Augusta Chronicle
February 9, 2009

Some leaders emerging from mess

The current economic meltdown started when the housing bubble burst last year.

So why isn't the economic stimulus bill largely about that?

It wasn't at all about the housing crisis until Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson stepped in.

The Republican with a background in real estate convinced his colleagues in the Senate last week to add a tax break for homebuyers of up to $15,000 to the stimulus bill.

It's amazing that such a provision had to be retrofitted into the bill. But thank the heavens that Isakson was there to do it.

Isakson's proposal was such a no-brainer that it was passed without dissent in the sharply divided Senate.

Great leadership has also been shown by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint. The Republican -- one of the first to oppose the ultimately failed nomination of Tom Daschle to head the Department of Health and Human Services -- proposed stripping the stimulus bill of all government spending proposals and replacing them with tax cuts for the people. His proposal was easily defeated by a chamber that is hellbent on spending. But DeMint's approach -- getting more money into the economy for people to spend -- is the right one.

We also wish folks in Washington would listen to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who has been stalwart in his opposition to the very kind of corrosive spending that this "stimulus" bill represents.

"It's a package that will balloon deficit spending, and I think we're getting to the tipping point in regard to the value of the dollar," Sanford was recently quoted as saying. "We can go too far in running the printing presses. We really risk trashing the dollar and undermining every bit of stimulus or so-called stimulus that's been implemented to date.

"I just think it has a lot of deficiencies. I think it's going to make the problem bigger and longer.

"If you look at the history of the Great Depression, it was brought about, in fact, by government policy that made the problem much bigger than when it started. I think we're headed down that same road, unfortunately."

Leadership isn't about telling people what they want to hear. And it's not about extolling what our country can do for us. It's about doing what's right, preaching individual responsibility and sacrifice, and showing the way toward a collective responsibleness. And it's certainly not responsible to leave yet another $1 trillion in debt to our progeny.

All of that seems to be lost on most of our leaders in Washington.

Most. But not all.