BUDGET: Liberals, try focusing on facts

Talk about being “entitled to your own facts.” Let’s start with the second paragraph of Bruce Hansen’s letter. ...conservative Arnold Swarzenegger... Bruce, Arnold was NEVER a conservative. He is what is called a RINO (Republican in Name Only), and was no more conservative than the majority of Hollywood’s bleeding hearts.

Then you segue into how that poster boy for liberalism, Jerry Brown “balanced” the California budget. Besides the fact that according to Leonard Gilroy, a state capitol watcher:

“To make his budget proposal look balanced this time around, Gov. Brown makes another series of optimistic assumptions, including that the tax increases California voters approved last November won’t hurt the economy and the state’s economy and tax revenues will grow; that California’s millionaires, hit with higher taxes again, won’t pack up and move to low-tax states; that California’s housing market will improve and home prices will go up; that President Barack Obama and Congress won’t do anything to hurt the national economy; and that the stock market will rise.”

To summarize the reports of the California Department of Finance and the research of Stanford University, California has combined unfunded liabilities for CalPers, CalSTRS and UCRP under the 2.6 percent discount rate is $290.6 billion, equal to more than three state General Fund budgets. That figure represents an unfunded amount per household of nearly $24,000. Using a low risk or risk free discount rate, the combined unfunded liability for these three systems reaches $497.9 billion. Governor Brown’s budget for this year is $97.7 billion. He only left out $400.2 billion the state owes from his “balanced” budget, which is typical liberal obfuscation.

Then Mr. Hansen goes on to take out and dust off an old liberal lie, the one where President Ronald Reagan raised the federal budget when he was in office. The truth is that Reagan exacted a promise out of a Democratic Congress that if they would let him LOWER tax rates, Congress would control spending. The money poured in, just like it always does when taxes are low and they just couldn’t resist spending it. Yes Defense spending soared, an infusion into what was an anemic military after years of neglect. With the advent of the Star Wars program, we find the demise of the “Evil Empire,” the Soviet Union. If that cost us a few bucks, it was money well spent.

KENT SETTY

Coeur d’Alene