Bailout rage

Two different ways to face tough economic times. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels:

No money for new state programs. No money, potentially, to fully fund some existing programs at current levels. And no money for state pay raises.

For Gov. Mitch Daniels, the national recession -- which has pushed Indiana's unemployment rate above 7 percent and cut into state revenues -- means he'll be spending a lot of 2009 saying no.

That includes saying no to some of his own wish-list items, including making full-day kindergarten available in all school districts and establishing a new college scholarship program.

And Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry:

Officials with the City of Fort Wayne are hoping the incoming Obama administration will deliver some late Christmas gifts to boost jobs and the condition of local infrastructure.

Mayor Tom Henry's administration would love to see an Obama Presidency hand over ten million dollars to help the city purchase the old OmniSource land on North Calhoun Street, and get it ready for re-sale to a prospective developer.

No, no, no and gimme, gimme, gimme. Come on, Mitch. Get with the program and get in line. Your  patriarchal edicts -- you probably think of them as embodying "prudence" or something equally silly -- are pathetically old-fashioned. We have officially entered the era of Government Can, So Government Must, and those who don't buy in will be left out.

Ah, well. I thought my ice storm distractions might have helped tame my bailout rage a bit. Guess not. Panicking and tragically overreacting and thus endorsing redistribution from the prudent to the profligate still seems like madness to me.