The Unloading Zone: Where Have All The Texan Fiscal Conservatives Gone????

For years, the National Republican Party had lamented "if you only give us control of Congress, we'll stop those evil Democrats from spending like there's no tomorrow."

I bought into that and had a party in 1993 when the Republicans took Congress. NOW we'd see an end to pork-barrel spending! Now we would have limited Government run by honorable people who would follow the Constitution!

Now it's 2007, and all we got was the same corruption, the same spending, and the same sex scandals. Then we got George W. Bush, the "great uniter" of Texas, and look at the mess we're in. His approval rating is down to 33% and the Democrat Congress is down to 28%. The dollar is becoming worthless, oil is about to hit $100/barrel, the deficit is insanely high and we're heading down the road to becoming a 2nd class nation.

But I thought Texas was different. We're self-reliant, plain speaking, low taxing, fiscally conservative folk (at least that's the legend). WHAT THE HELL DID WE DO YESTERDAY? EVERY Bond issue OVERWHELMINGLY APPROVED???? Where is the money going to come from to pay off all these bonds???

FOR COLLIN COUNTY, TEXAS ALONE, $958,000,000!

$235,600,00 for Road Construction
$ 17,000,000 for Parks and Open Spaces
$ 76,300,000 for Juvenile and Adult Detention Centers

And After Each One of these Items was the Statement: "and the Levy of a Tax in Payment Thereof!!!!!!! Didn't notice that statement after the State Bonds listed below:

FOR ALL OF TEXAS, $9,750,000,000!

$ 500,000,000 for Student Loans (isn't there a FEDERAL program for that? Are illegal aliens eligible for these loans too?)
$1,000,000,000 for Maintenance, Improvement, Repair & Construction Projects
$5,000,000,000 for Highway Improvement (on top of the new toll roads)
$3,000,000,000 for Cancer Research
$ 250,000,000 to the Water Development Board for assistance in distressed areas

Why are we approving bonds for road construction and maintenance? If the legislature stopped raiding the gas tax fund, the money would be there! And why are we building all these roads? At $4.00/gallon+ for gas (the latest short-term projection) plus another $5-$7 a day in TOLLS just to get to work, no one is going to be able to afford to drive anyway!

And $3 BILLION for cancer research? What business does the state have using our tax dollars to do what the private sector should be doing. Sure, everyone wishes there were cures for cancers...I lost my grandfathers to cancer, but $3 BILLION??????

Add that to all the other bond measures which were OVERWHELMINGLY approved, and I've got to ask two questions: where have all the fiscal conservatives gone; and HOW ARE WE GOING TO PAY THESE BONDS OFF?

Apparently, Collin County is just going to raise our taxes for the $1 Billion in Bonds county residents OVERWHELMINGLY authorized. As to the rest, the sales tax state-wide is pretty much maxed out at the 8.25% limit. Cigarette taxes have already been raised $1 a pack and any politician who introduces increasing the alcohol taxes at the same percentage as the cigarette tax went up will be lynched....unless he's shot first.

How many more "user fees" can the state come up with to pay these billions and billions of dollars in debt service? And don't even go to the 3rd rail....a state income tax. That would destroy Texas's growth and get a politician lynched faster than the alcohol tax increase.

So all you smug tree-huggers who voted "for" every single solitary bond, tell me how we're going to pay for them? Did we really need them in the first place? What's going on here??????

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