Out There

The Sun really cracked me up this morning with their editorial on the budget situation. Particularly since the editorial was entitled "Reality-based budgeting," because it was their typical, rather panglossian view of the government that can do no wrong and the government that can never do enough.

Personally, this is my favorite part:

The reality of state government is that most tax dollars go straight into schools, public safety and health care - and often, it's still not enough.

When the General Assembly convenes one week from tomorrow in special session to consider Mr. O'Malley's plan, every option should be on the table, including eliminating government programs that are no longer vital. But anyone who claims cuts can balance the budget is either ill-informed or baldly mendacious.

The deficit wasn't caused by waste; it's primarily the result of failing to pay for programs that most people living in this, one of the wealthiest states in the nation, would regard as sensible and prudent.

Read that last sentence again. According to the geniuses on Calvert Street, the deficit was not caused by paying for too many government handouts, but the deficit was caused by too few government handouts.

There is nothing reality based about the Sun's position on the budget. It is the typically urban liberal perspective that the taxpayer is merely a bank, and that government can withdraw however much it wants in order to waste the money on programs that are either ineffective, obsolete, or just plain unwanted. Though maybe the Sun's position on the issue explains its ever declining circulation numbers; maybe readers get tired of hearing that the Sun's editorial writers want them to be poor...