On Tuesday, Governor Patterson announced that New York State faces a 4-year budget deficit of $47 billion … a mere $20 billion higher than they expected three months ago.

Imagine you attend the University of Rochester, which costs $50,550. In three months, you get a note from the financial aid office that says, “sorry, our calculations were off, you actually will need to pay us 74% MORE than we anticipated, so you need to fork up an additional $37,400 to pay for school.” You’d be more than irate. No big deal however when it is our state government. Who loses their job when the fiduciary responsibilities of our state government are so arrogantly disregarded?

Well, it is not these people.  Faced with some tough budget situations, all we get are promises of a “hiring freeze”and not even an insincere recognition that the state simply cannot afford to be doing most of the things it is doing. And you know how hiring freezes go in government, “since the July 30 freeze was declared, 31,684 people have been hired by agencies,” according to a Buffalo News analysis of payroll records provided by the state comptroller’s office.

I can’t wait to see what happens when President Obama and his power-hungry cronies deal with the fact that we might be running an annual deficit of nearly $2 trillion next year, and want to take a “scalpel” to a few inefficient programs. Give me a break – a government of the people, by the people, for the people, my butt. It is government FROM the people, for a few other people. And certainly not “of the people” in any sense of that word.