Opportunity cost

10 May 2010 By James Pethokoukis

Elections have taught a U.S. senator and Angela Merkel’s party in Germany the same lesson: Taxpayers loathe bailouts, whether of banks or nations. But opponents of such rescues need instruction, too in the costs of the panic and destruction that would otherwise have ensued.

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U.S. Senator Bob Bennett, a conservative Utah Republican, failed in his bid for reelection in a state convention on May 8. Businessman Tim Bridgewater and upstart attorney Mike Lee claimed first and second place in a second round of voting in the party poll, beating Bennett who was first elected to the Senate in 1992.

Conservative Tea Party activists loosely organized around demands for lower taxes, reduced spending and more limited government have targeted mainstream Republicans in the runup to congressional elections in November. Bennett, who won his third term in 2004 with 60 percent of the vote, has been attacked by the right for supporting the Wall Street bailout.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's alliance of conservatives and probusiness Free Democrats, the FDP, lost a state election in North RhineWestphalia, Germany's most populous state. Merkel's support for bailouts of banks and, most recently, Greece has been unpopular in Germany and figured in the final phase of the North RhineWestphalia election. Merkel's loss in the state means she will have to rely on opposition parties to pass her policy agenda, which had included billions of euros in planned income tax cuts.

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