Thugs on Drugs

Bruce Bartlett, "an official under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush," argues in his op-ed today that as a nation, we'd be better off not sending a rebate to every taxpayer, but instead "redirect the money" to:

help the housing sector and those people who actually need assistance. The Treasury might use some of the money, for example, to enable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored housing agencies, to buy up some of the bad mortgages, get them off bank balance sheets and help homeowners refinance them. "

So far so good. It's in the next paragraph that Bartlett's heavy drug use rears its ugly head:

My gut tells me that the vast majority of Americans would happily give up their rebate if they knew that the money would be used instead to help families in need and start the process of cleaning up the bad debts in the housing sector...This is a proposal that both Republicans and Democrats should embrace

His "gut" is not to be trusted - in fact it needs to be pumped out. Substance abuse is the only explanation for his voyage to fantasy land. The wingnuts would scream bloody murder. They despise anything that smells of helping a victim:

Michelle Malkin:

Subprime victims are the new heroes. Welcome to the politics of foreclosure.

A featured comment at ColoradoRight:

In all the articles about the "subprime mortgage meltdown", isn’t it weird how they won’t just cut the crap and put responsibility on the homeowners personally?

Instapundit:

Homeowners refinanced "only to wind up owing far more than their houses were worth and unable to make the payments. Boo hoo. Shouldn't there be a price for being an idiot? And -- despite not being on Wall Street -- a greedy idiot?"

It was at Bush's insistence that the current plan included sending rebates to the rich as well as the poor, even though all evidence argues that money sent to the wealthy does nothing to stimulate the economy.

Sadly, Bartlett's Republican Party is merely a hallucination   

(memeorandum)

Comments

[Nick]

I agree, I can't imagine anyone seriously thinking that people would "happily" give up their rebate checks to help needy foreclosure victims. If people want to use their rebate checks to donate to help homeowners, then they can do that without the government now taxing them (taking their rebates) to provide additional assistance to people in financial hardships.

[bbbustard]

Thanks for the comment- you've got a great site.
I do think that the water Bartlett is drinking is filled with pharmaceuticals. Un real.