With all due respect to the good guys over at the Citizen's Research Council, what the heck were you smoking when you came up with this hair-brained idea:  A ten year budget for state government.

    What does that pundit on ABC say, give me a break.

    Let's start with the obvious.  These characters in this town can hardly write a one year budget.  Tack on another nine years to the assignment and you are asking for major problems.  It would not be worth the paper it is written upon, even if they could do it, which they can't.

     This is not to say that a little forward planning would be worthless but ten years!

     The one year budget they write now is obsolete before it gets to the governor's desk and unless the CRC is predicting a decade of economic stability for this tattered and torn state, they need to rethink this recommendation.

     Yes, budget writers tend to look for quick fixes and ignore the long term devastating impact of doing that;  yes they write budgets that help them get re-elected while ignoring good public policy, but let's be honest, there is no will around here to change that.

     You can't pass a constitutional amendment ordering politicians to place themselves second and the citizens first.  Honest, it can't be done.

     So while the ten year, forward-thinking, budget concept looks good on paper for the theorists, in reality it's a non-starter.  Need proof?

     Look at the budget they just finished and all the energy it took to do that, and had they been asked to add another nine years on top of that...well you get the picture.