State spending has been out of control over the last few years. The cornerstone of the budget discussions should be wasteful spending and the danger of unfunded liabilities. How much money lawmakers allocate to government programs and how those dollars are spent should be vigorously debated.
This year fiscally conservative lawmakers should do more than fight wasteful spending on government programs. They need to stand up for their core governing philosophy — that the private sector grows the economy better than the government.
I fear the economic strategies of our state government will only delay the much needed economic recovery. The free market principles that created the very strength to make us a world power are under attack and being compromised. To expand the economy, we need to grow the private sector, not grow the size of government.
