"John McCain has said on the Senate floor that saying the government spends like drunken sailors is an insult to drunken sailors. Drunken sailors stop drinking when the money runs out."
Man oh man! Have I been hearing one thing over and over again as of late. Who is guarding the hen house? Is it someone trustworthy, or just another fox? Seems like in the past few years, people we have elected to go to either Washington or St. Paul get mesmerized by the view. Or intoxicated by the water. Or maybe just fascinated by the lofty perch they now occupy.
Disappointment has been the feeling du jour with Conservatives and Tea Party activists. The money keeps pouring into federal and state coffers, and the spenders are lined up "heel to toe" ready to commit the cash to "vital programs". The faces change, the names change, the results do not. We are on an express elevator heading downward with no brakes to stop us.
Consider the following:
State Transportation - This morning our local "unbiased" paper weighted in how they would solve our transportation "problem". Three solutions offered were as follows - taxes, taxes and then more taxes. They thought a good compromise would be something between the Governor's proposal and the House proposal. When I read the paper's compromise, it looked nothing like the House plan and a whole lot like the Governor's plan. Is the House going to state resolute and reject more taxes? Or will this be another trip into yesteryear when our elected Tea Party delegates turn into Democrat "Light" delegates.
More Education Spending - Imagine my surprise when I turned on the television and there was a commercial sponsored by the Education Minnesota. What was it about? (Gasp!) More money for the darling children. Why? Because we don't spend enough on them. And now we have that big, fat juicy surplus. Plus Education Minnesota is now using their most favorite term - investment. Spending more money on our broken education system is an investment in our future. "Reduce the achievement gap!" "More Pre-K funding!" Blah, blah, blah. We spend a ton of bucks in the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts and get miserable results from many of the schools. Under all this Education Minnesota pressure, we will see if our "stalwart guardians of the purse" stay true to their principles - or not.
Higher Ed - Yes, even the head of our University had now weighed in on what we should do with our projected $2B surplus. Seems he did not like the "cut" the University was going to get from the House budget. He wants more. He also wants some of that tempting surplus. Here is a guy making over $500k/year saying the University needs more. They always need more. In reality they need less. They need less and to learn how to do a better job with less. This is why we should NEVER put educators in charge of our education systems. We should have people with a business background who understand what it is like to live and prosper under a budget.
State Welfare - This one might step in some toes. I will say sorry in advance. Our state continues to be a magnet for not only people in this country, but also the world. Is it our wonderful climate? Not hardly. "Moneyapolis". Our very generous and seemingly endless welfare benefits.
Now it is crunch time. We have already seen some of our troops go soft and migrate to the dark side. Our state budget proposal seems like only "pennies" less that the Governor's or the Senate's budget. Our TEA Party principles seemed to have been left at the front door of the Capital buildings, both in St. Paul as well as Washington.
The TEA Party has been seen by the party faithful as the little Dutch boy, trying to save the dyke by putting his fingers in the holes. Seems that some of our representatives are like the little Dutch boy who has forgotten his mission. In fact, some are drilling new holes in the dyke.
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