If the recession, which is (with serious East Coast faces) said to be over, has done anything good it is this - cities and states have been exposed as tax revenue-wasting scoundrels on roughly the same par as the pigs at the trough in Washington, D.C.

In Texas, various news sources today report that we'll have a budget shortfall.  Of course, it's in the billions of dollars.  But, that goes without saying.  Long ago were the days when politicians simply flushed millions down the drain; we're now always into the billions.

So, what do "conservative" legislators propose to do about it?  Reign in spending?  Yes, but only grudgingly.  Politicians don't generally like to tell people the truth - especially when it means telling them that they'll have to cut their already unnecessarily high budgets. 

"Conservative" Republican Representative Jim Pitts of Waxahachie has other ideas.  He looks wistfully across the border into poorer states such as Oklahoma and Lousiana and covets their gambling operations.  Well, what else would a weak-minded politician do?

In the early 1990s, Texas passed its lottery scheme.  Like any other lottery/gambling gambit, it was sold to voters as a fix to the "education system."  Nearly two decades later, the "education system" still claims to be "underfunded."  Some fix, huh?

But, why let history of Pitts' own state stand in his way?  He is as determined as a bird flying repeatedly into a clean, closed window.  Given a choice between the two in determining the state's finances, please give me the window-challenged bird over Pitts and all other politicians of similar mindset.

Question: has gambling lifted New Jersey out of the garbage pit of a financial situation in which it perpetually finds itself?  No. Nevada?  No.  Mississippi?  No.  Are Oklahoma and Louisiana now "rich" states because they let personally fiscally undisciplined slobs sit in their dirty gambling joints and throw their money away one quarter at a time?  No.

A cocaine addict is addicted to cocaine.  An alcoholic is addicted to alcohol.  And, a politician is addict to other people's money.

In the politician's mind, is the problem really overspending?  No.  Or, is the problem a lazy constituency that expects far too much out of the government?  No.  Of course not.

The problem is always money.  Money, money, money.  And, those pesky taxpayers throw politicians out of office when the tax burden gets too high.  Why can't the taxpayer just shut up and yield to the politicians?  In my estimation, they have for far too long.  Now, the hens have come home to roost in the way of multi-billion dollar budget "shortfalls."

Because I wasn't smart enough to get into an Ivy League or Big Ten business school, I earned my Management degree nearby from humble little Dallas Baptist University.  And, goodness sakes, how stupid my accounting, economics, and finances professors must have been!  They taught me that, no matter the financing scheme, at some point someone had to have the cash to back it up.

Isn't that crazy?  At the end of the day, the borrower has to pay back the lender.  At least, that's what we learned in the hallowed hallways of DBU.  But, of course politicians like Jim Pitts are smarter than us. 

Although Pitts didn't attend an Ivy League or Big Ten business school, he did go the the high tone and expensive SMU - sort of a poor rich man's Ivy League imitation here in Dallas.  There, he earned a degree in accounting, an MBA, and a law degree.  He's very smart, right?

All of that education, and the best he can come up with to fix the budget shortfall is gambling.  What a great use of a supposedly well-educated mind.  So crafty.  How is this man not governor of the state yet?  Wait.  Forget governor.  How is this man not residing in the catbird seat at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

The problem of every city, state, or federal budget shortfall is always the same - people expect too much and politicians, in both parties, willingly give it.  They construct all sorts of wild financial schemes and off-the-book or debt-shifting accounting maneuvers to cover their tracks when the money runs out.  Then, they look at us, the taxpayers, and lay the blame at our feet.

But, since they know we'll kick their butts out of office if they continue to jack our tax rates up, they look for the easiest way out.  For Jim Pitts and thousands of other "creative" politicians across this great land, that means throwing their hands up in the air and calling for gambling.  Hey, you'll have to admit - it's an easier solution than telling people the truth about their bloated budgets.

Oh well.  Off to put in my application to the MBA programs at Harvard, Yale, Michigan...and SMU.  Wish me luck.  Maybe they can get my head right with ball regarding governmental budgeting.  Surely the slick professoriate in one of those hallowed halls can undo the foolish fiscal responsibility taught to me by the dolts at DBU.  Surely.