With the recent economic downturn across the country, you’ve been hearing me talk about protecting Iowa’s economy now so our state does not also slide into the meltdown. There are several alarms that have been going off recently that are pointing to the fact that we need to act swiftly. The Revenue Estimating Conference projected our state revenues are down….WAY down. The Medicaid numbers have gone up…WAY up. Those two things combined with the legislative Democrats’ runaway spending the last two years have already left a hole in the budget. This, we’ve talked about already.
We’ve also talked about the Democrats’ response to these problems. It’s okay, it’s fine, we have a AAA bond rating. Besides the fact that Fannie Mae also had a AAA bond rating, there’s now MORE to the story.
If you haven’t heard some of the news about this lately, it’s okay—I’m watching out for you. Read this story .
In it, you will find that actually, the agencies that give the AAA bond rating have been less than honest with their assessments. Here’s a glimpse:
"The story of the credit rating agencies is a story of colossal failure," said Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The California Democrat said, "Millions of investors rely on them for independent, objective assessments. The rating agencies broke this bond of trust, and federal regulators ignored the warning signs and did nothing to protect the public. The result is that our entire financial system is now at risk."
So the Democrats are banking our state’s security on a bond rating that might be a lie. Does anyone else see that as a major problem? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Fall Grades Are Posted
Speaking of major problems.
Add this to the mix: Recently the CATO Institute released their findings of the ninth biennial fiscal report card. They examine the tax and spending decisions made by the governors since 2003.
They use statistical data to grade the governors on their taxing and spending records – governors who have cut taxes and spending the most receive the highest grades, while those who have increased taxes and spending the most receive the lowest grades.
Our governor? Well, he received an F. That’s right, failure. He failed to cut taxes or reduce spending. He did a great job of raising taxes and increasing spending though, which is why he received his F grade. Read it Here .
Don’t be fooled though, Governor Culver had a few little teacher’s pets in earning his F grade. See, all 53 members of the Iowa House have helped him earn that pitiful grade, and on Nov. 4th it will be time to grade them.
