Closing a 23 Billion Dollar Deficit...the TX way

[Alyrium Denryle]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... f5ae5.html

Emphasis and Annotation mine.

How do you cut $25 billion from Texas' budget?

01:28 AM CST on Sunday, January 9, 2011

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – A new crop of lawmakers, more heavily Republican than at any time in modern Texas history, reports for duty Tuesday, facing a frighteningly huge budget hole.
Also Online

Any budget fix will displease many, poll shows

Graphic: How do you cut $25 billion?

Blog: Politics

More Legislature news

Legislators must navigate around fiscal constraints and political pressures, knowing that this time, big cuts are coming and virtually nothing is safe.

In a new twist, the fight is all among Republicans, who dominate the House and Senate. Many already are involved in a nasty public brawl – touching on everything from religion to abortion – over who's conservative enough to be House speaker.

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How the hell?  No, no... seriously.  They have started fighting among themselves about who is conservative enough to be house speaker?  They have entered a period of conservitard one-upsmanship!?  "I think Abortion should be criminalized!" "Oh yeah!?  Well, I think we should imprison women who have abortions, and execute the doctors for murder!  PRAISE JESUS!"

Added to the mix is the bravado of tea party adherents and a huge freshman class, many believing there's still plenty of fat in a budget that ranks 50th in per capita spending and has been written by a GOP-led Legislature for the past eight years.

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Where is this fat exactly?

The underlying fear, from some in both parties, is that the budget-cutting zealousness could go too far.

"You'll be gutting, literally gutting, some core services that government does for everybody," warned 16-year Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, a key member of the House leadership. "You've got to be careful about crippling every program to the point of no recovery."

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Is that not the whole point of the Tea Party?  You embraced them, and got them elected to the point that you can adopt rules and override gubernatorial vetoes without consulting a single democrat... you get to deal with them now, assholes.

Almost one-quarter of House members, though, are newcomers – many with ties to the tea party push to hold the line on spending. Vowing to do whatever it takes to not raise taxes, they scoff at suggestions that deep cuts could inflict irreparable damage.

"Texas did absolutely fine with a level of spending that we had ... eight years ago," said freshman Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, referring to the 2003 session, when lawmakers closed a $9.9 billion budget gap. "Most Texans will say we have enough state government."

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Not when the roads start crumbling, more on that later

The 140-day session opens with ceremony and oath-taking by 181 House and Senate members at noon Tuesday, a day after Comptroller Susan Combs issues a two-year revenue estimate. It sets the limit for how much lawmakers can spend in the next cycle.

Last time, they sidestepped a deepening revenue hole and avoided cuts because federal stimulus money and Texas' late entry into the national recession allowed them to write a two-year, $182.2 billion budget – 6 percent bigger than before.

Texas-size budget gap

At the Capitol, senior legislative staff members have said the budget gap could be $25 billion between anticipated revenues and expenses. That amounts to more than a quarter of the $87 billion in current spending of state funds that have no strings attached.

With the downturn lingering and no prospects of additional federal aid, Texas also faces troubles because of its heavy reliance on sales tax.

Some economists say it's possible revenue will never rebound to 2006-08 levels, as recession-stung residents may have throttled back household spending for good.

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it just so happens that sales taxes are also the most regressive.  Gotta love having almost all of the tax burden being on the poor...

Democrats, while outnumbered, have chided GOP leaders for believing they can write a budget that doesn't assume growth in school enrollment and Medicaid numbers.

"If we are bragging about our ability to attract people from all over the country because we've got such a strong economy ... then we actually have to admit those people are here," said Senate Democratic Leader Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio. "I love fantasy, but I don't want this trip to Neverland."

Gov. Rick Perry, who doesn't have much say in the budget until late in the session when he can threaten to veto legislation, is expected again to call for higher education funding to be tied to performance measures, such as graduation rates.

He also will defend the Texas Enterprise Fund and Emerging Technology Fund, which he calls crucial job-creation tools, though even some fellow Republicans have begun criticizing them.

Solomons, a lieutenant of House Speaker Joe Straus, said ordinary Texans will notice if the deficit is as huge as expected – and only cuts are used to zap it.

"You just won't build any more roads. And you might not be able to maintain roads for a while. ... Instead of taking three days to get your license, it might take 30," he said.

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This is a state that already does not spring for things like signs telling you that a median is about to crop up in the left hand lane just as you crest a hill, and also does not bother to use reflectors or even reflective paint on roads... when it rains, you can have your brights on and not be able to tell if you are still in your fucking lane.  If that were not enough, they dont bother to repaint the lane markers after road work, so you have phantom lane stripes, and the lane stripes you are supposed to use are buried under broken lines of tar.  The roads here are death traps already, lets maintain them less!!!

Solomons said he'll support many spending trims but left open the possibility that he might reluctantly back tax or fee increases. The state has too many needs, especially in education, he said. Business people tell him they want an educated workforce.

"So are you going to fund community colleges?" he said. "Or are we going to cripple everything?"

Against tax hikes

Grover Norquist , president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Republicans need to hold firm. He has obtained written pledges from 70 GOP state legislators that they'll oppose "any and all efforts to increase taxes."

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This is the state with the second largest state economy in the US, but the least per capita spending... how the fuck low do taxes need to be?  Even shithole states like West Virginia (No Offense Tev) spend more per capita.

He said the state's swelling, demographically challenging population does not justify raising revenues of any kind – unless it's "user fees" citizens pay voluntarily and that aren't siphoned off to fund general programs.

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Demographically Challenging?  You mean that there are too many poor brown people right?

"No state is in a position that you couldn't reduce the size and cost of government," he said.

Groups worried about the poor and enfeebled, though, want lawmakers to ease up on spending cuts by emptying a $9.5 billion rainy day fund. But that's a hard sell.

"We won't spend more than even half of it," said Van de Putte, the Democratic leader. "Folks are going to be really frightened."

Solomons said he's not sure "we can get [a required vote of] two-thirds to use any of the rainy day fund."

Rep.-elect Kenneth Sheets, R-Dallas, said that even if lawmakers drastically shrink state government, that can be changed if more money becomes available in the future.

"There's nothing that will prevent us from coming back" and agreeing to higher spending levels in the next session in two years, he said.

Staff writer Kelley Shannon contributed to this report.
AT A GLANCE

BY THE NUMBERS
Texas revenue, spending

The Legislature will confront what's likely to be the toughest fiscal crisis in Texas history when it convenes Tuesday – a gap of up to $25 billion between anticipated revenue and expenses for the next two-year budget cycle. In the most recent two-year, $182.2 billion budget, here's where the money came from and where it went:

Where the money came from

$87 billion in general revenue from sales and business taxes and land interests

$65.5 billion in federal funds that were designated for health care and roads

$29.7 billion in dedicated funds (such as gas taxes for roads and bond proceeds)

Where the discretionary spending went

$48.9 billion to public schools, junior colleges, universities

$24.4 billion to Medicaid, foster care, mental health services, disability, children's health care and elder care

$8.6 billion to prisons, probation and the Department of Public Safety

$5.1 billion to all other programs

Where the state's 310,000 employees work

158,000 in higher education

55,000 in social services

54,000 in prisons, criminal justice and public safety

12,000 in the Department of Transportation

32,000 in all other programs

MOST AT RISK

Programs that may be cut

The options are few when it comes to cutting $25 billion in the state's next budget, partly because legislators have most authority over the discretionary spending portion. Texas already ranks 50th nationally in per-capita state spending, so big cuts will have to come from essential services.

The deficit represents more than one-fourth of current discretionary spending, though agencies have been asked to submit only 10 percent cut scenarios – not plans that would fully bridge the gap.

Lawmakers may reluctantly spend some rainy day funds and raise fees, easing the pain slightly. But cuts almost certainly will be deep enough for ordinary Texans to notice. Here are some prime candidates:

State prisons: A Sugar Land unit is likely to be closed, and all others could have fewer guards and, almost certainly, fewer support personnel. Two youth lockups also are expected to be shuttered.

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 Ah yes!  Let's reduce the number of guards in our prisons, leading to more prison riots and violence.  It does not matter what their crimes are, prisoners are not people, and have no right to decent food, medical care, or to be free from violence.  Nope.  not at all.  As for those juvenile offenders, we will just treat them like adults.  Even if they are six years old.  They can all go into the adult prisons.  No, we dont need to worry about that sixteen year old burglar being treated like the cell block's bicycle for packs of cigarettes.  Besides, even if that DID happen in TX prisons, once a person has been convicted of a crime, they stop being a person.  Especially because they are usually not white.

Alternative incarceration: Private prisons with 2,200 beds and 625 beds in substance abuse wards would close under the prison system's 10 percent cut scenario.

AIDS medications: If lawmakers don't add $23 million to current spending, Texas will have to cap enrollment or stop covering some drugs, potentially threatening 15,000 low-income people with the disease.

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AIDS patients are all queers and hookers!

Classroom sizes: Classes could balloon if lawmakers approve a proposal to scrap the 22-student limit in kindergarten through fourth grade. Up to 12,000 teaching jobs could disappear.

College financial aid: At least two-thirds of the nearly 60,000 low- and moderate-income students who apply for the basic assistance each year would be turned down. Also, a program that helps 30,000 private college students is likely to take a big hit.

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Well, The Great State of Texas is ranked 25 in the nation in Education. We need to the join the rest of the southern states in a race to the bottom!  We dont need no elitist edumucation!

Freeways and interstates: The Transportation Department will freeze building new roads next fall if it doesn't get any new money. Expected raids on its gasoline tax and registration fee receipts would leave the agency only enough to fill potholes and check bridges for safety.

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See above on the clusterfuck that is our road system

Mentally disabled and mentally ill: A state agency is expected to be told to select and close two of 13 institutions, once known as state schools, that it runs for the disabled. A sister agency is likely to be ordered to privatize one of 10 mental hospitals that the state runs.

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Afterall, healthcare for the mentally ill and disabled is not a priority in the Great State of Texas.  Rather than putting them in hospitals and special schools that will maximize their quality of life, they should be locked in Asylum in straight jackets for shock treatment!  In fact, we should even privatize the whole enterprise.  Give them over to corporations with every incentive to deny them care and treat them like chattel.  After all, they are just retards and crazies.  No one will ever hear or care about their screams

Small agencies: While all agencies are expected to take a hit, some smaller ones are almost certain to be eliminated.

Layoffs: More than 9,000 jobs could be eliminated in state agencies and at public colleges.

I fucking hate this state, and wish General Sherman had finished the job.

[loomer]

Shutting down the prisons would be a good step - if you do it by releasing the non-violent drug offenders, anyway. Things are expensive to run and don't fucking work anyway, so trimming the fat there (being, again, non-violent drug offenders and similar) would probably take off a few million without lowering the standard of life in the system. Every little helps.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Shutting down the prisons would be a good step - if you do it by releasing the non-violent drug offenders, anyway. Things are expensive to run and don't fucking work anyway, so trimming the fat there (being, again, non-violent drug offenders and similar) would probably take off a few million without lowering the standard of life in the system. Every little helps.

Sure... but that is not what they are going to do.

[Shroom Man 777]

Being soft on crime isn't conservative.

I am curious. What is their stance on nuclear power and ballistic missile defense?

[aerius]

Time to rob the State pension funds, it's about the only place left that has the required billions lying around.

[Lonestar]

Being soft on crime isn't conservative.

I am curious. What is their stance on nuclear power and ballistic missile defense?

Texans are for Nuclear power. Since Raytheon and Lockheed have major operations in Texas Texans are generally in favor of BMD as well.

Time to rob the State pension funds, it's about the only place left that has the required billions lying around.

Oh, my poor dear Grandmother if that happens. Although I can't recall if her educator's pension comes form the State or the county.

[Patrick Degan]

Grover Norquist , president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Republicans need to hold firm. He has obtained written pledges from 70 GOP state legislators that they'll oppose "any and all efforts to increase taxes." He said the state's swelling, demographically challenging population does not justify raising revenues of any kind – unless it's "user fees" citizens pay voluntarily and that aren't siphoned off to fund general programs.

Grover Norquist has to be about the most poisonous single individual this country has ever produced. He clearly either does not understand what a modern state requires to have a functional society or does not care, and his formula for government and taxation —or lack thereof— is ruinous and his zealotry in pushing his anti-tax ideology has helped to wreak considerable damage to the body politic of this country.

[loomer]

Shutting down the prisons would be a good step - if you do it by releasing the non-violent drug offenders, anyway. Things are expensive to run and don't fucking work anyway, so trimming the fat there (being, again, non-violent drug offenders and similar) would probably take off a few million without lowering the standard of life in the system. Every little helps.

Sure... but that is not what they are going to do.

Yeah, but a man can dream. Of course, Shroom's right - even though a few more conservatives are coming out against harsh sentencing for the drug offenses, it's still a 'soft liberal' thing.

[Pelranius]

Grover Norquist , president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Republicans need to hold firm. He has obtained written pledges from 70 GOP state legislators that they'll oppose "any and all efforts to increase taxes." He said the state's swelling, demographically challenging population does not justify raising revenues of any kind – unless it's "user fees" citizens pay voluntarily and that aren't siphoned off to fund general programs.

Grover Norquist has to be about the most poisonous single individual this country has ever produced. He clearly either does not understand what a modern state requires to have a functional society or does not care, and his formula for government and taxation —or lack thereof— is ruinous and his zealotry in pushing his anti-tax ideology has helped to wreak considerable damage to the body politic of this country.

Sometimes I wonder if that dweeb is fronting for some foreign intelligence agency, considering what his 'reforms' would do to the science and research we need to keep American technology competitive. Of course, that's tinfoil territory.

[bobalot]

Another article in the same vein.

The Texas Omen

These are tough times for state governments. Huge deficits loom almost everywhere, from California to New York, from New Jersey to Texas.
Wait — Texas? Wasn’t Texas supposed to be thriving even as the rest of America suffered? Didn’t its governor declare, during his re-election campaign, that “we have billions in surplus”? Yes, it was, and yes, he did. But reality has now intruded, in the form of a deficit expected to run as high as $25 billion over the next two years.

And that reality has implications for the nation as a whole. For Texas is where the modern conservative theory of budgeting — the belief that you should never raise taxes under any circumstances, that you can always balance the budget by cutting wasteful spending — has been implemented most completely. If the theory can’t make it there, it can’t make it anywhere.

How bad is the Texas deficit? Comparing budget crises among states is tricky, for technical reasons. Still, data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities suggest that the Texas budget gap is worse than New York’s, about as bad as California’s, but not quite up to New Jersey levels.

The point, however, is that just the other day Texas was being touted as a role model (and still is by commentators who haven’t been keeping up with the news). It was the state the recession supposedly passed by, thanks to its low taxes and business-friendly policies. Its governor boasted that its budget was in good shape thanks to his “tough conservative decisions.”

Oh, and at a time when there’s a full-court press on to demonize public-sector unions as the source of all our woes, Texas is nearly demon-free: less than 20 percent of public-sector workers there are covered by union contracts, compared with almost 75 percent in New York.

So what happened to the “Texas miracle” many people were talking about even a few months ago?

Part of the answer is that reports of a recession-proof state were greatly exaggerated. It’s true that Texas job losses haven’t been as severe as those in the nation as a whole since the recession began in 2007. But Texas has a rapidly growing population — largely, suggests Harvard’s Edward Glaeser, because its liberal land-use and zoning policies have kept housing cheap. There’s nothing wrong with that; but given that rising population, Texas needs to create jobs more rapidly than the rest of the country just to keep up with a growing work force.

And when you look at unemployment, Texas doesn’t seem particularly special: its unemployment rate is below the national average, thanks in part to high oil prices, but it’s about the same as the unemployment rate in New York or Massachusetts.

What about the budget? The truth is that the Texas state government has relied for years on smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of sound finances in the face of a serious “structural” budget deficit — that is, a deficit that persists even when the economy is doing well. When the recession struck, hitting revenue in Texas just as it did everywhere else, that illusion was bound to collapse.

The only thing that let Gov. Rick Perry get away, temporarily, with claims of a surplus was the fact that Texas enacts budgets only once every two years, and the last budget was put in place before the depth of the economic downturn was clear. Now the next budget must be passed — and Texas may have a $25 billion hole to fill. Now what?

Given the complete dominance of conservative ideology in Texas politics, tax increases are out of the question. So it has to be spending cuts.

Yet Mr. Perry wasn’t lying about those “tough conservative decisions”: Texas has indeed taken a hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens. Among the states, Texas ranks near the bottom in education spending per pupil, while leading the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance. It’s hard to imagine what will happen if the state tries to eliminate its huge deficit purely through further cuts.

I don’t know how the mess in Texas will end up being resolved. But the signs don’t look good, either for the state or for the nation.

Right now, triumphant conservatives in Washington are declaring that they can cut taxes and still balance the budget by slashing spending. Yet they haven’t been able to do that even in Texas, which is willing both to impose great pain (by its stinginess on health care) and to shortchange the future (by neglecting education). How are they supposed to pull it off nationally, especially when the incoming Republicans have declared Medicare, Social Security and defense off limits?

People used to say that the future happens first in California, but these days what happens in Texas is probably a better omen. And what we’re seeing right now is a future that doesn’t work.

Source

Please keep in mind that Texas ranks (got this off the comments section):

* 49th in verbal SAT scores
* 46th in math scores
* 49th in the percentage of adults who’ve completed high school
* last in the percentage of residents 25 years or older with a high school diploma.
* last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications.
* In overall health – which considers healthy behaviors, socioeconomic factors, health policies and mortality rates – the state ranks 39th among the 50 states.

A true Libertarian paradise.

[Shroom Man 777]

Being soft on crime isn't conservative.

I am curious. What is their stance on nuclear power and ballistic missile defense?

Texans are for Nuclear power. Since Raytheon and Lockheed have major operations in Texas Texans are generally in favor of BMD as well.

Oh well, then I guess everything is in order with Texas then and we have nothing to worry about. I am sure that they are also tough on terrorism and support the military, so there is no problem. Texas will be fine.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

They will never realise that unless taxes are collected, governments cannot function and vital services are taken away. So while the poor continue grovelling and entertaining fantasies of becoming rich, the rich continue laughing to the bank and robbing the poor. Just how long they can continue this state of self-denial will depend on how long before people start to realise these fantasies turn out to be unattainable dreams.

But then, self-denial is always preferable to admitting failure anyway.

[bobalot]

They will never realise that unless taxes are collected, governments cannot function and vital services are taken away. So while the poor continue grovelling and entertaining fantasies of becoming rich, the rich continue laughing to the bank and robbing the poor. Just how long they can continue this state of self-denial will depend on how long before people start to realise these fantasies turn out to be unattainable dreams.

But then, self-denial is always preferable to admitting failure anyway.

There is another possibility. The old people who make up a significant proportion of the rightwing reactionaries who vote for this insanity eventually die of old age. It is a saddening thought that we may have to wait an entire generation.

[Zixinus]

Oh, it will be fun to see just how good Republican financial policies stand in uninhibited practice.

Well, fun from this side of the world anyway. Not much for people over there. My sympathies guys.

[JME2]

There is another possibility. The old people who make up a significant proportion of the rightwing reactionaries who vote for this insanity eventually die of old age. It is a saddening thought that we may have to wait an entire generation.

Sad, but accurate.

[CaptJodan]

There is another possibility. The old people who make up a significant proportion of the rightwing reactionaries who vote for this insanity eventually die of old age. It is a saddening thought that we may have to wait an entire generation.

Not to derail the thread, but this sentiment never made sense to me. We keep saying this, but I don't think it holds all that true. A lot of the older generation today used to be hippies in the 60s, the very definition of liberal. Many of them are conservatives now, having "grown up" out of their liberal ideals (so they would see it). In fact, psychologically speaking, people get more set in their ways as they age, and more resistive to change. Today's liberals may become tomorrows conservatives by that measure (unless (I hope) conservatives continue to go further batshit insane, in which case hopefully there'll be a political backlash to push them back left).

With so many flower children now conservative, can we really expect our own generation(s) (the generation as a whole, not individuals) to remain liberal as time progresses?

edit to fix quote tags.

[Akhlut]

There is another possibility. The old people who make up a significant proportion of the rightwing reactionaries who vote for this insanity eventually die of old age. It is a saddening thought that we may have to wait an entire generation.

Not to derail the thread, but this sentiment never made sense to me. We keep saying this, but I don't think it holds all that true. A lot of the older generation today used to be hippies in the 60s, the very definition of liberal. Many of them are conservatives now, having "grown up" out of their liberal ideals (so they would see it). In fact, psychologically speaking, people get more set in their ways as they age, and more resistive to change. Today's liberals may become tomorrows conservatives by that measure (unless (I hope) conservatives continue to go further batshit insane, in which case hopefully there'll be a political backlash to push them back left).

With so many flower children now conservative, can we really expect our own generation(s) (the generation as a whole, not individuals) to remain liberal as time progresses?

edit to fix quote tags.

The thing is that most hippies still are hippies; there just weren't nearly that many of them. They were vocal, they were weird, and they did a lot of highly visual things, so they were disproportionately remembered; most of their cohorts were centrists or right-wing (remember, the National Guard who shot at the Kent State students were, more or less, the same age as the students they were firing at). Further, consider the time these people grew up in: the Cold War. So, those centrist and right-wing people from that era distinctly remember when Socialism was associated with people aiming ICBMs at them.

[Mayabird]

This is true. There have been studies that show that people rarely change the political leanings they have in their twenties. There really weren't that many hippies; they just got a lot of attention.

[LadyTevar]

Even shithole states like West Virginia (No Offense Tev) spend more per capita

None taken, when WV is getting above expected amounts of revenue at the moment and we've continued to stock our Rainy Day Fund over the last 8yrs. Scarily enough, WV is one of the few states (the only state?) currently operating in the black, and expected to continue to do so.

[The Spartan]

What's sad is that we will pay for this (double meaning intended) for this by screwing over kids who's education already sucks.

What's more sad, in my mind, is that we have a pretty good, if not great, set of universities... just none of the kids from Texas are ready to go. See: AD's students who don't know what the hell they already should, or my "classmate" who thought he was going to be an engineer even though he was dropping college algebra for the third time.

[Alyeska]

Even shithole states like West Virginia (No Offense Tev) spend more per capita

None taken, when WV is getting above expected amounts of revenue at the moment and we've continued to stock our Rainy Day Fund over the last 8yrs. Scarily enough, WV is one of the few states (the only state?) currently operating in the black, and expected to continue to do so.

Montana's been doing pretty good to. Schweitzer had the budget reduced and ballanced a couple years before the crash. Then he managed to convince the legislature it was a good idea to start a rainy day fund instead of just immediately tax refund it all away. Things start to go sour but the state has a budget capable of running. Revenue starts to drop a bit, but the budget was already running lower than the existing revenue. I don't know that we are fully in the black, but the state is effectively running every service at proper levels.

City budgets got hit worse.

[Broomstick]

Even shithole states like West Virginia (No Offense Tev) spend more per capita

None taken, when WV is getting above expected amounts of revenue at the moment and we've continued to stock our Rainy Day Fund over the last 8yrs. Scarily enough, WV is one of the few states (the only state?) currently operating in the black, and expected to continue to do so.

Indiana has operated in the black during the entire recession. It hasn't been easy, and it has depleted our rainy day fund, but we've managed to do it. Which is damn fucking scary, to think that despite my state's unemployment problems, social problems, and the exploding numbers of people dropping from middle class to poverty we are doing better than most states at the moment.

I think it has to do with the fact that although the state is largely conservative there is also a strong pragmatic streak as well. Our conservatives tend not to be the batshit crazy extremists, and are willing to work with the other party(s) to fix problems. Yes, there have been some cuts made but they actually expanded the medicaid and Healthy Indiana Plan medical coverage, and avoided cuts in other essential services.

I think they did borrow to keep the unemployment funds going, but that was seen as necessary to help people keep a roof over their heads.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Grover Norquist , president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Republicans need to hold firm. He has obtained written pledges from 70 GOP state legislators that they'll oppose "any and all efforts to increase taxes." He said the state's swelling, demographically challenging population does not justify raising revenues of any kind – unless it's "user fees" citizens pay voluntarily and that aren't siphoned off to fund general programs.

Grover Norquist has to be about the most poisonous single individual this country has ever produced. He clearly either does not understand what a modern state requires to have a functional society or does not care, and his formula for government and taxation —or lack thereof— is ruinous and his zealotry in pushing his anti-tax ideology has helped to wreak considerable damage to the body politic of this country.

for decades I've been wondering if that particular waste of base acids is just anti-human, or just blindly greedy....

[Rogue 9]

Grover Norquist , president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Republicans need to hold firm. He has obtained written pledges from 70 GOP state legislators that they'll oppose "any and all efforts to increase taxes." He said the state's swelling, demographically challenging population does not justify raising revenues of any kind – unless it's "user fees" citizens pay voluntarily and that aren't siphoned off to fund general programs.

Grover Norquist has to be about the most poisonous single individual this country has ever produced. He clearly either does not understand what a modern state requires to have a functional society or does not care, and his formula for government and taxation —or lack thereof— is ruinous and his zealotry in pushing his anti-tax ideology has helped to wreak considerable damage to the body politic of this country.

In a history that includes John C. Calhoun, Woodrow Wilson, Jefferson Davis, James H. Hammond, Preston Brooks, and a whole laundry list of other characters I could name, I doubt he even makes the top ten.

[Uraniun235]

Detroit Public Schools is considering abandoning half of its schools and increasing high school class sizes to 62 students.

The proposal calls for closing 40 schools in fiscal 2012 and 30 schools in fiscal 2013. That would leave DPS with 72 schools for a projected 58,570 students, down from about 74,000 now. The district closed 30 schools this fiscal year, which is expected to save $23 million. The planned closings in fiscal 2012-14 would save more than $33 million.

Bobb said the district could save another $12.4 million from the school closures if it "simply abandons" the closed buildings. Past policy has been to keep the closed schools clean and secure, officials said, but the district could cut costs by eliminating storage, board-up and security.