San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial

Beyond reckless / Sacramento, Washington pile up the debt

Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.

This editorial page has for years criticized the dishonest budgets coming out of Sacramento. State leaders have been unwilling to do anything about California’s structural budget deficit but make it worse by pushing costly bond projects that add to long-term debt.

This reckless practice is reflected in state debt service payments, which have gone up 143 percent the past decade. Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor both recently warned the Legislature that this debt binge will soon cause huge headaches in crafting a general fund budget, since debt service costs alone are on track to eat up more than 10 percent of revenue.

But at least Californians have one thing to be thankful for: The state can’t just print more money when it doesn’t have enough to satisfy irresponsible lawmakers. Only the knaves in Washington, D.C., can do that.

Consider the events of this month alone: Thirty-four prominent current or former government officials – including former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, seven former directors of the White House Office of Management and Budget and seven former directors of the Congressional Budget Office – issued a dire report warning the United States faced ruin if the national debt didn’t stop ballooning. Longtime Washington Post columnist David Broder likened the report to “shock treatment.â€