Heal Thyself...

Happy New Year! To say I've been working so hard I didn't know what's going on is an understatement; my mother told me Eric Mangini was fired, and I'm fairly certain she didn't know who he was until he was fired.

However, now that I'm coming out of the blur, it's nice to know some things haven't changed. Representative Scott Garrett took to the House floor last night with several other Republicans to lay out their economic recovery plan.

Here it is: Heal Thyself.

Here's part of what Garrett said:

Finally, she made a good point as well, and I will close on this, market, heal thyself, is what she said. Likewise here, whether it's the credit market, the financial market or the unemployment market, we can allow the private sector, with the assist of the government getting out of the way for the market to heal thyself in those situations as well in the appropriate manner.

Now, I'm not in favor of forking over tons of taxpayer cash to CEOs who ran their companies into the ground; but doing nothing really can't be considered an option either.

The idea that the real economy functions in the ideological vacuum some seem to believe in is a bit dangerous. The government is going to have to address the lobbyist written tax policies that helped create this mess. The government is going to have to get it's own house in order in terms of waste and abuse of taxpayers. The government is going to have to figure out a way to undo the education, health care, and trade policies that have put us at a competitive disadvantage.

"Heal thyself" is a bit simplistic for what we face. My hope is that Garrett won't stick his head in the sand on this one, and actually play a constructive part. We'll have to see.

Bailouts, no. Smart, real world policy, yes.