Jeremy Wallace reports on his Sarasota Herald-Tribune blog, "U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, has owned as many as 19 auto dealerships, including Sarasota Ford and Venice Nissan Dodge, and so can feel Detroit's pain as it struggles with the economy.

Still, Buchanan said he could not support the CEOs of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, who went last week to Capitol Hill to beg Congress for a $25 billion bailout package.

"Where do you draw the line in all of these bailouts?" Buchanan asked in a telephone interview last week."

Bravo Congressman Buchanan.

However, Jeremy goes on to report, "He [Buchanan] said he supports an alternate plan floated by Senate Republicans to allow the car companies access to $25 billion in federally subsidized loans intended to help the companies retool their plants to build fuel-efficient vehicles. Democrats, who hold the majority of seats in Congress, oppose the idea.

Buchanan isn't taking a hard line against the car companies. He said that unlike other Republicans, he does not believe they should be pushed into bankruptcy.

"Would you buy a car from a company that is bankrupt?" asked Buchanan...

My position is the American people already know GM is bankrupt and Ford and Chrysler are not far behind.

Using government money to pick winners and losers in any industry is wrong. I disagree with Congressman Buchanan on not letting the Big 3 file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. Just by them going to Congress and asking for money shows they can't pay their bills. I know what that means - bankrupt.

As the Heritage Foundation points out:

Failure is a part of U.S. business culture. That is why Americans feel extremely comfortable buying tickets from bankrupt airlines, electronics from bankrupt retailers, and apartments from bankrupt builders. To paraphrase a popular bumper sticker: bankruptcy happens. Bankruptcy does not have to be the end for any business. Instead bankruptcy, under Chapter 11, offers court-supervised protection from creditors so that a business can reorganize itself into a new successful form.

The larger and more complicated a company is, however, the more preparation it must do before it can enter Chapter 11. In fact the executives of businesses facing tough economic times have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders and creditors to develop a bankruptcy plan. Only the most irresponsible executives would shirk this duty, and only the most conniving would do so knowingly as part of an effort to blackmail the American taxpayer...

If Congress, or the Obama Administration, grants GM its bailout, they will have created a perpetual bailout machine, one that prompts every troubled industry in the country to abandon their fiduciary duty to plan for the worst and, instead, come to Washington demanding their hand-out.

I would recommend Congress let banks, insurance companies, auto companies, credit card companies and who ever else fail and file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. My belief is we will see better, more competitive companies after they restructure that will grow and prosper. If they cannot restructure then they will and should fail. Rewarding failure is a failed policy.

In the mean time those tens of thousands of companies providing goods and services that have done a good job of keeping their bottom lines in the black will continue to create jobs and grow and prosper. It is they who should be rewarded with capital gains tax cuts. That is what capitalism is all about.

As John F. Kennedy said, "Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people."

This goes for companies too.