Coleman has a plan to run up Federal deficit

At the FarmFest debate yesterday, Dean Barkley said that putting our roads and bridges on a credit card was harmful to our children. I couldn't agree more: to fund Coleman and Pawlenty's "no new taxes" gimmick, we've been putting off paying for our infrastructure until later. When is later? It's when Pawlenty and Coleman are long gone, and our children are left holding the bill.

Norm Coleman doesn't seem to have a problem with that. Just as long as we don't have a tax increase now, he's totally fine mortgaging our government to the hilt. Here's the exchange, via Doug Grow at MinnPost:

When the subject was infrastructure — roads, railways and barges are big issues in rural Minnesota — Barkley gave the most honest answer of any of the candidates.

"There is no free lunch,'' he said. "If we're going to fix the bridges and the roads, somebody is going to have to pay for it. Bonding. That's the Republican approach. Let our children pay for it. That's financial child abuse. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.''

That response seemed to bring about a collective gulp from the crowd. Was he hinting at a tax increase?

Coleman put people at ease.

"I support bonding for transportation,'' he said. "I disagree with a gas tax increase. There are other ways to fund infrastructure.''

He didn't specify what those ways might be, but the crowd loved him and his build-now, pay-later approach.

That's Norm Coleman for you. He has no idea how we'll actually pay for it. But he also doesn't seem to care. There's probably another way, he says. Oh, and by the way, plan on mortgaging your farm in 20 years to pay for it.

Once again, I ask my readers: would you treat your own personal finances this way? Let's say your roof was starting to sag, and was going to need to be replaced in a few years. Would you start saving up for it, and maybe try to earn a bit of extra money, so you could pay for it up front? Or would you cut back your hours to work part-time, put the roof on the credit card, and let it accumulate interest for ten years?

Something tells me you'd choose the first option. So why does Norm choose the credit card? Because he doesn't have to pay for it. He gets to move on, probably to a high-paying gig as a lobbyist, and you get stuck with his credit card bills.

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