This whole thing began with politicians believing they could use the government to remove all pain from the free market. No bank crashes, no housing price collapses, no economic downturns. All the government needed was to put the taxpayer into the equation.

The current attempt is more of the same: Politicians trying to find a way to fix the screwup without any damage being done. More pennies in the fuse box.

I don't know whether the bailout or the "nasty medicine" will do more damage to the economy in the short run. I do know what will happen in the long run, but most politicians agree with Keynes: "In the long run, we're all dead." Hence also the whistling past the graveyard of entitlements for years.