An old political game is for a governor of a state to PROPOSE say, a $2 billion increase in next year’s budget, and then when the legislature can “only” squeeze another $1.5 billion out of the poor, hapless, and helpless taxpayers, the Gov. then decries a “half billion dollars in budget CUTS.” Since most newspapers are little more than the propaganda arms of big government in each state, there is then a chorus of crying, sobbing, moaning, gnashing of teeth, whimpering, and doomsaying over the social catastrophe that is surely imminent.
Of course, there have been no budget “cuts” at all, but a gigantic budget increase of one and a half billion dollars in my example. This dishonest scam is currently being played out in Maryland (and in most other states). The front page of today’s Baltimore Sun, the propaganda rag of the state Democratic Party, screams, “[Governor] O’Malley Proposes Millions in Cuts”!!!!!!!!!
If one scrolls down to the sixth paragraph of the article, one reads in the first sentence that “Since taking office [three years ago], O’Malley has reduced spending by more than $3 billion.” But then the last sentence of the paragraph contradicts this, saying: “[T]he size of Maryland’s overall budget, which includes federal funds . . . has grown over the past three years” (emphasis added).
So what has been “cut” is O’Malley’s pie-in-the-sky wish list of billions of dollars of goodies to be passed out to any and every special-interest group in the state. In reality, Maryland state government is still growing by leaps and bounds and should be cut at least in half — for starters.
12:08 pm on July 22, 2009
