Lewis fights 'billion dollar lie'

Being a republican cuts this guy off at the knees. He's saying stuff that isn't stupid, but he's not credible. Having him interact with Hackney is just perfect. That's the beauty of political parties, neither's credible.

Lewis spent about $232K to get elected in 2008. Must be impossible to stick with your principles when those who gave Lewis (and Hackney) money knew what they were paying for. (Hackney spent over $900K for his job.)

Besides, the idea that NC state legislators are lying to the voters isn't anything new. Doing something about it would be new, but just letting us know about it - isn't.

cdtew,

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Libertarian Party.

The "one battle at a time" mentality that you espouse is exactly the reason that Democrats like Bev Perdue won in 2008.

The NC Republican Party stands for nothing if the party supports the use of one-time federal stimulus funds from Washington to create the illusion of a balanced budget.

The single unifying principle within the GOP is the need to reduce taxes and limit the growth of government. Mr. Lewis is further fracturing an already shattered coalition by advocating loose accounting practices, instead of spending cuts, to balance the state budget.

Mr. Lewis would best serve his constituents and his party by proposing credible short-term spending cuts to close the budget gap.

Reintroducing voodoo economics is not a good solution for North Carolina's budget woes.

Ok, guys, I sympathize with your respective libertarian tendencies, but lets be realistic for a moment.

Lewis is talking about the budget. This year. This year's budget. The amount of money this state can spend this year.

He's not talking about forever having stimulus. The fact is, Democrats wanted stimulus, so therefore we have to spend what we've gotten.

What Lewis is saying is that we shouldn't count expenses that we have to make as "unfunded" and in need of a tax raise when they're being fully covered by the stimulus.

Instead of criticizing him, why not at least support him for incrementally bringing down state government spending. One battle at a time, gentlemen. This sort of third party mentality is going to keep getting Democrats elected year after year.

I am not certain whether I should laugh out loud, or cry out of complete frustration, at the NC GOP's amateurish efforts at acting like an opposition party.

Mr. Lewis apparently adheres to the belief that the federal government should continue to provide $1.3 billion economic stimulus packages to North Carolina on an annual basis for the foreseeable future.

A real conservative would highlight the fact that federal stimulus money is only a temporary solution to bridge a budget gap that would ordinarily be resolved through spending cuts or tax increases.

Federal stimulus funds allow the General Assembly to further delay hard choices on unfunded entitlements for another year.

Republicans should be pushing Democrats to make hard budget cuts now to avoid tax increases later, not arguing for a delay in spending cuts by relying on welfare dollars from Washington!

Dave Lewis's mentality is exact type--- which got us into this mess in the first place. Stimulus funding is a ONE TIME bump. One... time... fund. NOT reoccuring. Trying to sell your spin: "we don't need to tighten our belt and find revenue," is like saying you fixed your debt problems by "getting another credit card." If we don't plan NOW--- for the huge revenue hole forthcoming--- the hole will be more enormous and disasterous to fill next year in 2010 when the revenue shortfall will be billions MORE. Some people just don't get it. Some people like Dave Lewis DON'T CARE to get it. It's only about trying to create blame in a federal recession ironically the Republicans created. I'm glad some people chose to be a part of a solution, taking the medicine and starting the long hard dig out of this mess Wash DC created. Keep playing games Lewis. The grownups will continue to do the hard work fixing the federal GOP mess.