The U.S. Senate approved another bail-out Wednesday, this one for state governments. In a 61-38, mostly party-line vote, Virginia Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner agreed to provide $26 billion in aid to the states, nominally to save the jobs of some 145,000 teachers and prop up state Medicaid programs. Approval by the House of Representatives and signature by President Obama seems to be a foregone conclusion.
Thus do 50 state governments join the long list of beggars, special pleaders, con artists and others addicted to Uncle Sam’s Keynesian cocaine. The passage of the $787 billion porkulus bill last year gave states a brief reprieve. Now Congress hands out another vial of crack. Next year, the states will be back for more.
As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said: “For the first time in our history, the federal government is the single largest source of revenue for the states. When does it end?”
End? Why should it end? That’s the way it works in Washington, D.C. — keep everyone on the dole. Keep everyone on bended knee, as dependents and supplicants. That’s the way incumbents hold onto power.
Here’s my question: Why should Virginia’s senators participate in a bailout which is driven by the bankrupt politics of other states? We made tough choices here in the Old Dominion. We kept our fiscal house in relative order. Admittedly, Virginia is far from perfect, as demonstrated by the $650 million under-funding of the Virginia Retirement System this year. But the commonwealth has been far less improvident than, say, California, Illinois and New York. This vote does a huge disservice to Virginia taxpayers.
It also does a disservice to the nation. Add that $26 billion to the $34 billion that Congress appropriated to extend unemployment benefits, and that’s $60 billion not contemplated in the proposed FY 2011 budget — a budget that Congress hasn’t gotten around to passing yet. But, hey, who needs a budget? Just put the $60 billion on the nation’s tab. Borrow the money from the Chinese, Japanese, the petro-states and the hot European flight-to-safety money seeking refuge from the Greek bail-out.
One more question: What happens when Boomergeddon comes? What happens when the federal government defaults on its debt and literally can borrow no more? What happens when Congress can spend no more money than the country brings in from taxes — requiring a cut of some 30 to 40 percent of total spending? Who will bail out state governments then? Who will pay for extended unemployment benefits then?
Senators Warner and Webb say they believe in fiscal responsibility. Yet they still vote for every budget-busting bill that comes their way. I mock their empty words.