FISCAL CRISIS? WHERE?

The Post Dispatch reports on the current trip to Iraq and Kuwait taken by Governors Nixon and Quinn. I suppose that from the standpoint of a politician a taxpayer funded trip to generate some photo ops with the troops is a worthwhile endeavor.

However, at Mobudget.org we find this little bit of info:

"Due to declining revenues, Governor Nixon recently announced vetoes and withholds in the Missouri Fiscal Year 2010 (FY 2010) budget that began on July 1st. The budget passed by the General Assembly in May was based on a revenue estimate that was higher than what actual revenue collections have been. Rather than increasing by 1 percent, it is likely that state revenue could decrease by 1 percent in the coming year.1 The revenues for Fiscal Year 2009 (which ended June 30, 2009) decreased 6.8 percent from the previous year, as of June 29th. Because the Missouri Constitution requires a balanced budget, the revenue decline required the Governor to take action to balance the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.

On June 24th, the Governor announced line item vetoes of slightly more than $105 million from the budget. By vetoing these line items, the funding is removed from the FY 2010 budget. Governor Nixon also withheld approximately $325 million within other line items. If revenue improves during the coming months, some or all of this funding could be restored to the budget."

Look, I'm all for cutting the size of government and could most assuredly find more to cut than was found in the current budget. The first thing that should be cut is any state funds that were used for this trip.

Governor Quinn has even less business flying around on the public dole. The Huffington Post reports this:

"Facing a massive deficit and an array of unpleasant choices, Illinois officials decided Wednesday to keep state government running with a budget built around borrowing billions of dollars and letting unpaid bills climb to record levels."


Don't any of these self serving, money sucking morons get it? Our states and country are collapsing. We need to solve the problems here and not spend money that we don't have running all over the world for political gain! It is time for statesmen, not politicians. Unfortunately, we don't seem capable of electing people that put state and country ahead of personal ambition any more.