Culver is in Denial

I forgot to mention this the other day. Apparently Governor Chet Culver isn’t worried about the financial crisis that our country is dealing with. This is from the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

The next president will have to "figure out why our national economy is going in the tank," Culver said. "I'm not worried that Wall Street will affect Iowa" in the four months until the next president takes office.

"We've got a very stable economy," the first-term Democrat told The Gazette Editorial Board on Tuesday. "Our unemployment rate is a point-and-a-half below the national average. I was just at a groundbreaking in Newton for 500 new jobs. We've created 10,000 jobs in the past year-and-a-half. Standard & Poor's told us Friday our bond rating is going from AA+ to AAA. We have more money in our cash reserves than any time in our history."

Maybe our good friend Auditor Dave Vaudt should knock on the Governor’s door and remind him that the money in the cash reserves is already spoken for in next year’s budget, which is why Culver can’t call for a special session because the state doesn’t have the money to help its citizens. This is what happens when you increase state spending by a BILLION dollars in two years.

The State of Iowa is broke. Our financial situation is dire. For the upcoming fiscal year, Culver and the Democrats spent $370 million more than the state will receive in revenues. They pass these irresponsible budgets with the hope that revenue growth will be around 10%, but they never take into account that our economy could sour. Vaudt’s calculations the next legislature will have to deal with a $569.3 million spending gap.

Think about it folks, this week Culver gave flood victims $50 million in relief from the state. Where did he come up with that number? Take the $620 million in the rainy day fund, minus the $569.3 million that the state is on the hook for in the next fiscal year, and Culver is left with $51 million to give to flood victims. Pretty simple math.

Iowa is in a financial crisis, and just like Fannie, Freddy, and AIG we are looking for the federal government to bail us out. It’s ridiculous to keep the execs at Fannie, Freddy, and AIG in place when the American taxpayer has to step in and bail out a private company. It is also ridiculous to keep our elected officials in office after they have run our state in to the ground.