The American Pundit

Which means it’ll likely fail in the Senate. We’ve got at least Ensign, DeMint, Shelby, Vitter, Coburn, and now Minority Leader McConnell all talking about how the bill needs to be stopped. I’m not even willing to bet that Harry Reid has all of his 50 votes tied up, as Blue Dog Democrats eye the polls and moods in their districts.

National Review has the entire speech’s text, but here’s a crucial bit:

A lot of struggling Americans are asking where their bailout is. They wonder why one business would get support over another. When it comes to the auto industry, many Republicans in Congress have asked these same questions.

There are many principled reasons to oppose this bill. But the simplest one is also the best: “a government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take everything we have.” This is as true for individuals as it is for business. It’s the primary principle on which American industry, including the auto industry, was built. And even in turbulent moments like this — perhaps especially at moments like this — it’s a principle well worth defending.

Some argue that the effects of an auto industry collapse would be too acute and far-reaching for an already-struggling economy to bear. This is impossible to know. And even if we grant that these companies would fail without taxpayer help, we would still have to ask ourselves whether the proposal before us achieves the goal that everyone claims to embrace — namely, the long-term viability of ailing car companies — and, in my view, it does not.

I wish we’d seen more of this conservatism over the past few years.

More: Michelle Malkin.