Gregoire: Beyond Belief

Governor Gregoire said this week, in backing a new bond measure, that "it ... prepares us for the next version after this recession so we're ready to really kick-start the economy now. But we're also investing in the economic future both for our kids and for all of us."

So we do what you say and when the next downturn comes, we'll be ready for it, eh? That sounds familiar. Perhaps like something she said just three years ago.

Our state budgeting has been like a roller coaster. We spend when we have a surplus and we struggle to make painful cuts when the economy slumps. It's time we even out the road. When the roller coaster, while it's fun at an amusement park, it is no place and no model for state budgeting. By treating our budget like a family's budget, we will ensure stability, we will avoid tax increases, and we will avoid Draconian cuts.

Not for nothing, but how's that working out for you? It seems to me -- tell me if I'm wrong here, because that would be really funny -- that what she said we should not do in her State of the State Address in 2006, is precisely what she and the Democrats in the legislature did for her first four years in office. We had big spending with the surplus (33 percent increase), and now we face tax increases or Draconian cuts.

Even as recently as a year ago, Gregoire had the gall to say that this was actually working:

Just like families, we are making wise investments for the future and we are saving for the less prosperous times. For too long state government has spent in the good times, and then made painful cuts when our economy would slow. We're getting off that roller coaster, and we're making progress.

Anything she says about preparing us better for the future that does not actually significantly curb the growth in spending -- not just now, but for the future -- is beyond belief.