This is amazing. In an article detailing how Illinois is scrambling to address shortfalls in it’s pension system, National Review’s Kevin Williamson notes:
Illinois’s state spending, by the way, has not exactly been the model of austerity: It rose from $55 billion in 2006 to $81 billion today – nearly a 50 percent increase. But why cut spending when Washington will pay you to borrow more money?
Yes, Illinois’s state spending has increased by 50 percent in just four years. Is it any wonder that they face a budget crisis?
Illinois is not the only state with a government that has been rapidly expanding. That’s why American taxpayers should be skeptical of talk about the need to bail out cash-strapped states. There is no mystery for how states can balance their budgets: cut spending. Cutting spending to levels of just a few years ago would put most budgets into near balance.