Belated admission

President Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from "collapse."

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

Bush's comments reflect an extraordinary departure from his longtime advocacy for an unfettered free market, as his administration has orchestrated unprecedented government intervention in the face of a dire financial crisis.

"I am sorry we're having to do it," Bush said.

What's news here is not the admission that Uncle Sam isn't permitting a free market, but rather that he's pretending he has up until recently. The current economic crisis was caused in no small part by government intervention in the free market--by encouraging subprime lending, for instance. So once again, government is asking for ever-more power to solve problems it was at the heart of creating in the first place.

I'd venture most high-ranking officials aren't sorry about "having to do it" at all. In fact, they probably see it as an unparalelled opportunity.