General fund spending per $100 of Californians' personal income in the next fiscal year is projected to be the lowest ($5.05) since Ronald Reagan was governor. (Reagan had righted the sinking ship by raising taxes a record amount.)
This was from the article that I just commented on. At the time, I did not quite know just how to respond to the claim, until I found The U.S. Budget and Economy blog.
From 2000 to 2001, average total spending was about $141 billion. From 2008 to 2009, it was about $200 billion. Maintaining spending per capita and accounting for inflation, spending should only have increased to $198 billion. It has exceeded this. That is an extra $2 billion, and that is only since 2000 when state spending had increased dramatically.
The point is, George Skelton is lying through his teeth to make Democrats look good. He is not including the special fund and bond fund into his calculations, especially the special fund, which has exploded. When those are taken into account, the evidence shows that we are spending too much, even relative to levels that were already far too high in 2000. Would going back to 1991 spending kill us? People survived back then so I assume we could do it again.
Tax increases will only validate their bad spending policies and will not solve the problem that is too much spending, mostly on prisons and pensions.
No comments:
Post a Comment