Corzine, Stop Buying Scotch!

At the bottom of this Associated Press story is a telling statement about Corzine's approach to borrowing and spending.

Corzine has backed requiring voter approval for new borrowing, but said the school construction money is different because it's court-ordered. The state Supreme Court in 1998 ordered the state to pay for new schools in the poorest school districts.

So if you're told that you must pay for something, you have to be able to borrow money to do it -- regardless of what the voters say.

Consider a normal New Jersey household. (You know, the kind containing a family of people who are thinking of fleeing New Jersey to avoid the outrageous taxes.)

Now consider the husband telling the wife, "Yes, I know we agreed on a budget, and I know that we are in debt up to our ears, but we have to pay taxes, so we have to be able to borrow money for them. I'm going to put them on a credit card. Now I'm going to pop over to the liquor store for a liter of single-malt scotch. Don't worry, we can afford it -- I have cash."

The wife would rightfully beat him about his head and neck. After all, she knows that when you're in debt, you have to control overall spending. When you don't have significant control over a certain expense, that's called "non-discretionary spending". When you can control how much you spend on something, it's called "discretionary spending". The budget must account for non-discretionary spending, sometimes cutting discretionary spending to avoid borrowing to pay for the non-discretionary stuff.

In other words, the wife would shout at her husband, "You idiot! Stop buying scotch when we need money to pay the taxes!"

Corzine needs the equivalent of a sensible wife. Not only doesn't he understand the fact that speculation affects petroleum prices, he doesn't even understand the basics of budgeting.

And this is the guy we elected because of his business experience. Maybe we need politicians with less experience on Wall Street and more experience managing a household budget on Main Street.

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