Too Quaint To Fail

Bailout creep reaches a new low.

William Kane, a quality analyst for a prescription benefits administrator in Kingsland, Ga., sent an email to his local Congressional representatives, the White House, the Treasury Department and Barack Obama’s transition team telling them of the financial hardship his mother’s St. Mary’s, Ga. small antiques business faced. Sales, he wrote, fell from averaging $12,000 a month in 2007 to less than $2,000 a month in October 2008. (His mother’s business, Kane’s Kollectables, is pictured to the above right.)

After listing off the huge sums of money some of the huge banks are receiving under Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s financial-rescue plan, he said it’s only fair that a small business get its share of federal aid.

He wrote:

“We do not have any pockets to line, pork to add, or monetary promises to make. I can promise a vote, and our word that will we not use our money to add to our overhead by purchasing another failing business. We will not hold $400,000 executive getaways on your tab. We may use your money to expand our business, but we certainly will not do so in a way that will set us up for failure. We aren’t asking for billions. We as taxpayers are paying for it, I think it’s only fitting some of the smaller fish in the pond have access to the funds.”

Kane doesn't seem to indicate whether some of the money will be put toward more visually alliterative signage.