Saturday, January 26, 2013

Going The Wrong Way

In the article State Surplus To Reach $485 Million; Revenues To Miss Projectionsthe Republican co-chairs of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills and Rep. John Nygren of Marinette, commented, "The revenue numbers prove we are moving in the right direction. Moving forward on the budget, we will continue to work in a cautious and conservative manner to make sure that taxpayers' funds are spent wisely."

Yet, actually, all the numbers show is that Wisconsin has decreased spending (demand) during a recession. Exactly the opposite of what economics teaches. And, which is why Wisconsin ranks 42nd in job growth among the states over the last year.

To use the Republicans' (misplaced) household analogy, if a household was debt-free but unemployed, would the members of that household feel they were on the right track? We've cut programs and credits to the poor, cut education funding, and gave back $800 million in transportation money, to name a few.  Based on Wisconsin's job growth ranking, most would conclude we're going the wrong way.

I'm not sure Republicans really know which way "the right direction" is.

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