Governing By Blank Check

Minnesota's governor lays down the law

"The enormity of the budget crisis we are facing today will unquestionably demand Minnesotans look at their state government is a much different way," Pawlenty said. "The days of a program for every problem and a state government that leads by blank check are over."

The saddest and most enraging thing about the state budget crisis around the nation is not that there is a budget crisis, but that the states have gorged themselves on our money and politicians have used laws to help all manner of people...to the point that something as simple and logical as his statement must be made. It's sickening to hear demands to raise taxes. It's doubly sickening when those who call for those raises don't even question the efficacy of the programs they whore themselves for.

In a letter to state residents, Pawlenty said the state's economy cannot be jump started by raising taxes and held fast to his campaign promise not to raise levies.

"The only way to do this is to rein in the growth in government spending," Pawlenty said.

No shit. When I realize I'm about to go into debt, I don't threaten strangers with jail time if they don't give me money, which is precisely what the opponents of statements like these propose. Instead, I cut my costs and live cheaper.

Pawlenty said he's done his best to shield elementary and secondary education from cuts and actually increased per pupil allotments by 2.2 percent.

[...]

The budget increases student financial aid for higher education by $60 million and maintains the state's safety net for the needy, increasing spending for health and human services by 8 percent. Local government aid increased 6.2 percent for cities and 2.4 percent for counties.

Of course, you can't expect real change any time soon. Pin pricks before public proscription.

Texas Governor Perry is saying basically the same thing.

Perry said too often members of the government forget there is a taxpayer behind every tax dollar that comes in. It would be easy to raise taxes, but that is not what he said he wants to do.

"Tax hikes hit Texas families and small businesses right in the wallet," he said. "If your families and business owners watch the bottom line and prioritize spending, why shouldn't the government?"

The problem in government is not a lack of funds, he said. The problem is the lack of controlled spending.

Writhe, Democrats! WRITHE!

Of course, the demands of politics strip away real-world realities.

As if a war with the powerful and respected Greenspan is not enough of a distraction from the problems created by perfidious France and a Germany devoid of historical memory, Bush also has to adjudicate a dispute between the free traders in his government and the realpoliticians. Despite the fact that the European scientific community has ruled that genetically modified foods are perfectly safe, Europe's agricultural protectionists have prevented the sale of these grown-in-America foods in the European Union.

European Union negotiators admit privately that they have no chance of winning should the United States trigger a WTO review, which the administration's trade mavens are eager to do. But the State Department, striving mightily to keep as many European nations as possible in America's anti-Iraq "coalition of the willing," is forcing the administration to hold back. Freer trade in agricultural products seems to be the first casualty of war on Saddam.

Posted by Drizzten at February 19, 2003 12:27 AM