Post election - Arizona's challenge

The challenges facing Arizona over the immediate and short term are daunting. Robert Robb's column today and blog present these challenges, the legacy of 20 years of bipartisan responsibility in our state.

Robb points out:

State spending for this year is $9.5 billion. State revenues for next year are estimated to be $8.2 billion. There is no way to reconcile those figures that will not be hugely politically unpopular. And Republicans will have no place to hide.

Boyes is aware, as am I, that the cuts coming in higher ed are reflective of the spending cuts that are required. But given the size of the problem, I wonder, can spending cuts provide the sole source of reduction?

Beyond that, as Benjamin Friedman argues in The Moral Consequences of Growth, I see a challenge stemming from the sense or feeling of being left behind and a fear of the unknown in broad parts of our society. This fear is understandable and yet, the resulting intolerance, discord and anger pose a threat as large as leviathan.

Robb points our a lesson we need to never forget - just like the movie Face Off - Republicans are merely Democrats when it comes to leviathan.

"Economists can debate all day long about countercyclical fiscal policy. The American people aren't buying it. They didn't like bailing out the banks and car companies. They didn't like combating the recession with a big increase in federal spending. And they didn't like enacting a new big entitlement, Obamacare, when the federal government is broke.

Voters wanted an end to it. Democrats seemed to want even more, so voters turned to Republicans to put a stop to it, even though it was Republicans who started the bailouts and stimulus."

Without civil discourse and a recognition of the shared responsibility I anticipate further deterioration in the fiscal condition of our state and country which will be reflected in a moral degeneration that is seen in zenephobia, anti or opposition based rhetoric and a climate of distrust and outright hostility.