CT: DELAURO, DODD & DEMS

DELAURO, DODD & DEMS:
Fostering the culture of failure
Almost 300,000 people in Connecticut get food stamps; more than 445,000 are on Medicaid; 156,000 collect unemployment. There's overlap here, but in a state of almost 4 million people, these numbers are alarming.Some people and most politicians will blame the recession first, but the state was the Land of Steady Handouts long before the Chris Dodd Bear Market took down the economy. In good times, the people who pass for state leaders, flush with other people's cash, qualified more and more people for the public dole. Even before the recession, close to 30 cents of every budgeted dollar was needed to finance "the safety net" and its attending bureaucracy. And even with $5.4 billion to spend this year, the Department of Social Services is running a $91 million Medicaid deficit.Long ago, the state got the reputation for generosity among career government dependents. So while heavily taxed professional people were streaming out of the state over the last two decades, the state backfilled its population with tax-eaters eager to vote for Democrats willing to give them more taxes to eat. So in reality, the rich-poor divide in Connecticut has less to do with the rich getting richer than the spiked increase in the low-income population.Naturally, when the bottom fell out of the economy and 88,200 jobs (so far) disappeared, state government's fortunes went through the floor because the shrunken poll of taxpayers couldn't stand the strain. The latest deficit underestimate is $513 million, but the state also is committed to spending perhaps $20 billion it doesn't have over the next several years. The unemployment-compensation fund went bankrupt in October, and the state has borrowed about $1 billion from the federal government to keep unemployment checks from bouncing. Its unfunded liability soon will surpass $60 billion, mostly because the only class of people more pampered than tax-eaters are unionized government employees.
This is pathetic, but the state has been taxing and penalizing Manufacturing companies until they close or relocate to avoid the insane tax rolls......CPTBut rather than recognize their years of economy-crippling errors and take advantage of the fiscal, political and economic clarity the recession and deficits are providing, Democrats continue to refuse to face reality, use any excuse to try to "soak the rich" and resort to every gimmick under the sun to avoid reining in spending.THIS IS WHAT IS GOING ON IN CT:
The Democrats' latest budget-balancing idea involves adding $130 million to the state's record debt to goose up entitlement and welfare benefits to qualify for greater federal reimbursements, which themselves are funded with borrowed money, and attract even more government dependents.Just how bad are the state's finances? Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz idolized the late Gov. Ella Grasso and modeled her political career after hers. For years, she has dreamed of being governor. Now Mrs. Bysiewicz has gone from being the front-runner in the governor's race to first in line to replace Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Like most other Democrats, she'd rather see the state go down in flames than make career-ending budget decisions.

BLUMENTHAL, A DEMOCRAT WHO HAS LUSTED FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP FOR YEARS NOW HAS HIS EYE ON DODD'S ABOUT TO BE EMPTIED SEAT.

CT NEEDS FRESH BLOOD.
*Hat tip to CaptRitchie