Governors With Their Hands Out

Mo Money - Reuters:

...Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge.

...

The latest package calls for $350 billion to create jobs by building or repairing roads, bridges and other public works; $250 billion to maintain education; and another $250 billion in "counter-cyclical" spending such as extending unemployment benefits and food stamps, which are typically a responsibility of the states.

The remainder would be used to fund middle-class tax cuts, stimulate the embattled housing market, and stem the tide of home foreclosures thro

h a loan-modification program.

So is this a whole other trilion dollar bailout or are they just asking for more money as part of the currently discussed Obama "stimulus"? Because if it's the former than we would have a $700 bailout for finance, whatever it takes for GM and Chrysler, a trillion for the Obama big gun stimulus, and then this too?

Sooner or later we're talking about real money.

But the Republican response has so far been anemic:

"The proposal by the Democratic governors goes beyond things like 'shovel-ready' infrastructure projects and is essentially a bailout of these states' general funds," Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, said in a statement. "Now is the time to focus on finding cost-effective ways to provide essential services without burdening future generations with ever greater debt."

The debt level is not the problem: it's the inflation, stupid. These bailouts are financed by printing money a-la Zimbabwe, and we all know what happened there. Let's imagine 70 million baby boomers with their 401ks wiped out by inflation and you just might have a political issue.

Of course the issue would work better if Bush and McCain hadn't kicked all this spending off with the initial $700 billion that Paulson said he needed, but later said he didn't. But that's a soul of the GOP issue that we've been having for awhile now.