As head of the Republican Governors Association, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour is raising his national profile this fall by traveling to dozens of states and campaigning for his party’s gubernatorial candidates.
Barbour’s telling voters that Republicans are better than Democrats at handling taxpayers’ dollars. He’s also painting an unrealistically rosy picture of Mississippi’s budget situation.
“My budget this year in Mississippi is 13 percent less than it was two years ago. I cut spending 9.7 percent last year. Frankly, nobody much noticed the difference,” a confident Barbour said in late August on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
It’s true that Mississippi’s budget has been shrinking during the tough economy of the past couple of years, and that Barbour made serious spending cuts during the fiscal year that ended June 30.
It’s not true, however, that “nobody much noticed the difference.”
Read more: NEMS360.com
10/3/10
Magnolia Tribune
