They're calling it a financial rescue package for fishermen.
But how can using $100 million in federal money to help — even encourage — fishermen to go out of business be viewed as a rescue from anything but the ability to make a living?
Perhaps the initiative by seven New England senators — including John Kerry of Massachusetts — for $150 million in federal money, $100 million of which would be used for a buyout plan to reduce the size of the New England fishing fleet, is well-intentioned. Perhaps the idea of a federal handout of tens of thousands of dollars will be seductive to some fishermen who have been worn down by federal regulations and a corrupt system of law federal fisheries enforcement.
But this proposal is wrong on many counts — not the last of which is that Kerry is a member of the party in power — the Democrats — who keep insisting that they are all about "jobs, jobs, jobs."
Read the complete editorial from the Gloucester Daily Times.