1. "Starve the beast!"

Posted by: mark on September 4, 2010 09:53 PM

2. Well of course. This is what happens with decades of Democrat and union control. Elections have consequences.

Posted by: Jeff B. on September 5, 2010 05:50 AM

3. @2: I'm fascinated that conservatives somehow believe that the bottoming out of the housing market and problems with credit are problems of the state government.

Posted by: demo kid on September 5, 2010 09:15 AM

4. SPFA,

How fast has State spending increased relative to GDP of the State, over the last 5 years? Could it be out-of-control spending that's the problem, not revenue?

Posted by: Shanghai Dan on September 5, 2010 09:29 AM

5. I am fascinated that Liberal Democrats who have run this state for 30 years somehow believe that they can blame previous administrations for the bottoming out of the housing market and the problems with credit. The Governor and those same Liberal Democrats were taking credit for the booming economy, the booming housing market and their superior planning abilities during the same period. Washington State Democrats should have a new slogan " We take all of the credit and none of the responsibility".

Posted by: Smokie on September 5, 2010 09:34 AM

6. I'm fascinated that liberals somehow believe a 33-percent increase in GF-S spending between 2004 and 2008 should be blamed on Booosh.

Posted by: jimg on September 5, 2010 11:51 AM

7. The unrestrained eagerness of the (D)s in control of WA State government to tax-and-spend is on the record, in the books, and cannot be ''air-brushed'' out.
As jimg pointed out in #6 above:
A THIRTY-THREE percent increase in spending between 2004 and 2008. Beyond outrageous.

All I can say is that (R)s better take control of at least the State House in November:
The (D) crutch of depending on billions of fig-leaf Federal dollars to close the State budget gap is about to fall over. If the (D)s retain control of both the State House and Senate, look for ''tax to the max''; everything that moves (and even things that don't).

Heads up, everybody: Can't say you weren't warned. . . .

Posted by: Methow Ken on September 5, 2010 02:19 PM

8. Meanwhile, the state agencies continue to hire managers and cut the front line.

There needs to be limits on how much can be spent on managers. Neither party is interested in anything but flogging the front line.

The "Equality" Democrats only furloughed less that 25% of the State workforce.

Posted by: IndependentVoter on September 5, 2010 05:17 PM

9. No good news to report? Bbbbbut.....democrats run the whole state---how can this be??

Posted by: Michele on September 5, 2010 09:43 PM

10. I'm fascinated by people who can't understand that bad ideas have bad consequences. And I am also fascinated by people who are unable to extrapolate that the same bad ideas that have failed Greece, Spain, California, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Washington and Oregon are the bad ideas that are causing our problems in the District of Columbia. To be fair, yes, previous administrations have had bad ideas as well. But the country succeeds or fails by the majority of successful ideas it chooses to hold, or not.

Why is it that there is not a single Democrat touting a yes vote on Obamacare, and yet there are five touting their no votes in their ads for their fall reelection campaigns? If these collectivist ideas are so great, why hide?

The bad ideas of collectivist Democrats fail because they encourage societies where only some pull their weight. If these ideas were successful, the dreary socialist economies of France, Germany, the UK and Canada would have surpassed the US long ago as the largest and most successful economies. But that is not the case. The tradition of the US has been one of entrepreneurialism, individualism, capitalism, hard work and integrity. If you want to get fascinated, get fascinated by these successful ideas, because huge polling majorities are showing that most of us would like to get back to the ideas that worked.

Because regardless of pathetic bromides like "Hope and Change," we are not going to get back to prosperity with everyone sitting around waiting for free housing loans, free health care, free bailouts for banks, public bureaucrat jobs, retirement at 50 with fat pensions, and cash for clunkers.

Posted by: Jeff B. on September 6, 2010 03:57 AM

11. From a great book on FDR, New Deal or Raw Deal, is this quote from FDR's own Secretary of the Treasury after almost 8 years of FDR Policies.
Hopefully we can learn a lesson.

"No less an authority than FDR's Treasury secretary and close friend, Henry Morganthau, conceded this fact to Congressional Democrats in May 1939: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"

Posted by: Puget Sound on September 6, 2010 07:58 AM

12. @11 - Salient point about current spending. As the old saying goes, if the Democratics get their way, you ain't seen nothing yet. They are still looking for the opening in the lame duck session to move that Trojan Horse - the Energy Bill through Congress on to Obongo's desk to sign;

The latest article from Bjorn Lomborg, who believes in man-made global warming.

However, , he sees through the alarmist propaganda - i.e. follow the money

Posted by: KDS on September 6, 2010 09:41 AM

13. BTW - Climate change and the energy bill are state issues also and will suck up a large amount of taxpayer money to line the pockets of the green corporations and create a more bloated guvmint.
I have missed seeing issues about global climate change/global warming here but I realize that this summer in the Pacific NW has been conducive to highlighting this phenomenon and bringing the local alarmists out of the woodwork.

Seems like David Matthews has been lost in the abyss for quite a while and predictably will continue in the hunkered down state UFN.

Posted by: KDS on September 6, 2010 09:49 AM

14. (one correction)
BTW - Climate change and the energy bill are state issues also and will suck up a large amount of taxpayer money to line the pockets of the green corporations and create a more bloated guvmint.
I have missed seeing issues about global climate change/global warming here but I realize that this summer in the Pacific NW has NOT been conducive to highlighting this phenomenon and bringing the local alarmists out of the woodwork.

Seems like David Matthews has been lost in the abyss for quite a while and predictably will continue in the hunkered down state UFN.

Posted by: KDS on September 6, 2010 09:49 AM

15. "At a lunch at the National Press Club, the Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said (1) she had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be. (2) she still doesn't understand exactly why it was so bad. (3) the response to the collapse was inadequate. (4) she doesn't have much of an idea about how to fix things."

The problem we have here is that the boys in DC don't have a scintilla of a clue. Simple as that. They are entirely in the dark about how an economy works (none of them ever have worked in the private sector), therefor unable to know what to do. The simple answer would be "nothing at all" but big government statists like this crew can't do that. They are simply and completely incapable. Just think, if his economic adviser is in the triple-black dark, imagine what that greenhorn Obama knows. I shudder to think. What he does know is that the "stimulus" was one hell of a slush fund for buying favors and paying off his vote stealers. Trouble is, his political payoffs do nothing for the economy. Whoops.

At one point I thought that we, as a nation, could outlast this boob much like we have outlasted others (like Jimmuh Carter). But now I'm not so sure we can. I guess the big question going forward is how much will the damage be?

Posted by: G Jiggy on September 6, 2010 04:57 PM

16. demo kid: I'm fascinated that conservatives somehow believe that the bottoming out of the housing market and problems with credit are problems of the state government.

Right. The fact that housing costs are inflated due to state government has no effect on depressing the housing market. :-)

Posted by: pudge on September 7, 2010 09:05 AM

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