The Conservative Revolution

I’m watching C-Span right now as the House of Representatives debates the Wall Street Bailout bill. It looks like some Republicans are giving in to the fear-mongering and are about to vote for the bailout.

FreedomWorks is asking our fellow conservatives in the House to stand firm on principle and oppose this legislation, which has not been shown to do anything to help the economy. It is also pork-laden and makes John McCain’s rhetoric on earmark reform ring hollow.

The real losers in this are the financial institutions that made good investments and prudent decisions — and the taxpayers who will have to pay for this monstrosity.

Read Matt Kibbe’s great piece in Reason Magazine, where he draws a line in the sand for free market conservatives.

So my question to my critics is simply this: What good are principles if you are willing to throw them out the window every time they prove inconvenient? As a trained economist, I have often relied heavily on principle when the data is confusing and conflicted.

Sadly, too many conservatives, Republicans and self-proclaimed free marketeers are supporting this bailout. As Dick Armey says, “You can’t stand on principle with feet of clay.”

UPDATE: The bill passed the House by a big margin, 263-171. Michelle Malkin notes the following Republicans that switched their vote and supported the bailout.

Gresham Barrett (SC-03)
Howard Coble (NC-06)
Jim Gerlach (PA-06)
Tim Murphy (PA-18)
Jim Ramstad (MN-03)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-18)
John Shadegg (AZ-03)
Lee Terry (NE-02)
Patrick Tiberi (OH-12)
Zach Wamp (TN-03)
Judy Biggert (IL-13)

UPDATE: I’ve got the entire list of who voted for the bailout over at FreedomTalks.org

Tags: FreedomWorks, Matt Kibbe, Wall Street Bailout

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 11:08 am and is filed under Economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.