I guess Republicans aren’t dead yet politically. At least in Kansas they’re not. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius rolled over and signed the budget, allowing Kansas to be able to meet payroll and pay out tax refunds. It seems the “political games” (her words) were basically being played by her, and she lost (2/18, A-1, “Kansas budget standoff settled; Gov. Sebelius agrees to Republican-backed $300 million in cuts, but lessens sting to schools”).
In Kansas it’s fairly clear: If you borrow a ton of money for your budget, you have to pay it back. And the Republican leadership actually had the audacity to want to do it this year, as the law calls for. And if that’s the case, you have to have actual money to do that.
People across the country should look at this example of what should be happening at the federal level, because our current president doesn’t have this conservative legislature to balance his out-of-control spending and borrowing.
Dyrk Dugan
Overland Park
So the enlightened argument from our friends on the left is that because Bush did a bad thing it entitles Obama to do bad things? This is the "CHANGE" we were promised?
Posted by: Smarter Than You | February 24, 2009 at 09:42 PM
Pub 17
LBJ welfare, now back under new management. Whatever or whoever they are spending like, they are spending without knowing just what they are spending it for. Don't like the number in the final bill, no problem. Just write your figure in and no one will question it.
Posted by: Engineer | February 23, 2009 at 08:30 PM
You mean Bush put the national Buick into a pole, and now his successor has to get a laser-aligned frame-straightening. They're not spending like drunken sailors, they're spending like a bar owner after the drunken sailor leaves the building.
And what "failed" LBJ program was that, Engineer? Save it for the kids who didn't live through that era.
Posted by: Pub 17 | February 23, 2009 at 06:53 PM
Girl Power
I frequently heard criticisms from the left that Bush was not spending enough on this or that social program. But your wish is coming true. Obama/Pelosi/Reid are getting ready to spend like drunken sailors on social programs while cutting the DOD budget. Also more or less reconstituting LBJ's failed welfare program. But, hey, BC cut the DOD budget and the size of the Armed forces and all that did was cut our strength when we needed the deactivated divisions.
Posted by: Engineer | February 23, 2009 at 06:08 PM
Mr Dugan, who the heck do you think created the "out-of-control spending and borrowing"? We just had 8 years of it. It began with Bush. Bush inherited a budget surplus and ran it into the ground. Obama inherited the worst budget deficit we have ever seen.
Posted by: Stifled Freedom | February 23, 2009 at 05:26 PM
vv1970 - That's because there's usually a good return on investment from killing bad guys with the resources to do harm. The return on investment on this stuff is negative. This is like exchanging a dollar for 90 cents.
Posted by: Sammy | February 23, 2009 at 03:44 PM
Hey Dyck where was your outrage when Bush was spending a trillion dollars to turn Iraq into a Shi'ite-ruled version of the Balkans and Afghanistan into a failing narco-state?
It amuses me that people will croak endlessly about spending our money in America, but they're strangely silent when we spend money to kill foreigners.
Posted by: viet-vet1970 | February 22, 2009 at 11:32 PM