'Twas the Fight Before Christmas'

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas'
And all the congressional creatures were stirring.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Thursday, December 13, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

'Twas the fight before Christmas, on Capitol Hill,
With Congress concocting a "stimulus" bill,
The Senate's Tom Daschle obstructing with care
The American system we call laissez-faire,

While industries nestled all snug in the red
In hopes of protection and handouts ahead
More bailouts for airlines, a newer "New Deal"
For stuffing the stocking of Bethlehem Steel

Congress looked to the war and attendant alarms
To justify aid for insurance and farms,
And hastened to subsidize railroads and nuts.
But refused to do much in the way of tax cuts.

Till it seemed by the Christmas 2001 season
We'd bought into Keynes and just written off reason,
The aim being more to see tax money spent
Than that anyone care where the nation's wealth went,

When out on the mall there arose such a clatter
That everyone dashed to see what was the matter,
And there--can it be? Was it only a dream?--
Was a miniature sleigh, and you know, it did seem

That aboard was St. Nick, of the old Christmas rhyme,
But he'd brought someone special to help him this time:
There seated beside him--St. Nick had come with
An old friend of this nation--he'd brought Adam Smith.

And I knew that St. Nick had looked down at our plight
And realized the boost that was needed that night,
For a nation whose Congress is so in the dark, it's
Worth lending an ear to the mentor of markets.

They both rushed to the Hill and they asked for a word,
With Daschle! With Schumer! With Rangel! With Byrd!
Said Smith, this economy's got to stay free
If you hope to keep adding to your GDP.

He is right, said St. Nick, and you'd better behave
Let your countrymen choose how to spend or to save,
Said Smith, it's quite naughty to think you know best.
Give taxpayers a break, and give bailouts a rest.

And then, in this vision, they both gave a wink
As if to suggest it was high time to think
That America's spirit, its wealth and its soul
Is a function of liberty, not of the dole.

And the best gift the Hill could leave under the tree
Would be to abandon this tax-and-spend spree.
And giving a nod, these gents sprang to their sleigh
And I heard them exclaim, as they both flew away
"Free markets for all, in 2002!"
And Congress agreed. (Don't you wish it were true?)

Ms. Rosett is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. Her column appears Thursdays on OpinionJournal.com and in The Wall Street Journal Europe as "Letter From America."