Of all the members of the Banking Committee, Bunning, with his strong free-markets bias, was the most critical—and perhaps the most prescient. “I am very troubled by the failure of Bear Stearns,” he said, “and I do not like the idea of the Fed getting involved in a bailout of that company. . . . That is socialism, at least that’s what I was taught. “And what’s going to happen,” he added ominously, “if a Merrill or a Lehman or someone like that is next?”
