Chet Culver: Ransoming the Future to Pay for the Present

I have a quick question for our readers. What do you do when the state that you govern carries approximately $500 million in debt? I would hazard a guess that a large majority of us would dramatically cut spending, but not so for our governor Chet Culver.

Last week during a taping of Iowa Press our lovely Governor Chet Culver made the following comment:

“If we want to modernize our infrastructure-our sewer treatment facilities, our water treatment facilities-I don’t know how bonding can stay off the table.”

That’s right, with over $500 million in debt Culver wants to send the state even further into the hole to fund his pet projects. Culver completely disregards the hard facts that most Iowans face on a daily basis. Instead of governing responsibly and acting with a little financial common sense Culver is betting the farm on what is beginning to appear to be a massive New Deal-esque public works project. His idea of economic stimulus is to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money to jumpstart Iowa’s economy. While I think that it may be a noble goal, I do believe that it would be an ultimate failure as long as the US economy is in its recession.

As for the notion that a massive project along these lines will work I think is wrong. Many people credit FDR’s New Deal for bringing the US back from the depression, but those same people fail to mention that the country was still mired in the depression when World War II erupted. A lot of the credit for the United States economic recovery from the depression can and should be credited to the war effort. Many US soldiers that went to war in Europe received monthly wages, but couldn’t use them at the front so their wages accrued. At the end of the war when the soldiers came home they had a very high amount of disposable income that they used. This was one of the major factors that brought about the end of the depression, not the public works programs instituted by FDR.

If Culver goes ahead with this plan to improve Iowa’s infrastructure system it will threaten to bankrupt our state. We are already in debt to the tune of $500 million; if this plan proceeds we could very easily reach one billion dollars in debt in very short order. Of course a lot of people wouldn’t really care if the state goes deeper into debt as it will be Iowa’s future paying for the present. For those of you with children look at them right now. Do you really want them to have hardships in their lives just so you could have a few more creature comforts now? If you are anything like me that answer would be no.