Hal Lee Luyah
The budget balancing act that goes on in Washington this time of every year would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. Those politician balancing acts would be a sideshow, not allowed in one of the 3 rings.
In the first place they say they are going to cut spending to balance the budget, but what they are really doing is cutting proposed increases in the budget.
They’ve adopted the liar’s theory: If you tell one often enough people will start to believe it.
They preach ‘cut, cut, cut,? but in the end the deficit goes higher, and more gets spent on constituents of representatives as the ‘you wash my back and I’ll wash yours? budget process proceeds.
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‘Voters want a fraud they can believe in.?
Will Durst
Last year in Lansing the legislature adopted 500 new laws, according to the State Journal. One hundred twenty-seven of them voted on in the state senate on the last day of the 2004 session.
Talk about delaying a vote until the right time!
How much discussion was there on each bill? How many legislators had gone home already? How many knew exactly what they were voting Aye on?
This amounts to twenty percent of the year’s work in the Capitol being done in reckless haste. If this is the case, we certainly don’t need a full time legislature.
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‘No matter what your religion, you should try to become a government program, for then you will have everlasting life.?
U. S. Representative Lynn Martin
The current legislature in Lansing is expected introduce between 3,000 and 5,000 bills. Hard to believe anyone can believe Michiganders need that many changes to current law or that many new laws.
What’s needed most in both Lansing and Washington are seers, people with good vision on matters of money. Forecasts of income and outgo in financial matters in our leaders? centers is akin to the weatherman’s reputation. But, actually weather people are genius prognosticators compared to DC and Lansing guessers.
State and federal economists are forever coming up with ‘shortfalls,? thus requiring refiguring, which may lead to increases in fees, permits, licenses or something else that does not require voter approval. Remember the cigarette tax increase, upping the snowmobile fee, and allowing the increase in liquor prices (taxes).
That last one slams the poorest among us, the ones politicos say they are always looking out for.
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Now, if an already deficit initial budget isn’t bad enough, along comes an $82 billion ‘supplemental? budget. Washington politicos set a great example for their constituents. The big difference, of course, is that constituents money is their own and politicos? money is also their constituents?.
What is it that transforms people who are money conscious citizens in pre-election times, to spendthrifts once in office?
We see it locally as well as at the state and national levels, too. Projects get started that non-office holders would fight against, raises are given at faster paces, funding is allowed that constituents don’t approve funds are named that help keep millage rates at full tilt.
Something happens that alters people’s thinking the day after election day. I call it the ‘It ain’t my money, so let’s spend it? syndrome.
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‘Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it’s not one bit better than the government we got for one third the money twenty years ago.?
Will Rogers