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By W.D. Goldston Jr.

Can we spend our way out of this recession?

Over the past months, this question keeps popping up in my mind. Having been born during the recession of the late-1920s and early 1930s, I have seen many things, some good, some bad. I do not remember during all these years any time we were able to spend our way out of our financial problems, particularly with other people's money or on borrowed money. Our choice was to accept our situation or "work" our way out.

It seems our political leaders now feel the only way to solve the problems created by greedy financial institutions is to mortgage our future generations.

Just read the newspapers or listen to TV: They can solve all our problems by spending more. This applies to our federal, state, county and local governments.

Our federal government already has bailed out companies for mistakes that were caused by greed. Now they want to pass a health bill that is good enough for the average citizen but not good enough for our elected officials. They work for us, we pay their salaries with our taxes, so why would they not want to join the health plan they want us to pay for? With so many government employees who also work at our expense, it is difficult for the few productive workers to cover all of their great programs.

Our state government is in the same situation. Our political leaders feel we can spend our way out of our problems. There again, they are mortgaging our future, taking money out of trust funds to cover their overspending. And the latest way to borrow more is for the governor to borrow money from the contractors to build road projects she has promised. This is money that the state would be obligated to pay back. Is this legal, without the consent of the voters? I would think not.

Our local governments are doing the same thing. Just refer to the latest information about Greensboro's proposed swim facility. Price before the vote: low; price after the vote: high. The only hope of reimbursement is the tourism it will create, but this is not guaranteed. Taxpayers are on the hook.

In Rockingham County, we have the same situation. We were told by our county manager and commissioners we could have a horse facility and no tax money would be used to build or operate it. Now it appears approximately $500,000 has been spent, and the operating cost for three to five years will have to be paid with tax money.

The horse complex will only help one area of our county, and we are told the tourism tax will pay for the operation -- not guaranteed, but expected. The fallback is taxes.

We are also building a new courthouse, which is sorely needed, for more than $40 million. We have already approved this and a tax increase to fund it.

Our community college has requested that the county commissioners borrow millions of dollars to build an auditorium on its campus. Great idea, but who pays the money back? I feel sure it will be the taxpayers in a county with unemployment over 12 percent.

So the question is: Who are our political leaders representing, themselves or the taxpayers?

I am concerned about the future of our country. Is it possible we are headed in the wrong direction with our liberal leaders who cannot seem to see the future? Do they even care about the future, or just their immediate re-election?

W.D. Goldston Jr. is a former Democratic state senator from Eden.