The Mercatus Center at George Mason University just came out with their fourth annual “Ranking of the States by Fiscal Condition” and the report is one of the most damning indictments of liberal policies to come around in a long time. For anyone who enjoys seeing what Democratic tax-and-spend policies do to a community, a state, a country – this study moves beyond the political rhetoric to deliver the hard numbers. Leftists will probably say it’s all a big coincidence, but anyone willing to look at the figures and be honest with themselves will have to conclude that big government liberalism – even on a local level – just took it on the chin, bigly.
According to the study, the most fiscally-sound states in America are all Republican-led, low-tax governments. On the other hand, the bottom of the back – the 10 least-solvent states – are almost exclusively run by the Democratic Party and almost all tax their citizens into the stratosphere. Somehow, despite the apparent revenue, these liberal policies have failed to make these state governments the financially-secure strongholds they should be. Who would have guessed?
The report made use of five criteria with which to judge how well a state can pay its bills, keep deficits out of the budget, cover state-run pension plans, and meet long-term spending goals. The five criteria measure solvency in the areas of cash, budget, service-level spending, long-run spending, and trust fund and pension debt. And while the Mercatus Center report is non-partisan and does not draw conclusions based on tax burdens or the political parties in charge of any given state, the results of the ranking speak for themselves: In the top 25 states, 21 of them are run almost entirely by Republicans. Of the bottom 25, 20 of them are run by the Democrats.
One doubts this is a coincidence.
Now, you can, perhaps, make the argument that correlation is not causation. In other words, you can reckon that financially reckless states just happen to be filled with the kind of people who would typically vote for Democrats. But if there is wisdom or truth in that theory, it doesn’t speak any more highly of the left and their policies. The problem starts somewhere, and neither scenario makes a case for the Democratic Party. One of them just makes their voters look bad along with the politicians. Well, you could argue that both theories do that, but WE would never say as much…
The argument loses some steam, though, since the correlation between high taxes and fiscal insolvency is just as solid. The states with the best financial outlook also tend to have the lowest taxes and vice versa. Of course, this is essentially what we would expect, since Democrats rarely see a problem they can’t tax their way out of.
A lean, mean government, funded by a public that still has plenty of income left over for personal spending and investment, will always triumph over a bloated bureaucracy that governs people that must put every last dollar they have in the public coffer.
It’s a lesson we must apparently learn over and over and over…
