A bailout of the states rewards fiscal recklessness

The Wall Street Journal has a great article and graph (to the right) on how states have overspent, and are certainly not in need of a bailout from the federal government/taxpayers.

When Detroit's auto makers begged for a federal bailout last month, Congress demanded that their CEOs make changes to their operating model in return for a check from Uncle Sam. If only Congress would demand the same from the state and local politicians now seeking $200 billion from federal taxpayers.

The Journal has a couple of other good articles today on the stimulus/state bailout - covering why the "stimulus" isn't about the economy at all, but about pork projects (e.g. most of the spending won't occur for a year or more) and why government spending is less efficient than lower taxes (the leaky bucket theory).

On the Heritage Foundation blog, you can find my post on Pennsylvania's overspending and failure to achieve economic growth through government spending.  Other think tanks have weighed in on why their states don't need/deserve a federal "bailout", including Washington, Texas, and Maine.

Additional posts from the Heritage Foundation:

• A Conservative Alternative to Obama’s Permanent Spending Plan
• The Fallacy of Stimulus Spending
• Stimulus Plan: Just a Big Bailout of Failed Governments and Programs