Why should I be surprised?

Hot on the heels of the government takeover of GM — you remember, the car company that was run into the ground by idiot management and overbearing unions? Yeah, that one — comes news that, shockingly, the government shouldn’t be in the business of running car companies:

Since the financial crisis broke, Congress has been acting like the board of USA Inc., invoking the infusion of taxpayer money to get banks to modify loans to constituents and to give more help to those in danger of foreclosure. Members have berated CEOs for their business practices and pushed for caps on executive pay. They have also pushed GM and Chrysler to reverse core decisions designed to cut costs, such as closing facilities and shuttering dealerships.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota persuaded GM to rescind a closure order for a large dealership in Bloomington, Minn. In Tucson, Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords did the same for Don Mackey, owner of a longstanding Cadillac dealership with 80 employees. Rep. Giffords argues it made sense, even for GM, to keep the Mackey dealership, which sold 750 cars last year. “All I did was to help get GM to focus on his case,” she says.

Lawmakers say it’s their obligation to guard the government’s investments, ensure that bailed-out firms are working in the country’s interests and protect their constituents. [Emp. mine]

Yup. Because protecting your constituents — by ensuring that obsolete jobs aren’t eliminated, primarily — is going to turn GM around. Fantastic. We would have been better off just taking the bailout money, dividing it amongst the people who were set to lose jobs in a GM bankruptcy, and giving it to them to do what they please. You want to go back to school? Here’s $400,000!* You want to go on a “Leaving Las Vegas” style bender and kill yourself with booze? Here’s $400,000! You want to travel the world and settle in another country more to your liking? Here’s $400,000! You could live like a king in Haiti with $400,000.

Or we could have just lit the $58 billion on fire just to watch it burn. Probably would have been better in the long run.

(h/t to Dave at the League.)

*Note: $400,000 is a number I pulled right out of thin air as a guesstimate for how much we spent on each job saved. If someone wants to point me to a more accurate number, have at it.