January 28, 2008

Who is Stupid?

"He's spending $12 million for a party room and he's criticizing spending the reserves? How stupid do you have to be to do that?" - That's just one of a list of reader comments below this AP story slamming Gov. Phil Bredesen for his pretending to be a fiscal conservative. Let's be clear about one thing: The state budget has skyrocketed during Bredesen's time in office - rising faster than the growth of the average income of the people of Tennessee. That kind of spending growth is unsustainable without a tax increase - which is why Bredesen raised taxes last year by nearly one quarter of a billion dollars.

It also is why the administration has for six years lied to the legislature about just how much its budgets were actually exceeding the state constitution's spending growth cap, which is tied to the growth of the average income of the people of Tennessee. Last May, the administration lied when it claimed the fiscal year 2007-08 budget was less than $60 million over the cap - in truth, it was $723 million over the cap. The administration simply and deliberately used the wrong baseline number, in order to conceal most of the over-cap spending.

But you can't conceal it forever - eventually the economy slows down a bit and the truth of the unsustainable spending growth rate is revealed.

Just how stupid do you have to be to criticize others for proposing to use reserves to pay for your overspending while you are spending millions to build a fancy underground ballroom at the governor's mansion? You don't have to be stupid. Why, you can be smart. You can even have a physics degree from Harvard. You just have to be arrogant, super-wealthy and out-of-touch with the real lives of ordinary folks who live paycheck to paycheck.