March 10, 2009

Top of the morning

Posted at 7:10 AM by Chris Fitzsimon

Governor Beverly Perdue did not include many specifics about her plans to balance the budget in her State of the State address to the General Assembly Monday night, though she did promise to increase per-pupil spending in public schools.

Perdue also didn’t say anything about raising the revenue that is needed to protect vital state services and the people who need them. The closest she came was to announce that “everything is on the table,” and that’s not very close.

The market fundamentalists are beside themseves with glee waiting for the devasation that the $4 billion budget shortfall could wreak on the government they despise.

That not only ignores the evidence that it’s better economic policy for states to raise revenue during a recesson than make deep cuts to state programs, it also leaves out part of history that the Right conveniently forgets.

When the state faced a massive budget shortfall in 1991, Republican Governor Jim Martin supported a tax hike to protect education and human services. Taxes must be part of any budget solution.

Even the hero of the market fundamentalist right knew that. President Ronald Reagan supported tax increases too, most notably in 1983 and 1984.  Reagan’s tax reform in 1986 that reduced personal income taxes included what was then the largest increase in corporate taxes in history.

Funny how all that never makes it into the Right’s wistful recollections of Reagan. Even he thought everything should be on the table.

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2 Comments

2 Comments Add yours »

Show Us The Jobs 10 Mar 2009 7:32 am

Thanks Chris…It’s becoming increasingly apparent that Gov. Bev is not the kind of Democrat that would march in HK on J

IBXer 10 Mar 2009 8:47 am

It is utterly f*cking retarded to suggest that taking more money from people who are already struggling to make ends meet will make them better off.

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