Rejecting federal money
Emerson Lynn, Jr.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
REPUBLICAN LEADERS in the Kansas Legislature continue to resist using federal stimulus money to avoid budget cuts, as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has proposed.
“It’s extremely exasperating,” said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jay Emler, a Lindsborg Re-publican. “It’s smarter to stop spending now than two years from now, but people just can’t seem to accept that.”
What Sen. Emler would rather do, one gathers, is to cut next year’s budget by $625 million and let the feds keep their money.
The state expects to receive $1.7 billion from the stimulus. Sebelius wants to use $585 million of it to help avoid a deficit in fiscal 2010, and she’d use an additional $375 million to keep the fiscal 2011 budget balanced, AP writer John Hanna reported.
Sen. Emler went on to say that the budget problem will be even worse two years from now when the stimulus money will stop coming, “if the economy doesn’t turn around.”
His caveat is critical: If the economy doesn’t turn around four years after this recession began Kansas and the rest of the country will be in truly deep trouble and a second Great Depression will be underway. No one knows when the stock market will turn up and stay there. Optimists think last week was a start. Even the most pessimistic economists predict an upturn by 2010. Maybe half of the market watchers expect a turnaround by late this year. No one, with the possible exception of Sen. Emler, seems worried that we’ll still be mired in recession in 2012 and 2013.
This point is worth making for two reasons. First, if Kansas and other Republican states decide not to take the stimulus money, then that much of it will remain unspent and won’t serve its economic purpose. Leaving it unspent in Kansas could affect the state’s economy adversely. Second, cutting next year’s budget by $625 million will short change Kansans who would otherwise benefit from leaving next year’s budget close to this year’s level.
Why on earth cut spending on the public schools, the state’s universities and community colleges, on Medicaid, law enforcement, the developmentally disabled, etc., etc., etc., if the cuts aren’t necessary?
The answer Sen. Emler and his ilk give is that the Legislature needs to learn discipline.
But when they put on their hair shirts, it’s the state’s children and the state’s unfortunates who will feel the most pain, not them.
Emerson Lynn Jr.
Iola Register
madpoet (anonymous) says...
Well said! I wonder if we had a Republican president, if they'd be more willing to take the money? I'm so sick of partisan politics. I doubt this was what was intended when the party system was implemented. Take the darn money, use it for what is vital and trim the budget a little for next year and go on. We sure cashed the stimulus check we got from the government. It went to buy propane for the winter so went right back into the economy.
March 19, 2009 at 3:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
The problem with their logic is that we are where we are because of the financial crisis ergo they could have had the best laid budget planning feasible yet it would have failed. The education cuts they are proposing are disastrous, our young students are our future, gimping that is not forward thinking. I say let the president do what he is trying to do. If this was an election year I would bet a great sum of money that they would take the stimulus=)
March 19, 2009 at 3:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalelinn (Dale Linn) says...
"Even the most pessimistic economists predict an upturn by 2010. Maybe half of the market watchers expect a turnaround by late this year." This could be "quote of the year", if these dumb quotes weren't getting rather trite. The only thing I can see that these "economists" could use as a reason to come out of this "depression" is more deficit spending. A "real" economist would advise less spending and get your finances under control. But no, these expert economists (none of which was able to forsee what was coming) seem to think more spending is in order. Well, let's sit back and watch them fight the way economics work, as we work our way deeper into the depression. -- Oh, and let's just sit back and let the federal government take more control of our lives. This federal (borrowed from us) money comes with strings. The Iola Register thinks the same way as the Emporia Gazette. Follow the leaders off of the cliff.
March 19, 2009 at 7:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
"No one, with the possible exception of Sen. Emler, seems worried that we’ll still be mired in recession in 2012 and 2013."
Who knows? What would be alot of fun, is to print this statement out, bury it in a time capsule and open it in 2012/2013. Could be fun to see what people claimed now.
For the record, I'M worried. But I'm "no one"....... LOL
March 19, 2009 at 7:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
I bet my grand kids and great grand kids would appreciate it if we would slow down on the whole spending their money like mad rabid crack junkies in heat. We spend money and get into debt so to try to get out of debt we spend like never before?!?!?! I'm no economist but...............................
March 19, 2009 at 9:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalelinn (Dale Linn) says...
seriouslyfolks,
It's a shame, for our kids & grandkids, but I'm sure you agree that the dollar's days are numbered. We'll all be rethinking what we think of as "money". Nobody cared when the big money boys of New York sent our manufacturing overseas. Greed had it's way. It's still having it's way with the open border.
March 20, 2009 at 9:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Yeah, I see where the Messiah has now suspended all immigration raids. Well........its "change".
March 20, 2009 at 10:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dalelinn (Dale Linn) says...
I'm not too polite sometimes. This is the email I sent to Pelosi earlier today. "Mrs. Pelosi, Please get the hell out of Dodge and move to Mexico. You could run around with one of the Drug Lords. Sure wish you would."
March 20, 2009 at 12:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/2009...
"Despite new estimates that say President Barack Obama's budget would generate unsustainable large deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year, the White House insisted Friday that the flood of red ink won't swamp its costly agenda.
The Congressional Budget Office figures released Friday predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the administration predicted in its budget just last month.
Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level...........
The worsening economy is responsible for the even deeper fiscal mess inherited by Obama. As an illustration, CBO says the deficit for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, will top $1.8 trillion, $93 billion more than foreseen by the White House. That would equal 13 percent of GDP, a level not seen since World War II.
The 2009 deficit, fueled by the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and diving tax revenues stemming from the worsening recession, is four times the previous $459 billion record set just last year.
The CBO's estimate for 2010 is worse as well, with a deficit of almost $1.4 trillion expected under administration policies, about $200 billion more than predicted by Obama."
March 20, 2009 at 3:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zeepmonk (anonymous) says...
Why is it so bad to only spend what you bring in? These are all our tax dollars - spend as few as you have to is what I say.
March 22, 2009 at 10:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )