"The Future ain't what it used to be" --
Yogi Berra
Ben Barnes, Governor Dannel Malloy’s budget guru, is a late
convert to reality. But having overcome the progressive stiffness in his
joints, Mr. Barnes, now rising from his knees, has got economic religion. One
hopes that Mr. Barnes’ conversion to common sense rubs off on his boss.
Last June, pointing to an under-performing economy battered
by a quarter century of mounting tax increases and tortuous federal and state
regulations, Mr. Barnes explained to an astonished gaggle of news reporters
that Connecticut should
get used to frequent deficits. Even this partial confession astounded
some members of Connecticut’s media who perhaps had been wondering why nearly
all of the “balanced budgets” submitted by Mr. Malloy to a Democratic dominated
General Assembly so quickly unbalanced themselves once Election Day had passed.
At the end of September, Mr. Barnes fessed up. Facing yet
another billion dollar deficit just before the 2016 elections, Mr. Barnes
capitulated to reality.
“Everybody’s belief that we would return to a normal
business cycle has faded,” he confessed. The eupeptics in the Malloy
administration thought during the governor’s first two years in office that
Connecticut would quickly recover from the crippling national recession.
Floored by previous recessions, Connecticut in the past had recovered and life
in the state of steady habits had returned to normalcy. Actually, it took
Connecticut nearly a decade to recover from its previous recession, largely
because the imposition of the Lowell Weicker income tax in the midst of the
recession extended the usual recovery period. The income tax, and more
especially the poisonous notion that increased taxes, invariably followed in short
order by increased spending, would enhance recovery, was attended by
predictable consequences: anemic growth, mounting state debt, business flight
and arcane theories presented by slick politicians to justify even higher taxes
and more state spending.
“We,
sort of, have changed our view,” Mr. Barnes continued. “I
certainly have, and a lot of mainstream economists have changed their view.”
This is what happens when false solutions crash into
reality; eventually, the collision wakes up even the most slumberous
politicians, most of whom have been lulled to sleep by political exigencies of
the moment, usually re-election prospects.
It is NEVER a bright idea to raise taxes during a recession;
it is ALWAYS a dumb idea, attended by quite predictable consequences.
So then, Mr. Malloy -- now out gallivanting
from sea to shining sea and bestowing his blessings on out-of-state Democratic office
holders, part of his duty as Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association,
while Connecticut huffs along mired in a prolonged recession – and Mr. Barnes finally have
come to the realization that further tax increases are both unlikely and
unwise. Mr. Malloy, the author of the largest tax increase in state history,
years ago pledged – no new taxes, after which he imposed on his state the
second largest tax increase in its history. The tax well has now run dry, and
despite gargantuan tax increases during Mr. Malloy’s administration, Mr. Barnes
finds himself facing yet another billion dollar plus budget deficit. Thanks to
the ruinous progressive domestic economic policies of President Barack Obama,
hedge funds in Connecticut are underperforming – and blowing a hole in Mr.
Malloy’s budget; everyone in Connecticut is gazing wistfully at the exit signs;
in response to Obamacare, large home-grown insurance companies are combining
with their out-of-state insurance cousins, raising the possibility that
insurance jobs will be lost in what used to be called the insurance capital of
the world; and even avant guard journalists are
beginning to shake their heads sadly, wondering what the state might look like
after the inevitable crack-up. Answer: It will be smaller, poorer and more
dependent on fake political saviors. In both politics and religion, the worship
of false gods leads downward.
As Yogi Berra used to say, the future ain’t what it used to
be. Mr. Barnes who, along with Mr. Malloy, is now taxing hospitals because “that’s where the money is,” apparently now agrees with the late Mr. Berra’s
apt description of life in Connecticut in the Malloy-Barnes era.
Here’s the downer: Mr. Malloy and all his political
imps and impets cannot pull Connecticut out of its nosedive without a
course change. And he will not change course by making common cause with
Republicans and what is left of a rational, moderate, Democratic Party.
He won’t do it. Why not?
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall.”
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