PA Libertarian Party Calls for Spending Cuts, Not Federal Bailout

Member Group : News Releases

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org

For Immediate Release: January 14, 2009

Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at [email protected] or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / [email protected]

Harrisburg, PA –

The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPa) calls on Ed Rendell and the state legislature to cut spending to address the state’s ballooning deficit and not to seek a federal bailout.

According to the Commonwealth Foundation’s January 2009 deficit watch (http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/newsreleases/pennsylvania-deficit-watch-january-2009), General Fund revenues are $815 million short for the fiscal year to date. In his mid-year budget briefing, Governor Rendell projected that the fiscal year shortfall will reach $1.6 billion.

Exacerbated by the economic downturn, Rendell and Harrisburg’s spending habits have set Pennsylvania up for the current budget crisis. Total state spending has increased 35.8% since the 2002-2003 fiscal year, more than twice the rate of inflation. If the legislature had held spending at 2007-2008 levels ($59 billion), Pennsylvania would be looking at a fiscal year surplus of $1.4 billion.

Per Michael Robertson, LPPa State Chair, "Now may be a good time to reconsider the over three billion dollars in borrowing, which will require repayment of principle and interest, that was authorized by the General Assembly in one week last July. This craven tax on future generations does not demonstrate any fiscal responsibility on the part of our elected representatives. Getting borrowed funds from the federal government will only further tax our children. It is reasonable to expect more control of spending from our elected officials in Harrisburg."

A key part of Governor Rendell’s plan to address the deficit includes a $450 million federal bailout. The Congressional Budget Office recently projected that the 2009 fiscal year federal deficit will be $1.2 trillion. That’s without counting the hundreds of billions of dollars President-elect Obama wants to spend on a stimulus package. Government’s borrowing and deficit spending contrasts sharply with the responsible actions of most individuals and businesses that have reduced spending and cut non-essentials to deal with the current economic situation.

Commented Allegheny County Libertarian Mark Crowley, "It is naive to think that any bailout from the federal government will be without strings. Our federal taxes, hard-earned here in Pennsylvania, are already returned to us with enough strings to make each Pennsylvanian a marionette. If we receive this bailout, those strings might become chains. We must reject bailouts because they sentence us and our children to a state of dependence. Instead, we must demand to keep more of our tax money here in Pennsylvania and to exercise more control over our tax rates and spending here in Pennsylvania."

Montgomery County Libertarian Jim Babb, added "Instead of raiding our children’s piggy banks and sacrificing the commonwealth’s sovereignty with federal bailouts, why not just resolve to make this the year state government gets smaller? Let’s shrink the state budget by 10% by simply re-enacting the 2006-2007 overall budget level."

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information.

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