Don't bail out out our state!

The Commonwealth Foundation has joined with 58 other groups (led by the NTU) sending a letter to Congress on why a bailout of state and local governments is a bad idea, and only encourage more misspending of taxpayers' dollars.  The full letter is below, or click here.  For more on why federal bailout of states are a bad idea, check out South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's testimony to Congress or op-ed in the Wall Street Journal

NTU's Andrew Moylan also has a roundup of bailout-related links - beginning with a clip comparing the bailout to a Family Guy joke that isn't funny, except that it goes on too long - including a new site, BailoutSleuth which has been tracking where the $700 billion is going and all those sorts of minor details.

One recent applicant for the bailout money is Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist - who applied for the full $700 billion.  He wants to use to to cut the corporate income tax from 35% to 15%; cut the top individual income tax rate from 35% to 15%; eliminate the death, capital gains, and dividend taxes; and allow companies to fully-expense capital assets purchased the first year.  If that last one doesn't seem nearly as sexy as the others recall - it takes that many tax cuts to equal $700 billion.  No chance he gets the money of course, it makes too much sense.

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