AM1100’s Scott Hennen recently came up with an excellent idea (which you can support by signing this petition): North Dakota should forgo it’s share of Obama’s “economic stimulus” money.  Because it won’t stimulate the economy, but instead unnecessarily grow the size and burden of government and create more debt for our children and grand children to eventually pay off

Hennen has been pushing this idea for the last several days on his radio show, but today he got a call from a listener who said that North Dakota should cash in on Obama’s pork spending because the money is going to be spent anyway and North Dakota may as well get its share

I think this caller is wrong in general, but he is right that if North Dakota turns Obama down that money will probably be spent anyway.  But I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse for North Dakota to refuse to do the right thing

Our state doesn’t need Obama’s “stimulus.” With a massive budget surplus and a Governor and legislature that’s more than happy (unfortunately) to spend every penny of it there cannot possibly be any projects in the state in need of this additional federal spending.  At best the money from Obama would be spent on projects of marginal importance to the state.  At worst it would be spent on things the North Dakota taxpayers would then be responsible for maintaining/continuing (at what cost?) going forward

“Everyone else is doing it” is rarely a good excuse for doing something, and it is perhaps more true in this instance than it usually is

save this article / add to your favorites list