This Barbour Only Cuts Services

Mississippi Governor and likely 2012 Republican presidential candidate has very strong opinions about the man whose job he may hope to take over in January 2013. That much is clear from his very negative rhetoric about President Obama. What is also clear is that Barbour has forgotten the old saying about how you're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

To contrast his fiscally responsible performance in Mississippi against the reckless policies of the President, Barbour boasts about closing a $720-million state budget deficit without raising taxes. What Barbour doesn't boast about is how he accomplished it. Putting aside reports that his administration has under-funded the state's public schools by over $500-million during his administration, there's also the small matter of raising taxes.

Contrary to his claims, Barbour raised taxes multiple times in areas ranging from cigarettes to nursing homes. Obviously, we shouldn't be surprised when a politician doesn't "walk the walk" on taxes, but Barbour is setting a new standard for lack of accountability. Based on comments from his spokesperson, his position seems to be that he didn't raise taxes he just signed the legislation into law. That this legislation may have been suggested to the state legislature by him (as in the case of the cigarette taxes) is apparently beside the point.

Based on this "logic", you would think that President Obama could claim he isn't responsible for any of his bills he signed either, but I suspect Barbour and company would laugh at that approach. We can only hope that actual voters will have the same reaction when evaluating the governor of the state whose economic climate was ranked as the 49th in the nation by Forbes.