Posted by
Tim Blessing on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 7:38:52 PM
My state cannot get its budget in order.
In lean economic times, they cut spending and raise taxes.
In good economic times, they raise spending and cut taxes.
My state has raided its trust funds dramatically on more than one occasion in violation of the state constitution.
Balancing the Budget is a Constitutional Requirement in my state and a whole host of other states.
Yet, they are constantly struggling to make ends meet.
If I was a member of state government, I would raise taxes in good times and keep spending down as much as possible.
If I was in state government during the bad times, I would take the budget surplus and spend it and cut taxes to spur statewide economic growth.
Eisenhower did this in the 1950s through 3 recessions and he had fine tuned the approach by 1960. The problem was Kennedy did not follow through and institutionalize the approach.