (well-intentioned) doctors just stop meddling and the patient gets better because it was just a case of dehydration to begin with.

Problem is the people in Washington who want the government to continue doing more and more are not well intentioned. They kind of look like they are if you don’t really pay attention, but they’re not. Liberal policy and practice put the economy where it is today. Now liberals are using the fear of economic meltdown to push the idea that the government MUST do something NOW! They are using today’s crisis to rush all sorts of crap (pork) past the normal scrutiny it would be subjected to. They have been trying for years to spend more (of our) money on their pet projects. Now they’ve found a way to do just that.

The economy has a cold, let it heal. Government intervention is just like feeding it a big, steaming bowl of cancer.

I’m rambling, sorry. I’ll shut up now.