I loved Mark Sanford for his fiscal policy. That was, of course, before I realized that he felt fiscal restraint is making his aides fly coach while he flies first class to meet with his soul mate. Sanford, scratch.
I still love the idea of John Bolton, but that will never happen. He’s never been & never will be a candidate. I’ll give 1000 to 1 odds on him as my dark horse.
I’ve said it to people before, and I’ve obviously picked it up from people who are in the know, but so far (and it’s still early) the guy who seems to be rising to the top is Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana.
This article at Redstate is link laden and lays down some of the basics of this fiscal conservative…
Under Mitch Daniels’ leadership the state reported a $1.3b surplus. The State Auditor Tim Berry noted that they even raised school funding:
Berry stood in front of charts Friday that show Indiana increased school funding, avoided a tax hike, and maintained a surplus of about 10%. [...]
“Measures that were taken early on by Governor Mitch Daniels to restrain spending have amounted for a large amount of these fiscal reserves,” Berry said.
The Louisville paper notes that tax revenue was even down $1.2b below projections:
The state had $1.33 billion in its main checking account and reserves when the fiscal year ended June 30. That’s roughly the same as one year ago, even though state taxes brought in $1.2 billion less than originally projected.
You can check out the draft Mitch page on Facebook.
Now, let’s just pray we don’t come to find out thathe’s been snorting cocaine off of a dead hookers high heel shoe.
