George Will Got It Right, But Doesn’t Stay On Target

August 26, 2009

The Facts

George F. Will, in an op-ed for The Washington Post, suggested that taxpayers should have been given stock in General Motors and Chrysler just as Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander suggested in his bill that he, Lamar, introduced in early June of this year. The bill was later defeated. Will suggest such a law would have adverted the perception of an attempted move toward state capitalism. But in fact, Will does believe the Democrats are moving in that direction.  

In the article Will says, under the bill, anyone who filed a federal tax return in 2008 would be eligible for stock ownership. He hopes a similar bill put forth by Republican Senator’s Bob Corker and Mark Warner will have more success and become law.

My View

I find it ironic that George Will seems to be pushing this plan only for the car makers and is stopping short of endorsing the same for Wall Street banks that have been bailed out with taxpayer money. However, he does admit that if the government ownership is more than 20 percent in a company that company would also fall within those guidelines of stock distribution. That would include AIG and Citigroup, but Will doesn’t dwell on them.

In fact, Will doesn’t really dwell on the point of taxpayer stock ownership at all. He honestly didn’t have that much to say about the automakers. His article is less about the idea of protecting the taxpayer and more about slamming the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress. That’s evident in the title he chose for his article, “Obama’s State Capitalism”.  It appears he simply used the issue as an opportunity to voice his opinion on where the current administration is headed. If he truly had at heart the idea of protecting taxpayers, he would have mentioned the give-a-way of taxpayer money by the Bush administration.

This idea of issuing an appropriate stock to taxpayers when taxpayer money is used (which is the only place government gets money) to bail out those useless money grabber in the business world is a splendid idea. But such a bill would have to be cut and dry, simple to read, and simple to understand with no vague and interpretable language in it. Otherwise, those greedy self-imposed gods of Wall Street would figure out a way around the law and then pay off sympathetic congressional members to help them do it.

Relative to the upward distribution of money in this country, both Democrats and Republicans have left us with no doubt they are not in favor of a sideways distribution. So I don’t see any possibility of a bill being passed unless language is inserted in such a way that the bill could be used in the future to support another Wall Street bailout and an out to not issue any stock.