INSIDER EDITORIAL

A Time For Leadership, A Time For Truth

By The Editorial Board of InsiderAdvantage

(9/29/08) For political leaders at the statehouse and in Congress, the next few days are critical. How they handle the problems they face will fix the public perception of them for years to come.

In Georgia, it’s the gas shortage. Few Georgians had a clue their lives would be so seriously unhinged, weeks now after storms battered the Gulf. Nationally, the results stand to be disastrous if Congress fails to pass the emergency financial legislation, scheduled to go before the U.S. House today.

Let’s take these issues one at a time.

On the gas front, our tracking numbers show the public very quickly is pinning the blame on top leaders in this state for providing too little crisis management in the northern half of the state.

Experts have been telling InsiderAdvantageGeorgia for days that availability of gasoline has been on the increase. It is public panic, they say, that has led to a deepening crisis.

There may be better ideas out there, but here’s one that could work:

We propose that for the next week, or until the crisis ends, we utilize the otherwise hated “car tax” for one potentially valuable element - the date it expires. Cars with January-to-June expiration dates would be allowed to access pumps one day; July-to-December tags would be allowed to fill-up on the following day. Out of state tags would be exempt, as would any driver with less than one-tenth of a tank of gas remaining in their car (in other words, emergency exceptions).

We use this system for water rationing and leaders say it works. The same logic could apply here. At least there would be a plan. And that is what we have clearly lacked.

Who would enforce these rules? Well, the media, which has covered the crisis to death, would be willing to remind folks endlessly who could or could not get gas on any given day. From that point on, the public would certainly remind those who were “breaking” in line. And those overworked attendants who have been forced to serve as pump police would also be there, although our guess is that after three or four days, they would no longer have to be serving as traffic cops.

Perhaps there are better plans. But what this state needs now is some plan other than that of pretending gasoline refinery production levels aren’t increasing (they are) and leaving a confused public with little guidance. If no action is taken, this situation, which based on our polling is becoming a miniature “Katrina” for state leaders, will likely continue for an unnecessary period of time

Now for the bigger issue—the so-called Washington “bailout.”

While we have issues with any bill of the magnitude of this one, we are more disturbed over a simple fact—the federal T-bill yields fell last week to zero for the first time since 1940. If a Member of Congress or anyone else doesn’t understand what that means, we don’t have time to educate them. We agreed that the initial bill proposed was drawn hastily and needed more oversight. But any so-called “conservative” Georgia Congressman who votes against this bill risks the chance that it might actually fail to pass. If so, liquidity in this nation will grind to a halt. Businesses already pressed to find cash to pay vendors and employees, will be forced to not make payments, fire employees, or grind to a halt. It is that simple.

Ironically, even the Congressional Budget Office suggests that, at some point in the future, the assets the government will be “bailing out” will likely pay for a great deal of the cost of the legislation. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce backs the bill. We would urge that business leaders immediately begin seeking and grooming for the 2010 election cycle a true business owner to run against any member of the Georgia delegation who votes against this bill on Monday. With all of its warts, it is a bill designed to save Main Street as much as Wall Street. Any member of Congress who doesn’t understand the serious nature of this bill needs to get into the same line that their actions, if followed by the majority, would put thousands of Americans—the unemployment line.