States Finally Emerging from Red Ink

[Galley_Queen]

"State government finances are improving, a new survey says, with fewer budget shortfalls, more control over spending and a boost in revenue growth for the first time in years.

Still, the upswing found by a national survey of state fiscal health isn't strong enough to instantly undo the past three years of money problems, the worst states have seen since World War II, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures." More...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=18&u=/ap/20031121/ap_on_re_us/state_budgets_1

Now, here's my question. If this is true, then why was it only a few short weeks ago that the states were almost all having major fiscal dificulties? Uh, what has happened in the past month that has changed all of that according to this story and the others re: unemployment?

[CMT]

1. California

will probably begin improving due to all kinds of factors and Arnold will reap the benefits of it even though he has nothing to do with it.

[Mountainman]

2. what has happened in the past month that has changed all of that

Repubs are beginning to see that they could lose the next Presidential election so they are planting news stories about a rosy economy.

As General Clark and others have said, the news isn't in the economic statistics but in the lives of people who have lost jobs and homes and are not seeing a recovery in their lives.

[Don_G]

3. Its Strictly Propaganda

The GOP has control of the major media outlets and are reporting things are looking up on a national level and are trying to control news regionally as we speak.

An example from my local paper: http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/11/21ky/met-front-fletcher1121-4366.html

[Galley_Queen]

5. More Secrecy

from the Repukes. Jaysus.

Well, what Clark said about citizens not buying it while they are still unemployed is a good point. It's kind of hard even for rightwing nuts to continue sticking their heads in the sand while trying to pay bills with zip, nada, zero money.

[pw]

4. The patient is not actually dead

Therefore things are improving. Of course, what they also don't say is that "fewer budget shortfalls" and "more control over spending" means poor citizens of those states sick and dead because needed services were cut. Having a balanced state budget may be a necessary component of the state's financial health, but it's nowhere near sufficient.

It's like saying that a homeless person's finances are improving because, now that they're living in a cardboard box, they're no longer spending more money than they take in.