Don't worry; be happy!

It's one thing to be optimistic and another thing to be right.

President Obama is certainly optimistic about the future of this country, and many people are hoping he is right. Even Rep. Denny Rehberg, Montana's Republican congressman who voted against the stimulus package earlier this month, told me at an editorial board meeting last week that he wishes the president and the Democrats all the best of luck in saving our nation's economy.

But it's one thing to be wishful and another thing to be optimistic, and I don't think anyone would say that Rep. Rehberg, despite his best wishes, is optimistic about the likelihood of spending our way out of a money shortage.

Yet that is the solution on the table.

It seems almost as though the Democrats in power (and a few stray Republicans' are living in some kind of bubble that makes them think they can spend money to solve any kind of problem - whether it's banks that made bad loans, companies that made bad deals, or borrowers who bit off more than they could chew.

President Obama's proposed $275 billion bailout for mortgage lenders and homeowners is the latest example. Under the plan, $75 billion would be used as incentives to get lenders to lower payments for at-risk homeowners, while $200 billion would be used to encourage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower the rate on new mortgages to make housing more affordable.

Wow! Sounds like somebody didn't learn their lesson about government intervention in the housing market (not to mention the free market) from the earlier subprime debacle. Let's not forget that subprime lending practices were encouraged by Fannie Mae and members of Congress to help make housing more affordable in the first place.

And the solution is … what? More of the same?

Who's kidding who? It's plain to anyone who thinks about it that 3 percent mortgage rates are going to jimmy the system just as badly as no-down-payment, no-interest loans made to people who can't afford the houses they bought. What's going to happen is that everybody and his Uncle Phil is going to want to get in on the cheap housing bonanza of 2009, and people who really shouldn't be buying houses are going to buy them, and then they are going to default on their loans, and we are going to have to bail out the banks - again.

Or maybe not. If we are truly optimistic, then perhaps everything will work out fine in the brave new world of fiscal policy. Or to paraphrase Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits: "Money for nothing and your house for free."

That's the way you do it.

n Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com