Parts of a fine editorial from the Washington Times:
As President Obama's poll numbers continue to slide, congressional Democrats faced with increasingly tough re-election contests are turning to their best remaining friend, Big Labor, for help. Tuesday's enactment of a $26 billion "jobs bill" was carefully tailored to please public-sector unions, especially those representing teachers. The House majority hopes labor will reciprocate by delivering votes in the fall.
The latest federal cash infusion will help states avoid making tough budgetary decisions that might endanger the obscene salary and pension plans offered to teachers and bureaucrats at the state and local level. . . .
The spend-at-all-costs mentality even extends to punishing states that attempt frugality. A provision in the new law withholds federal money from the Lone Star State unless Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, "offers assurances" to the administration that he will not make any cuts in his education budget through fiscal 2013. Mr. Perry insisted that such an assurance is prohibited by his state constitution.
"It is unfortunate that Washington continues to play partisan games with Texans' tax dollars and the very future of our children," Mr. Perry said in a statement. "Texas will not surrender to Washington's one-size-fits-all, deficit-spending mindset or let Washington do to the Texas budget what they have done to the federal budget."
Mr. Perry is not alone in his discontent with Washington's profligacy. According to the latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll, 56 percent disapprove of the president's policies. The same number think their own member of Congress routinely trades his votes for cash or campaign contributions. . . .
Of course, it's hard to tell if such forethought went into the latest bailout, as it was rushed into law so quickly that nobody even bothered to offer a title for the bill. The measure was officially enrolled as the "______ Act of ____." One could hardly ask for a more fitting symbol of the fundamental emptiness of this congressional spending spree.
For the entire editorial see the Washington Times.
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