Free Republic

Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that today’s soaring inflation was former President Donald Trump’s fault. Heitkamp said, “You always blame the party in power. And, you know, the administration wasn’t aggressive enough, in my opinion, in pushing back on the red herrings. The red herrings like it’s because you didn’t build the Keystone XL pipeline and remind them one of the first things Donald Trump did was give the permit, and in four years, the pipeline didn’t get built? Why not? It wasn’t economical to build that pipeline in those price points. They argue...

State Controller John Chiang delivered more grim evidence of the state's budget meltdown Thursday. Chiang's office released cash figures showing that California overspent by $3.9 billion in the fiscal year just ended. General fund expenditures for the 2007-08 fiscal year that ended June 30 totaled $107.3 billion, while total receipts were $103.4 billion. Receipts would have been even lower had the governor and Legislature not borrowed $3.3 billion earlier this year. "Without counting bond proceeds, the gap between last year's revenues and expenditures was more than $7 billion," Chiang said in a statement. "Without a spending plan in place, the...

<p>SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's initial efforts to tame California's out-of-control spending are unlikely to impose fiscal control on the state's prisons, which have overspent their budgets by $1.4 billion in the past five years, according to an Associated Press analysis.</p>

<p>As Republicans attempt to oust Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, their effort is fueled by the charge that he and the Democratic-controlled Legislature spent a surge of tax revenue late last decade too freely and for too long.</p> <p>Lawmakers are haggling over a state budget that is 13 days overdue, and recall backers point to irresponsible spending as a key reason for California's staggering shortfall and their conviction that Davis should be tossed out of office.</p>