The first part of the article describes Barbour as a tough conservative, ready and willing to make cuts to his state budget.
Mr. Barbour's tenure offers a lesson about how governing has a way of clouding the clearest of intentions.
Mr. Barbour has taken an ax to his state's budget more than five times since September 2009. No agency has been spared, with education, mental health and other areas cut by almost 10% from what was originally budgeted for the 2010 fiscal year that ended June 30. He proposed another 8% to 10% cut for some agencies in 2011, and belt-tightening in 2012 is expected to continue.
Sounds impressive right? I think so, and then I had to read the following:
At the same time Mr. Barbour has been cutting spending, he has been buoyed by access to more than $2.6 billion in funds from the controversial federal stimulus, which forestalled deeper cuts, and by two tax increases he signed into law. Those will be scrutinized closely by tax-averse GOP primary voters should he run for the party's presidential nomination.
Smoke and mirrors...
The Cato Institute, a libertarian Washington think tank, recently gave Mr. Barbour a "C" for fiscal policy, saying his "tax and spending record over seven years as governor has not been very conservative."
Mr. Barbour, 63 years old, defends the tax increases—they were small and one was a reinstatement of an old tax, he said—and the use of stimulus funds, on the grounds that the federal government should be allowed to give aid to states, as long as it doesn't come with strings.
