tastefully named, tastefully writtenGregg Easterbrook has a simply scandalous idea, why not make States earn what they spend? "I'm the only candidate in this race who has ever balanced a budget," Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis memorably claimed during the 1988 presidential contest. In the current primaries, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has bragged, "I'm the only candidate in this race who has ever balanced a budget." In truth, neither Dukakis nor Dean ever came remotely close to balancing a budget, at least in the sense of raising as much money as he spent. The Massachusetts and Vermont ledgers, like all state budgets, were in the black only because of federal aid. In fiscal 2001, 21 percent of state revenue came as federal grants for education, transportation, Medicaid, and a range of other programs. Were it not for such donations from the U.S. Treasury, all states would run perennial deficits. Read more in the latest issue of The New Republic. |
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