Lyle's Blog

Washington State has passed a higher education act which provides college tuition to poor people. An increase in the Business and Occupation Tax funds the scam. A little primer in how a business makes money may be in order. In short, whatever product a business sells, all costs are passed on to the consumer. Shipping, manufacturing, advertising, and taxes are included in the price the consumer pays. Businesses do not have huge stashes of money to pay for mandated expenditures. We pay for all the freebies.

But let’s forget for a moment whether there is any right or wrong to this legislation. The political climate in all blue states is such that any program that benefits the poor is good and proper.

Washington State has an obligation to balance its budget and so it does. However, the state government, let alone local municipalities, borrow money to fund whatever is deemed proper. The state is $32 billion dollars in debt plus $12 billion or so in pension obligations. City and county debt aside, that’s a large chunk of money. So yes, they balance the budget but borrow huge amounts of money for the whims of unethical people. It’s wrong to spend money on “education” or anything else when so much debt has accumulated.

These are good times, the economy is great, it’s booming. Wouldn’t it be prudent to pay down debt now? Aren’t downturns going to come and more debt will need to be added to pay for free and unfunded promises?

Progressives promise a lot; what they give us is unending, ever increasing, and apparently unpayable debt.