Fiscal Responsibility? The one thing that I found most remarkable about the federal budget is that this otherwise stereotypically conservative administration has proposed a budget that makes no pretenses about the fact it will create a record-breaking budget deficit--which will be north of $300 billion by its own estimate.
Indeed, the only pretense in the budget is that the added expense of war--either the coming war with Iraq or the ongoing operations in Afghanistan--is left totally out of the equation. These costs are both significant and very likely to be incurred: to not include them in the government's spending plans for the next year is very dubious.
It used to be a central tenet of the Republican Party that deficits are bad for the economy. And, for some, it still is--several Republican legislators have expressed deep reservations about portions of the administration's spending and taxation plans. Their opposition, at this stage, suggests that the president's budgetary ambitions may be somewhat blunted by the time the final budget is passed. But, even so, the end product will probably be splattered with red ink, and future generations will have to clean up the mess.
Forty states, including Wisconsin, are currently attempting to resolve massive fiscal shortfalls. But the federal budget provides very little in the way of assistance. More than that, by linking money to compliance with federal policy preferences, such as the near-destruction of Medicaid and compliance with the questionable No Child Left Behind Act, it takes another central principle of the GOP--having state and local government, and not the federal government, control policy--and throws it out the window.
The budget request for NASA received a great deal of attention from observers, for obvious reasons. But tucked within that portion of the budget is a four-paragraph blurb on the subject of space aliens. The sidebar concludes, incredibly, by saying that, \perhaps the notion that 'there's something out there' is closer to reality than we have imagined.""
I really do not want to be a killjoy, but understand: This budget went through several drafts. I would have to think that the Office of Management and Budget had better things to do--such as working with Congress to complete work on the budget for the current fiscal year, which is over four months past due--than to waste government resources on an eloquent statement on the existence of little green people.
As mentioned, Wisconsin's government is in a fiscal crisis. And with the recent ""sickout"" action taken by Department of Corrections employees, we have begun to see some of what is to come.
Another bad sign: UW System President Katherine Lyall's announcement that in-state tuition could rise, systemwide, by 25 percent over time. Facially, the move looks rational enough, as UW-Madison tuition would rise to the Big Ten midpoint and the other campuses would move to match. But, if in-state tuition makes this move, there might be a greater impulse to make a similar hike to out-of-state tuition. This would destroy out-of-state enrollment, and make this campus both less diverse and--even more troubling--less attractive to the nation's and world's brightest students.
My advice? Tuition hikes are tax hikes in disguise. Gov. Jim Doyle, who swore up and down during his campaign that he would not raise taxes, should deal with them accordingly.
A salute from me to the men's hockey team for last weekend's performance. The 4-1 and 4-2 victories came against WCHA doormat Alaska-Anchorage. But as Gertrude Stein once said, ""A sweep is a sweep is a sweep.""
Unless the miraculous occurs, we will be playing on the road in the first round of the conference playoffs. But so what? Our club can take last weekend's success and use it to gain momentum, with which it could certainly play its way deep into the WCHA tournament--and possibly snag the automatic berth into the NCAA championships. And that would turn this season of shame, quite dramatically, into a season of fame.
Two notable oversights from yesterday's Oscar nominations: The beautifully-staged ""Road to Perdition"" should have received a Best Picture nod, and the stunning French production, ""Time Out,"" should have been included in the foreign language category. Both films were released early on, while the films most recognized in yesterday's ceremony were all released late in the year. This is an old problem, but it should be kept in mind for future years.
To all those who already have dates lined up for Valentine's Day: be smart and have fun. And for those women who are still looking, please inspect today's Classy Connections for an important message from me.
