TOTM

The (deficit) spender of last resort

Todd posts below about the $26 billion bill before the US House today as a gift to teachers (or perhaps more accurately, teachers unions) and school bureacrats. In reality, only $10 billion of the funds is specifically slated to rehire laid off teachers and some other public employees. The other $16 billion is to fund another six months of increased Medicaid payments to the the States (according to this NYT article). In theory, States would use the freed up cash flow to retain more teachers, police and other public service employees. So it would appear the gift is more to the whole collection of public employee unions, not just the teachers. However, I want to focus on a different dimension of this bill: the use of the Federal government to circumvent State laws, rules and regulations regarding responsible fiscal spending.

Read the full piece here.