From Heritage:
Many state leaders are lobbying the Senate to extend the Medicaid bailout enacted in the February 2009 stimulus bill. While several attempts by Senate leaders to extend the bailout have failed, it will be brought to the floor again on Monday, this time bundled with additional spending on education.
Talk about throwing good money after bad.
For both Medicaid and education funding, a continued bailout would disproportionately benefit the most irresponsible states and would allow them to delay taking the steps they must to live within their means…
While bailing out Medicare seems, on the face of it, an honorable and charitable thing to do, the fact of the matter is that if you give an irresponsible State money to cover that, it frees up funds for them to continue their irresponsibility elsewhere. After all, what State legislature or governor will want to cut State funds to Medicare? So, faced between Medicare cuts and cuts to worthless pork, the States would be forced to cut the worthless pork – unless Uncle Sugar comes to the rescue.
All government budgets are bloated with things not vital to the safety and liberty of the American people. From the tiniest town council to the federal government, there are things which can be cut and the only people who would miss them are grafting politicians and special interests living off the public dime. To bail out any part of the system just perpetuates the problem.
It is time for government to live within its means – to figure out how much money they really expect to have next year, and make the budget fit that amount. We’re heading off a cliff of financial irresponsibility and we’ve only got a couple years left to pull back from it – we should start right here and right now: no bail outs for the States.
Blogs For Victory 