Again
When will it stop? Not until Barack Obama is out of the White House.  Doesn’t have to be that way. We, the people, showed Mr. Obama, Members of Congress and anyone else paying attention that we can get what we want if what we want is important to us. The health care fiasco proved we can.

Now, it looks like we will have to face up to yet another bailout. A bailout of which we should balk strongly with our feet firmly on the ground.

Newspapers
Our newspaper across the country are in dire financial straits. Some have shut down when attempts to sell failed. The Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer are two newspapers that folded in 2009. The fear and strong probability is that more will fail, perhaps many more.

With the tremendous popularity of the internet, many of us find news of interest online. I have not purchased a newspaper for more than two years. My wife picks up a free local newspaper each week for grocery store coupons. That’s it. From what I read, we are not alone.

Newspaper circulation is down and with falling circulation, advertising revenue drops as well. I look for newspaper publication to end in another 5 years. Technology does things like that. Look back a hundred years.

The impact of technology
The automobile left horse travel behind in history. Because of the automobile, we have a long list of motorized vehicles transporting people and goods, working the farmlands and moving the earth for construction. The airplane has made travel and the transporting of goods more convenient.

Jobs were lost along the way. Today, blacksmiths are rare and stagecoach builders moved forward with the times into automobile work. And, along the way numerous jobs were created.

Computers have opened the door for more jobs as well because they allow for much more production than back in the days of pencils and paper. As a result, we have jobs in computer design and software development that have come about since World War II. We hire people who work with personal computers for the same reason that we hired them before computers, to keep the wheels of commerce moving. Now, the wheels of commerce move faster and more efficient.

Aid to the newspapers
The Hill reports Mr. Obama is open to a newspaper bailout. This is wrong!

To conservatives like me it means more government, not less. Mature adults have seen this before. In addition to more initial government employees, more and more will be added as time moves along. More government brings more fraud, waste and abuse. Sure, it can be controlled but it won’t be because that is how the government does things. Once new programs are underway, the media goes on to other stories, public awareness diminishes and the “fun” begins.

More important than what we conservatives want, is what a newspaper bailout does to (not for but to) all of us. Government money in any business leads to government influence of that business. I can see it now. Stories such as those about ACORN will be hushed because Mr. Obama, with ACORN ties, will hush the story. Even FOX News and other outlets not now in the administration’s hip pocket will stop reporting such stories when they become soiled with government funding.

The right thing
Stop permitting bailouts beginning this very moment. If we allow just one newspaper bailout now, more will follow. Too, other kinds of businesses will line up at the most lucrative teat of the public sow.

Those in the newspaper business need to take their cue from the blacksmiths and coach builders of yesterday.

It’s our country. We are negligent to let bailouts continue.