Editorial - SwampfoxNews.COM

EDITORIAL
Money Makes The Statehouse Go 'Round
A Cabaret In Five Acts with Many, Many Clowns...

May 17, 2009

(Columbia Asylum) - There has been so much baloney written about the state budget that it defies credibility. Everybody with an axe to grind and a steer to keep from being poked has used the stimulus cash as a political drum. I kept waiting and waiting for someone to write an article showing both sides of the argument, but nobody seemed to want to do that. Now, this editorial is going to be more of a post-game post mortem. Oh well..

Here are the facts:

$700 million, above and beyond all the other money that the Federal government steals from us and "gives" us back, is being made available, thanks to the completely stupid government "stimulus" bill.

We are going to be taxed to death in the years to come to pay for it.

We are going to be taxed to death in the years to come to pay for any TARP bank "recovery" money that isn't paid back to the Federal Government/Federal Banking system.

We already have a massive federal debt which grew large as we defended ourselves against terrorists, and which has been growing logarithmically since 2007 thanks to the House & Senate being filled to the brim with liberals and moderates.

The debt, as we speak, is over $11,300,000,000,000 and growing rapidly.

That number does not take into consideration the bankrupt Medicaid/Medicare system nor the bankrupt Social Security system.

As to the $700,000,000 of our stolen money, which is being reluctantly returned, it can be spent pretty much on whatever we wish. The language in the bill is so general and has been amended so many times, that a duck passing by could lay claim to the money. So it's both true that the Governor and the Legislature can lay claim to the bucks.

It is NOT true that the education budget needed to be trimmed at all. Nor any of the other items in the July 1 budget.

It IS true that the Budget and Control Board suggested that these items be slashed so that we could keep our precious social programs and patronaged road contracts.

It is NOT true that the government would be any less wasteful with the Governor taking all the power.

It IS true that the Legislature needs to hang on to all the power it can, so that nobody in the state has enough power to make Acton's Axion come true.

It is NOT true that Gov. Sanford is a bad guy. Neither is it true that any one person in the Legislature is a terrible person. (Well.. maybe one.. but we're not counting him..)

It IS true that almost everybody in our Government WANTED to be there, and that, by itself, is scary enough.

It is also true that Gov. Sanford wanted to pay down debt with the money. But it is equally true that our State debt can be figured in so many ways that it is possible to say we have no debt or we have too much debt.

It is equally true that we fund too many social programs rather than letting the churches, synagogues, and mosques do the tasks. Some of programs should be eliminated because they simply do not work - Head Start is the most noticeable one - it's a baby sitting service - but we could also do away with many of the so-called "oversight" boards, filled with the Governor's appointees. One thing that would be accomplished is that a lot of cars with low numbered license plates would be off the road and out of our faces. Parenthetically, we could save hundreds of millions of dollars by simply de-criminalizing some recreational drugs. That's "de-criminalizing" not "legalizing."

Doing away with textbooks and relying on teacher created material and the internet would also save millions. Textbooks are a joke, anyway. They cost far more than they're worth, and most of them are not factual. A state subscription to PASCAL does ten times the job for one one-hundredth of the money.

It is also true that many teachers do not teach well and rely on textbooks and wouldn't know what PASCAL was if it asked them out to dinner, which it can't. Firing a few of these barnacles could save money too, so that the money could be paid to non-administrative teachers. Making high school voluntary would save many more millions in law suits and extra "administration" hires.

Finally, South Carolina is feeling the pinch, but we are in no way as bad off as people in, say, Detroit, or Cahleeforneeyah. It's not great, but there are places in this state that are growing as fast as some areas are shrinking, job-wise.

So, there are the facts. We really don't need the money. But we really are going to have to pay a lot for it, whether we take it or not. It doesn't matter where it goes, because our budget is tight, but not broken-down. There are things that we can do to make sure we don't need to take the money, but too many politicians are counting on using those phony baloney jobs as bribes for votes.

So don't blame the Governor unless you point a finger at the Legislature and take that third hand and point it right back at yourself.

And while you're at it, point a fourth hand at Barack dumb-as-dirt Obama and George Gullible-as-heck Bush. Fifth hand - the people who lied and said the banks needed to be saved.

See? It's all very simple.

- Dick Anderson

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