One more reason agai…

One more reason against big government: Coming up with new ways to fund it. Four states are facing shortfalls in their budget, and instead of cutting spending or raising taxes, they’re looking at gambling. These states are following the classic path of the addict. They have a habit (throwing money at everything in sight), they can’t cut back on their habit or pay for it any longer, so they’re adding a new vice to pay for the old vice.

Don’t get me started on lotteries. When the issue was being debated on Georgia, I told some friends on a computer bulletin board system at the time that it would become another slush fund for politicians to spend any way they please, and the educational “lockbox” would be raided at will. I was ridiculed for allegedly posessing some sort of crystal ball. It passed, and about a year afterwards when south Georgia was having flooding problems, Gov. Zell Miller said that some of the relief payments would come from “excess lottery money”. Excess? I got back on the BBS and announced to all that the educational needs had been fully met now in Georgia. No room was without a computer, no student had to pay for college, and school buildings were finally up to snuff with no trailers outside anymore. I was met, of course, with virtual silence. As honorable as the flood relief usage may have been, how many other non-disclosed uses was the money being put out for? It was a slush fund, plain and simple.

And how honorable is it to pass what amounts to a regressive tax, one that hits the poor the hardest? They’re the one studies show buy the most tickets, urged on by TV & magazine ads, hoping to get out of their current condition. Politicians can’t claim ignorance on this issue, but they still do because they can’t resist the money.

This is where big government leads, among a myriad other places we don’t want to go.

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