Symptom of the Disease: Governors begging for cash from the feds

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy (D) headed to Washington, DC with many other governors not to check out the National Mall or Lincoln Memorial, rather they headed into town to beg for cash and schmooze with those who hold the purse strings hoping they can pick up $100 million here, or $50 million there, to help fund state expenses.

Another symptom of the disease. Actually, this may be better described as the disease itself.

School administration employees beg towns, cities and regional school districts to help support education by purchasing new books, funding new technology and getting more teachers hired to reduce the student-to-teacher ratio. They need to buy pens and notebooks for the children.

Towns, cities and regional school districts go to the states and beg for funding to support their budgets. Budget cuts lead to poorly educated students so you can’t cut … we need more! States just can’t cut us off!

States head off to the federal government to help fund programs like Head Start, which if de-funded will result in pre-school kids pushed out into the street and set-up for certain failure in grammar school.

Do you see the problem? This really is the disease that has resulted in all of the individual symptoms we are dealing with. Our government employees are now just individuals who write application after application to get grant money from someone else’s budget.

State legislatures and governors spend time in Washington and columnists including the Courant’s Rick Green use words like scrounging and schmoozing as they beg for funding for $100 million hospital renovations while they ignore the elephant in the room. They don’t seem to think the current process has anything to do with the actual economic problems we have today.

$14 trillion in national debt is not enough.

They have you all hooked now. The real challenge is to say no to the federal government. State leaders who turn away start-up funding since they know they will not be able to continue to fund projects – or those 100,000 new cops – three years from now are the leaders. Why are they are penalized and made to look like fools by the media and the left for trying to treat the actual disease?

Unfortunately, the statist among us laugh at those governors and state leaders as they realize it gives them a better opportunity to grab more of the redistribution. Totally wrong … yet the disease is identified.

At least there are some states that are putting their best foot forward and try to bring the power back to the states. We are the United States of America as you know.

I think we should be buying our own pens and notebooks. What say you?

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

2 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on February 25, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    If the Feds just left the money in the state to begin with, and let CT residents decide where to spend their money, Malloy wouldn't need to be in D.C. with his hand out.  It is just more socialism designed to destroy the federalism that made this country great and put us in thrall to the mental "giants" of Washington.



  2. Mild Bill on February 25, 2011 at 2:11 pm

         It isn't money anymore, just printed paper.



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