Steel yourself

Now that the car industry has its (first) financial crisis bailout package, guess what? Big Steel has joined the queue, asking for a huge infrastructure program with massive "buy America" provisions that might risk trade wars that worsen the global crisis and raise costs for everybody else but on the plus side would send money right to them. As everyone gets bailouts, though, some question must arise as to who's going to pay. Will homeowners fund autos, autos fund steel and steel fund homeowners? It's like that Battle of the Bulge joke about the Sarge saying "Men, I have good news and bad. The good news is after a week in foxholes you all get a change of socks. The bad news is, Harry you change with George, Sam you change with Fred..."