Friday, August 27, 2010

Horner's misleading, big government budget revisited.

Tom Horner is a big government candidate for governor. He just doesn't like the DFL's big government budget. Either way, it's big government and that's the fundamental problem.

With the state state facing a projected $5.8 billion deficit, Horner wants to actually increase spending, using the euphemism "new investments", by $360 million.

He wants to increase taxes $2.15 billion over the next two years, primarily through sales tax increases.

His budget cuts are only $1.35 billion which are misrepresented as $2.45 billion. The extra $1.1 billion are redesign savings which is another way of saying we'll get rid of the inefficiencies of government and save boat loads of money. He would set up 10 "redesign teams" to change the way government does business. Those sorts of efficiency savings never materialize.

And then there is the $1.8 billion in delayed payments to schools. That's merely kicking the can down the street. Not dealing with overspending.

In his favor, Horner doesn't want to raise taxes on businesses and those business owners who create jobs. That means the tax increases are targeted at the poor and middle class through sales tax increases.

Ultimately, as government grows bigger and bigger, the poor and middle classes ultimately get hit the hardest. Either through seeing their taxes increase or lack of jobs because the government crowds out the private sector.

Either the liberal approach to big government or the Horner approach to big government, there's an attitude of we know what's best for society and we'll use government to socially engineer towards that goal. That's why we need to keep spending a lot of money and keep taxes high.

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