Republican leaders throw constituents under the conservative bus - let the markets decide

I thought that maybe, just maybe that in the wake of the economic meltdown caused by Dear Leader and his GOP enablers on the Hill, that the Republican clowns on the Hill would not float this craptacular meme again, given the hundreds of thousands of jobless and ungodly number of people threatened with homelessness due to foreclosures.

In his zeal to condemn the stimulus package, Congressman Jim DeMint (R-SC), he offered this prescription:

DeMint, a Republican from Greenville, rejected the idea of nationalizing troubled banks -- an option that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has said should be left on the table.

"I think the idea of nationalization is the same idea as socialization," DeMint said. "I think we need to do everything we can to make the private markets work and not use this as an excuse to expand government into owning banks and other companies."

“We’ve got to let the market begin to absorb them at a loss, but they can absorb them. We just have to decide do we want a government-controlled economy, or do we want the private sector to work?”

The deregulation and greed of the private markets got us here. Does DeMint honestly think the government can just sit back and it will all right itself? He's still collecting a paycheck on our dime and has a roof over his head. Clearly he doesn't have the capacity to understand a crisis unless it hits him directly.

In other bizarre GOP news, Louisiana Governor Bobby (The Exorcist) Jindal is trying to flex his conservative muscles in a politically suicidal manner by suggesting he might just turn down all the stimulus money earmarked for his state. I'm sure the people hurting in his state, will think highly of his turning down potentially 50,000 jobs to make a political point.

We’ll have to review each program, each new dollar to make sure that we understand what are the conditions, what are the strings and see whether it’s beneficial for Louisiana to use those dollars,” Jindal said.

Why do these Republicans hate America? We'll see how many other Republican governors actually decide to stick to conservative dogma and reject federal funds coming their way, particularly those Red states that are always taking in more government money than they pay out in taxes.

Then again, look at how Lindsey Graham slams the stimulus and in the same breath says he'll take the cold cash for the Palmetto State:

BLITZER: Should South Carolina take the money?

GRAHAM: I think that, yes, from my point of view, I — you don’t want to be crazy here. I mean, if there’s going to be money on the table that will help my state, but I’ve got a job to do up here, and that is to try to help people and not damn the next generation. We had a $415 billion package to help people who have lost their jobs, that cut taxes, that create new jobs. We’ve got a spending bill, not a job creation bill. And we’re being all things to all people.

We’ve dug a hole for the next generation of young Americans they can’t get out of. Total cost of this bill is over $1 trillion and it’s not going to create jobs as much as it does throw government and when you send the money to South Carolina, that’s not going to create a job for the national economy. It’s going to help a bunch of politicians balance their books and not create jobs in South Carolina.

These guys are all over the map. It does illustrate the problem that the so-called conservatives have had over the last eight years -- a belief not in low taxes and small government, but low taxes and huge government (and minimal regulation). Now that this has blown up in their faces, they are faced with the choice of running to get on the government teat as their constituents starve, or look like ogres starving their peeps as they pretend to have conservative principles. Talk about intellectually bankrupt.