Government Programs Only Make Things Worse

The other story that everyone else is covering is President Obama's plan to close Gitmo. It is important and I'll come back to it.

But there is one thing today that ties all of these things together. One thing that is universally true: government programs make you feel good, but they only make things worse. Let me give you a recent example that will make blood shoot out of your eyes.

In Minnesota, there's a recent state law that requires a two percent mix of biodiesel in diesel fuel. They say this will all help save the planet — which makes people feel really good — and that is so easy and effective, they'll gradually raise the minimum biofuel to 20 percent.

Sounds great, right? I mean, who doesn't love those trees?

Let's look at reality. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that on Friday, the Bloomington School District had to cancel all their classes because some of their buses couldn't start. Why couldn't the buses start? Because apparently this biodiesel blend turns into a gel when it gets too cold. Hello! It's Minnesota in January!

Even worse, school nurses had to treat some kids for hypothermia after they hung out at bus stops for hours in negative 20 degree weather, or because they were on buses that stalled and of course the heaters don't work without running engines, which they can't do because the darn engines won't run on gel. Then the geniuses decide that the way to overcome this is to let the buses idle all night. Perfect, since they're trying to save the environment.

Do people care about making good decisions anymore or are we just making stuff up that makes us feel all warm and cuddly inside?

Lawmakers put children's safety at stake because they don't want their buses to run on a politically incorrect kind of fuel.

This is exactly like President Obama's order to close Gitmo without any real plan for what to do with the prisoners. Sure it makes us feel warm and cozy inside, but did anyone actually think this through?