Great News! Taxpayer RIghts in Blue State America

..."voters in two liberal states on opposite ends of the country will also take up measures to limit spending. The outcomes will give us a clear sense of the public mood toward runaway spending.

Maine and Washington are both more liberal and secular than the rest of the country. Barack Obama carried each state with identical 17-point margins, and both have powerful public employee unions that have driven up the cost of government to the point that a backlash has developed." ...

"A similar law, the 'Gann Limit,' passed in California in 1979. It helped keep the Golden State's balance sheet stable until 1990. Then Republican Gov. George Deukmejian teamed up with public employee unions to convince 52% of voters to fund a transportation spending package that slyly rewrote the spending limits, effectively emasculating them. Voters were left with the illusion that they still had a curb on spending when they didn't. California has since experienced three state budget crises as runaway spending combined with volatile revenues left it with junk-bond ratings on its debt and enormous future pension and benefits obligations. With a real Gann Limit, its budget would be balanced now.

If voters in Maine or Washington state pass a taxpayer bill of rights, it will be a clear sign that even in blue states the public is coming to believe that government spending is out of control and that elected officials can no longer be trusted to rein it in. That's a message that will likely reverberate in Congress regardless of who wins in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races."

Deficit spending/public sector debt is the Holy Grail of issues for conservatives. We must put forward fiscally conservative candidates who can articulate the small government philosophy of the Founders, and who will stand firm against growth in government spending. If we do, we will win.