They just can't stop spending.

An excellent piece from the Washington Examiner lays bare all the nonsense rhetoric from America's Governors whining that they're going broke. It's another case of the numbers destroying the doomsday sentiments of spendthrift politicians:

In addition, he found that "State taxing grew double GDP, almost three times inflation and ten times household growth, while Americans' incomes actually declined." So, the real issue is not that states are going to collapse. It's that they got used to uninterrupted growth funding ever bigger government and their elected officials do not know how to downsize.

And along with that feeling of "uninterrupted growth funding ever bigger government" comes the concomitant entitlement feeling of those on whom the Government's largesse is bestowed. And once that happens, very few politicians these days have the courage to do what is fiscally sound for their State and its residents at the risk of losing the votes of those that wholly depend on Government to live their lives.

It's a viscous cycle to be sure.

There's no end in sight.

Russ