From the Republican political platform passed at the national GOP convention just a few weeks ago.

“We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

On one hand, I suspect that the painful bailouts already passed and those currently being proposed were necessary in the given situation to avoid even more painful economic failure down the road.  On the other hand, I’m not entirely certain that with these bailouts we aren’t just delaying said painful economic failures that will inevitably happen once we reach a point where bailouts aren’t possible any more.  And I also worry that with these bailouts we’re going to see a dangerous expansion of government power.  I mean, we’re talking about making the government shareholder in large corporations.

I don’t think an unholy alliance between corporate America and big government is what this country needs, whatever the cost in terms of economic disaster.

What I do know is that liberal, big government policies are what brought us to this situation.  This financial crisis is the result government mandates.  And government subsidies.  And crony capitalism made possible through quid-pro-quo relationships between mortgage/housing industry and politicians.

If we had taken government out of this equation long ago we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now, where our options seem to be either disaster or massive government bailouts.