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Politics

State Bailout Shell Shock: The deeper you get, the sweeter the pain…

Nick Gillespie | 8.5.2010 9:57 AM

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From the Washington Examiner comes evidence of what motivates Congress to curb their vacay time: Giving away other people's money.

The House will interrupt its Summer recess next week and return to the Capitol in order to take up the $26.1 billion state aide package expected to pass the Senate this week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made the announcement via Twitter.

"I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers' jobs and help seniors and children," she tweeted.

You know, it's one thing to just take our money and shovel it around like a circus clown under the Big Top, but fer chrissakes, don't insult us with such bullshit, please, about kids and old people and teachers and puppy dogs.

Or with transparently fake promises that this latest bailout won't "add to the deficit."

The bill cleared a critical test vote on Wednesday after two moderate Maine Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, agreed to vote with Democrats. They agreed to do so after Democrats found a way to pay for the bill by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program.

Yeah, sure. More here.

Required reading for the states' ongoing fecklessness when it comes to putting their fiscal houses in order, from the May 2009 Reason:

Failed States: After a long spending binge, governors go begging for a handout. It won't be their last.

And for headline allusionists, we present with limited commercial interruption, New Order performing "Shell Shock":

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NEXT: Clang, Clang, Clang, Goes The Trolley or, What Part of "We Are Out of Money" Don't You Understand?

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

PoliticsEconomicsGovernment Spending
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