As I write, it appears Congress will give us an economic “stimulus” plan whether we need one or not, just as Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan has offered his judgment that the recession is over and expansion is well underway. Last week, President Bush significantly delayed the necessary continuing transformation of the steel industry by imposing sweeping tariff protection from steel imports for three years. Now pending resolution in House-Senate conference is a farm bill that would reverse the free market agriculture reforms begun in the mid-1980’s and, in effect, repeal the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996. What do these bailouts have in common? Along with the Federal payments to the victims of 9-11, they perpetuate our entitlement mentality, feed the cancer of cynicism, and send the wrong message about the role of government in a free society. I am reminded of a statement made years ago by former Michigan Governor George Romney: “We no longer have a republic. We have a special interest pork barrel democracy and we haven’t adjusted our institutions to that fact.”