In a Wall
Street Journal piece
today Republican Govs. Mark Sanford (S.C.)
and Rick Perry (Texas) criticize the current government bailout-mania, but they do not put their actions where their mouths are, primarily when it comes
to taxpayer subsidies for individual businesses. The two state
executives co-write:

The bailout mentality threatens Americans’ sense of personal
responsibility.

In a free-market system, competition and one’s own personal
stake motivate people to do their best. In this process, the
winners create wealth, jobs and new investment, while others go
back to the drawing board better prepared to try again.

To an unprecedented degree, government is currently picking
winners and losers in the private marketplace, and throwing
good money after bad. A prudent investor takes money from
low-yield investments and puts them in those that yield better
returns. Recent government intervention is doing the opposite
— taking capital generated from productive activities and
throwing it at enterprises that in many cases need to
reorganize their business model.

Too bad that Govs. Sanford and Perry fail to follow their own advice, as their states have doled out
millions (maybe billions) of dollars-worth of tax breaks and
incentives to specific companies, ostensibly to attract
“investment” to their states. South Carolina is very proud that
it attracted BMW to the state in the early 1990s, and still periodically
subsidizes plant expansions
— even as recently as this year. The Palmetto State (as do just
about all states) regularly announces new plant expansions,
relocations of businesses, new job creation, etc., many of which
politicians take credit for because of the targeted incentive
programs. Almost none are as big as BMW but many smaller
companies get tax breaks and credits that their competitors are
often not entitled to. Big business has figured out how to
maximize this scam to their benefit, as I reported a few years ago.

So, good times or bad times, whether it’s a “bailout” or an
“incentive,” government is still picking the winners and losers.
Govs. Sanford and Perry ought not to pretend like they are above
it all.

Cross-posted at American Spectator.