Political Quotes

“one of the most disturbing trends for governance in America is the tendency to have short-term political expediency regarding budget, tax, and fiscal affairs trump responsible long-term policy. State and federal statutes and initiatives have been passed, which allow politicians and the public to feel good in the short term, give the illusion of solving problems, but setting up in the long term a fiscal train wreck. We have seen in state after state where tax cuts in the 1990s were joined by formulas for education and corrections that basically put the services in a form of autopilot. Money went automatically to certain forms of education expenditure while corrections systems were mandated to incarcerate more people for longer periods of time. These 'focus group' driven policy initiatives, many ratified by voters without a careful analysis of the consequences, effectively painted states and the federal government into a corner. Everybody appears or at least acts like they are powerless. In the short term, given a conflicting set of legislative and voter approved initiatives, a good argument can be made that they are. While policies and politics are sorted out, basic services suffer and public frustration grows. On the federal level, we are in the midst of unraveling solid progress of the last decade to reign in federal spending and to impose some degree of fiscal discipline.”