PA Governor Challenges Call for Budget Cuts

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who will leave office this fall after elections upon being term limited, launched into the Republican candidate for governor, Tom Corbett, about the latest call for budget cuts to eliminate the multi-billion dollar budget deficit.

“When you hear the political candidates — both Democrats and Republicans — say, ‘We don’t have to raise taxes. We can do it by cutting the budget,’ there’s no way they can do it by cutting the budget,” Rendell said."

Of course you can eliminate the deficit by cutting spending Ed. You have just been unwilling to do it because budget cuts would directly affect the non-tax-paying class of citizens that originally voted you into state office 8 years ago.

Governor Rendell challenged the Republican candidates to specifically mention what items would be reduced or eliminated in the state budget.

“One of the things I think the media should do is, when someone says that, say, ‘Where? Tell us where you’re going to cut and what the consequences of that should be. If you’re going to cut the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources 20 percent, what parks are you going to close? The citizen have the right to know. What museums and what scenic outposts are you going to close?’”

That's a fair question. Candidates for office that are proposing to reduce spending as a means of addressing budget deficits should be prepared to discuss where and to what extent items already within the budget would be cut.

But with all the fat that's built up in these budgets over the past couple of decades, that should not be a difficult challenge at all.