To the Editor:

President Bill Clinton once said, “I feel your pain.” In today’s economy, we hear the same thing coming from a lot of leaders at all levels of government. We hear them saying “I feel your pain” when we want them to say, “I share your pain.” As our income appears to shrink, the prevailing thinking is that government is so important, so necessary, it can’t do with less. That kind of thinking needs to end.

As the budget process continues this time of year, we see the usual bureaucrats’ line up trying to make sure their funds aren’t cut. After all, they serve the children, or the elderly, or the sick and their department is just too important to do with less. Most of them agree that government spends too much but their department’s budget can’t possibly do with less. They seem to believe that the American taxpayer is the only one who can live with less.

So what exactly is a good budget? I believe that a good budget is one that spends less than last year’s budget. It’s as simple as that. If more has to be spent in some areas, less has to be spent in other areas because less property and sales taxes are being collected. The average taxpayer has to do this when his income drops, so why should government be any different? Budgets should reflect the way money is to be spent, not the amount of money we “wish” we had to spend.

The members of the Beaufort County Republican Club believe that Republicans were overwhelmingly elected last November to cut spending. A budget that raises taxes in order to spend more is completely unacceptable. However, we realize that federal and state mandates are shifting more and more of the cost of government programs to the local county. The question is: how long do we accept this method of increasing our taxes? While the federal and/or state governments receive the benefits, the blame for increased taxes to meet these mandates is placed on our local county government. We support our local county officials but any proposed tax increase should only happen when all local spending has been reduced and those tax increases are only enough to met the very minimal federal and state mandates. After all,.

LARRY BRITT, President

Beaufort County Republican Club