It’s easy to spend, spend, spend when times are good, but it’s painful to cut, cut, cut when the economy goes south. That’s why it is so important for government to avoid the temptation to overspend when it has lots of revenue.
The state of California, currently tens of billions of dollars in debt, is no doubt wishing it had spent less in happier economic times. But it didn’t and the day of fiscal reckoning has arrived.
California decided years ago to extend a range of welfare benefits to new, legal immigrants. That included things such as cash payments, child care and health care. California offered those benefits even though the relatives of new immigrants to the United States have signed agreements to support the new arrivals financially for up to 10 years so they won’t need welfare.
Well, you can guess what happened. When government offers “free money,” there are always willing takers. Many — though certainly not all — new immigrants to California now use the benefits provided. But somebody has to pay the tab, and the cost of the benefits — along with the cost of lots of other ill-advised spending in the “Golden State” — has bankrupted California. Now, the state is having to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in immigrant benefits as part of its desperate effort to close the huge budget gap, and those immigrants who were counting on the aid are alarmed.
That is the very reason why states and the federal government ought not to implement such unwise policies in the first place. It’s much more jarring and upsetting to take away some benefit than never to begin offering it.