Government Spending
No government has ever spent its way to prosperity. Our proposals help governments be fiscally responsible so citizens can be prosperous.
Benjamin Franklin once said he would rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt. Not so for Governor Napolitano. For example, the governors latest budget adds over $1 billion in new debt to the states outstanding balance of $8.2 billion.
As any credit card holding American knows, spending money on credit means interest payments. Over the next three years, Arizona will pay out $630 million in interest alone more than twice the general fund budget for public safety in the previous three years combined.
The proposal to tap into the rainy day fund to pay for highways was defeated in the state legislature. In response, the Arizona Republic noted: That leaves Gov. Janet Napolitano's proposal to issue 30-year bonds, and a long shot bid to raise the state gasoline tax, as the only ideas still on the legislative agenda for a short-term fix for congestion woes.
*Publishers note: Today Road Rage launches a new Goldwater Institute feature called At a Glance. At a Glance will be published near the first of every month and will feature a chart, picture or graphic that illustrates a key policy issue facing Arizona. We hope you enjoy At a Glance and would like to ask for your help with it. If you see a chart or graph that the Goldwater Institute should publish, please send it to Starlee Rhoades, srhoades@goldwaterinstitute.org.
The British Pop band Naked Eyes was ahead of its time. Its 1983 hit song "Promises, Promises" sums up the Governor's health insurance proposal:
You made me promises, promises
Knowing I'd believe
Promises, promises
You knew you'd never keep.
Governor Napolitano wants to enroll an additional 100,000 children in the states Medicaid program. No one begrudges children accessing health care, but there are better plans in the private sector.
When Governor Janet Napolitano says she is not going to raise your taxes to pay for her budget priorities, the operative word is your. The $400 million in debt financing she recommends is simply a way of forcing the citizens of tomorrow to pay for programs we want today.
The governors 2008 budget calls for an 11 percent increase in spending over this year--which itself was 20 percent higher than 2006. Adding another $407 million to our debt load balances the budget and allows her to claim a budget increase of just 6.9 percent.
When Milton Friedman passed away, the world lost a great teacher. But we are all better off because he lived at all.
Dr. Friedman taught us many important lessons. His instruction on sound monetary policy brought about the end of runaway inflation. He persuasively argued for an all-volunteer military, helping end the draft.
But, one of Friedman's most groundbreaking ideas concerned education. In 1955, he published The Role of Government in Education, in which he laid out a vision for education that would transfer control from the government to parents:
The Farm Bill is coming up for debate in Congress next year. That presents a perfect opportunity for Arizona's representatives to take a stand against cotton subsidies. Since 1995 taxpayers nationwide have spent $582 million subsidizing cotton growing in Arizona's desert. This practice needs to end.
It makes no sense to spend taxpayer money propping up private enterprises. If property owners want to grow cotton, great, but taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it.
Policymakers have spent as if they had a limitless checking account in recent years. But state revenue is now set to slow.
Representative Phil Lopes, for one, knows the states all-you-can-spend smorgasbord cant last forever, admitting to the Arizona Republic, Were all limited by the revenue. Slower revenue growth is an opportunity to choose creative solutions to the states challenges, solutions that don't add to the taxpayers burden.
After the New Year, some of us look back and promise to drop those extra pounds, pay off our credit cards, or stop drinking. Twelve-step programs have proven popular in this regard. Perhaps with the ringing in of the New Year, its time for government spenders to sober up. Heres one easy step in that direction.
When I was a child my parents used the old adage: "nothing in life is free." But since they paid for everything I needed, it's no wonder I didn't believe them.
As I grew older, I did chores to earn money for clothing, helped in car washes to earn money for sports, and got a job to save for a car. Eventually I learned my parents were right, nothing in life is free.