At the state and local level, I think Republicans have done better with spending than Democrats have. The states that are in serious financial trouble are mostly run by non-conservatives.
Let's look at two of the most imperiled states that I am familiar with. CA was run by Republicans for a long time. While it is true that Democrats have been in the majority in their legislature for awhile now, it hasn't been that long, and the downward trajectory of their finances began under Republican rule, not Democratic rule. It was [gee, this will surprise and shock everyone] the act of passing tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts that started that downward trajectory, and the reason why those tax cuts were approved was because [drum roll, please] the people who led to way to the tax cuts pretended [there's that nasty word again] that they could still have the services that everyone wanted and have to tax cuts too.
IL is also in big trouble. Well, guess what, until Blago was elected, IL had had around 20 years of Republican governors and most of that time at least one and often both houses of their legislature were Republican as well. I am not going to try to defend Blagoivich, but he was not the cause of the state's deficits. It was, once again, Republicans pretending that people could have something for nothing.
Of course politicians do that sort of thing all the time. But Republicans since the Reagan years have taken it to new heights. And CA got an early start on the rest of the country, having elected Reagan governor in the late 60s. What a guy, all right. Such a nice man.... |
