In a bit of a celebratory, yet intrepid spirit I flipped the channel over to watch Governor Daniels' last state of the state address. And that lasted about 30 seconds before I felt nauseous and continued flipping through the channels. Ultimately I shut the tv off and started reading a new book called "Radical". Sounds about right.
The sole part of the address I caught was a comment that reveals his fixation that other states want to be Indiana. I don't find this to be true. It makes me think he has some form of inferiority complex-as though saying it enough may make it true. He relayed a story that a reporter asked him what kept him up at night, or maybe how he overcomes insomnia. His response was "I don't count sheep.....I count how many states I'm glad I'm not the governor of". And after he gave his smug little smile....I turned the channel.
But, that left me wondering, maybe concerned, exactly how high can Mitch count?
Because here are some stats that put Indiana pretty close to the bottom these days:
36th in unemployment
42nd in SAT scores
32nd in median income
41st in population growth
38th in personal health
40th in foreclosures
32nd in the poverty rate
This leads me to believe that Mitch gets pretty tired after counting to only about 12 or 15!
Where Indiana does shine is our 22nd place (just a little above the middle) for debt as a percentage of gross domestic product. I guess that's something to celebrate.
No, Mitch, I'm afraid that it's the governors of other states who are counting their lucky stars they don't have Indiana's problems. And this may be why people don't want to live here anymore. You and Mr. Bosma balanced the state budget all right-on the backs of everyone paying more in sales tax, our public schools, and our cities and towns. You're not a miracle worker, you're a charlatan that's gotten 6.5 million Hoosiers to drink from your punch bowl.
3 comments:
oh the "cure" will be making Indiana a Right to Work State and we will officially join the Confederacy! Which we only missed by a couple of votes the first time! Maybe we can add the stars and bars to the state flag!
interesting how perspective can see the same thing and come up with such a different view. I, for one, realize that Mitch is far from perfect (something ron paul supporters never want to admit about ron). However, I find it very refreshing that he has more spine than 99% of politicians, is willing to speak to the difficult problems rather than give us big flowery non-answers so common among politicians, and so unwilling to allow us to run down the path toward financial ruin as a state and end up facing a problem like many states and countries now are facing.
As I learned back in high school, eating from the a la carte line at lunch and getting extra desserts is fun until the lunch money runs out way before the end of the month. thank goodness patrick bauer doesn't have free reign in running this state. Now HE's the boob.
I have no issue with cutting real waste. My personal take is that Public Education has borne too much of the cutting burden. I also believe that Metro Indianapolis and Southern Indiana has benefited from far more State financed projects than areas north of Kokomo and this a reflection of bias of the Governor himself and the department heads that he appointed.
Additionally this mystery $320 million that was recently discovered makes me wonder just what other smoke and mirrors may be be discovered once the little general is gone!
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