Raymond Thornton: “I am for a balanced budget. What we need is an approach like the Arkansas Revenue Stabilization Act which limits what we…”

“I am for a balanced budget. What we need is an approach like the Arkansas Revenue Stabilization Act which limits what we spend for the operation of Government to the actual revenues which are received each year. In Arkansas we have accomplished this without an amendment to our Constitution. The Arkansas Revenue Stabilization Act makes clear that operating budgets should be balanced, but allows money to be borrowed for capital investments like highways, schools, prisons, and hospitals. It recognizes that government, just like every private business, and every prudent family, should know the difference between spending money for current consumption, and investing in the future. A family should be willing to borrow money for a home, or to educate their children, but gets in trouble if they spend more than they make on groceries, telephone bills, clothing, and entertainment. A business will cut expenses to make a profit, but will use those profits to invest in new machinery, new factories, and other investments for the future. My grandfather used to say that if a family gets deeply into debt, they cannot borrow their way out of debt, nor can they starve their way out of debt; they must work their way out of debt--increase their productivity. In Arkansas, we recognized this principle by encouraging job formation through investments in plants and equipment. We were among the first States to issue bonds to build industrial facilities for economic development.”