Connecticut 236 Years Later. The Long Road to Fiscal and Social Disaster

The time of Disaster has finally come, being long in the making. The bell now tolls for Connecticut, being the fifth state in our country since 1788. Ironically bearing the moniker of "The Constitution State," Connecticut seems to be gasping its' last breaths of its 236-year existence. 

The trip along the highway to disaster accelerated since the advent of the "cure-all" Utopian State Income Tax that was passed in 1991. Since that time, the state budget has increased from $7.9 billion dollars in 1991 to over $26 billion dollars in 2024. That is an increase of over 270%, far exceeding the rate of inflation. But has there been a great influx of new residents over thirty-five years? Hardly not. Connecticut's population has increased in the same period since 1991 by only 300,000 people from 3.2 million to 3.6 million in 2024. This is a 12% increase in 33 years, being far below the population increase in our country. So, using pure simple mathematics, there is no “population boom” nor teeming attraction for people to move into Connecticut. This realization is truly sickening, especially after the lies the Democrats and state-run media sources have fed to us to the contrary.

But that is just one symptom of the trip on the road to ruin. What was the cause? In recent history, we can start with Connecticut's Governor in 1991. The Governor was the liberal Republican turned Independent multi-millionaire Lowell Weicker, who was hailed at the time of enactment of the state income tax as saving the state from bankruptcy and cuts from essential services in the state. When looking back at some of the articles written during this debate, we heard that children would be starving, the homeless would have no place to go, and drug addicts would no longer be cared for if we did not enact the tax. The elderly would also become homeless with little to no social welfare programs for them, and anyone else would be in grave difficulty especially those most in need. Pedestrians would be shot and killed. Drug addicts would roam, rob, and pillage the streets! Women would be raped! Roads and bridges would be collapsing! Kids would come out of school stupid with no marketable skills whatsoever! Of course, these were all classic Connecticut Democrat Party talking points which have now turned into realities in Democrat Connecticut and are more solid realities after 35 years of separating Connecticut from their wallets and purses via tax money.

But on the road to the fiscal disaster Connecticut has a pattern of repeating its greatest hits. In 2024, Connecticut's Governor is the liberal Democrat vapid multi-millionaire King Ned Lamont, "The Unaccountable" who has helped to nurture massive increases in state spending, profited personally through questionable, unethical business dealings with no-bid state contracts going to firms such as Sema4  that were heavily invested in his wife's hedge fund Oak HC/FT, and has veto proof power in the State Legislature with an omnipotent one-party Democrat ruled majority.  As my friend and colleague Tony De Angelo pointed out this past week, SEC documents show that the Lamont-related interests made upwards of $77,000,000 in one day at the Sema4 public offering to a chorus of silence from anyone in the political sphere or corporate state-run media interests. But that egregious rape of ethics pales in comparison to the fact that any piece of liberal, socialist, or communist legislation can be rammed through and signed with ease by Lamont over the next two years. But what about that thing called Ethics? It is common knowledge that the Connecticut State Ethics Department could not find an elephant in the snow, and this has been made much more clear since the Lamont-related pillagings. The time for disaster has arrived for a true dictatorship and treasury leveraging never seen before anywhere in 236 years.

But despite the incredibly obscene and bulbous amounts of tax money collected by Connecticut over thirty-five years, it is ironic that in 2024 we see the same issues that the state prophesied in 1991. Children are not being cared for except for things such as gender change. There is still a homeless crisis. There is a massive illegal drug crisis. There is now massive crime and theft in the state. There are still massive infrastructure problems with constant road and bridge repair needed. Yet the state budget increased by over 270% with the state income tax. And Connecticut has $125 to $150 Billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities that just never get mentioned, as the prevailing ideology is that saving the “fiscal guardrails” will save us all. Regrettably, nothing can be farther from the truth. As one cause, it is rarely discussed in 2024 that the bulk of the state's spending goes to state employee salaries, benefits, and pensions along with interest on the state debt. There is little to spend elsewhere. Read the state budget for this economic reality for yourself (https://portal.ct.gov/opm/bud-budgets/2024-2025-biennial-budget/fy-2024-2025-biennial-budget).

Connecticut’s 236-year road to disaster accelerated into the freeway fast lane since 1991. Since that time, the state has evolved into a cesspool of political nepotism, crime, serial incompetence, debt, and incoherent socialistic gibberish. Connecticut's state government caters to the well-connected and has little impetus to make life easier for those who are the indentured servants, the Connecticut Taxpayers who must fund this economic debacle. Could you run a company and earn a profit if the bulk of your business’s funds just paid for salaries, benefits, pensions, and debt service benefiting the old cronies on the top floor? But Connecticut's Democrat Party has no problem doing this. Why? How does it benefit Connecticut Taxpayers? In what way? Can anyone explain that to Connecticut Taxpayers?

Thus, Connecticut slogs along with high state taxes, high property taxes, high state debt, high homelessness, high crime, excessively high electric rates, high cost of living, massive unfunded liabilities, massive illegal drug problems, massive infrastructure problems and more.  It is not what our founders envisioned in 1788. Personal and economic freedoms should be flourishing in a state like Connecticut. Instead look forward to two more dismal years economically and socially in "The Constitution State" a state that its political class feel is theirs and theirs only. Citizen once again, be damned.

We’re Number 50! - The Democrat Victory Of Making Connecticut The Most Financially Troubled State In The Union

There seems to be no limit to the gutters that Connecticut continually falls into. Rampant corruption. Condoned (if not coddled) illegal immigration. Free tuition and healthcare for these same illegals. State senators destroy public property without a demand for prosecution from either political party. Other legislators drive drunk, flip cars and/or abuse substances, even while making laws. However, if that is not wretched enough for you, there is worse news for Connecticut Taxpayers. The State of Connecticut is pretty much broke. Yes, you read that correctly. Broke. Tapped out. Busted. On the Breadline.

Again, I repeat: The State of Connecticut is pretty much broke.

How has this happened, do you ask? Easy. It has been the usual “what, me worry?” posture in the land of Nutmeg for any semblance of fiscal governance. The election that took place a few weeks ago rewarded the fiscally illiterate Connecticut Democrat Party even more power for their inept fiscal mismanagement of the state. But how can this be possible in light of easy to find public sources? A recent “2024 Financial State of the States Report” (“report”) issued by the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, ranked Connecticut at the complete bottom of their report at #50 out of 50 states giving the state a "F" for their finances based on 2023 results. The report which I urge all to read can be found at https://www.truthinaccounting.org/library/doclib/Financial-State-of-the-States-2024.pdf.
To make a dire situation even worse, Connecticut is ranked at the bottom of all "Sinkhole" states. This reference to a “Sinkhole" means that all state taxpayers will owe a certain dollar amount to pay off the state's debt. The state does not have enough revenue and assets to pay its bills. For Connecticut it is a mere $44,300 each person (p.17 report). I have written for many years the issues of Connecticut's short- and long-term debt along with its unfunded liabilities at being $100 to $150 billion dollars, an astronomical amount for the state as small as Connecticut, only for me to be continually derided by many feel-good politicians. However, to show how deluded these politicians are, the report clearly breaks out the following grave issues concerning Connecticut: Unfunded Pension Benefits: $38,010,340,000. Unfunded Retiree Health Care Benefits: $17,091,549,000 (p.51 report). The mind-numbing figure of $64,897,085,000 is the actual debt that the state reports from its fiscal report, however over the years several budget items were taken off budget and as such are not counted towards this figure (p.51 report). That to me is called creative (if not fraudulent) accounting. It also may be noted that the "Government Finance Officers Association (“GFOA”), the standard for states to publish their annual reports is 180 days after the end of the fiscal year." (p.28 report) Connecticut took 271 days to file their report thus disregarding the GFOA guidelines that they are supposed to adhere to by law. But hey, it's Connecticut, where rules and laws do not matter anymore, if at all).

Unfortunately, the lack of fiscal acuity on the part of the Republican party has not provided any moments of consideration or pause over time thus making a bad situation even worse. As just one example, in this past election I heard no candidate on either side discussing the grievous state debt or this report. And this fiscally negligent attitude has gone on for years. For example, in 2023, Democrat State Comptroller (and fiscal genius) Sean Scanlon magically “saved millions of dollars” by re-amortizing the unfunded liability of the municipal pension fund from 17 to 25 years as both political parties cheered. But what did Mr. Scanlon do? He simply increased the amount of debt by deferring payment on the same, showing no conceptual understanding of present-value finance and the concept that a dollar will never be worth any more than it is today in the future. For, how does one save money when your debt is the same but now will take an additional eight years to pay off as it continues to accrue interest? Isn't the debt financed by interest paid? Or has that mysteriously been eliminated? How is this simply thoughtless move any different than continually making the minimum payment on your credit card and believing your debt will be paid off faster? But perhaps I am wrong, and Mr. Scanlon has the right idea! That said, why don’t we go about re-amortizing all of Connecticut's debt into 100-year notes? That way generation upon generation of Connecticut Taxpayers get to live their lives as indentured servants to the Connecticut Democrat Party and their fiscal inefficiencies and maladroitness. This idea might work so well that the Connecticut Democrat Party could then reinvent a modern-day system of serfdom and or a new form of economic slavery to the state's master political ruling elite by the issuing of these 100-year debt bonds. This new financial plan would work well with the party that wants unchecked illegal immigration, state-run media, controls on social media and free speech, redundant and functionally useless bureaucracies, and the encouragement of party “leaders” that harass and shame ordinary citizens while the opposing party never cries out for the censure or removal of these evil individuals. This is life as we know it in the nearly broke, vision-less, and morally bankrupt State of Connecticut.

Thus in 2024, Connecticut is no more resolving its debt crisis than in years passed. Thus in 2024, no one wearing a political uniform seems to care. This new report issued reconfirms many of the same problems that the state has had for years. Excessive state spending coupled with excessive state debt, fueled by “feel-good” politics at every turn. Connecticut continues to rank as a top five taxed state in the country. It continues to have massive financial issues no matter how King Governor Ned Lamont the Unaccountable, his should-be-abolished Department of Economic Development, and his faux-prop economic spokespeople such as Sean Scanlon try to spin it. For Connecticut to survive it must address its out-of-control spending and unchecked fiscal corruption that offer little in either comfort or results other than to those directly involved. Connecticut has massive problems with criminals and crime is running rampant. Connecticut has massive problems with illegal drug use and trafficking. Connecticut still has massive problems with its public schools that are more interested in indoctrination rather than teaching life skills and functional knowledge. Connecticut still has massive problems due to a skewed political system that is ripe with corruption as seen with the never-ending voter fraud in Bridgeport. Connecticut fiscal economic incentives are nothing more than the throwing of bribes to the politically connected. Moreover, Connecticut still has massive problems that truly need to be addressed for the last time.
But not the least of sorrows is that albatross of never-ending debt hanging on the shoulders of innocent Connecticut Taxpayers who toil daily in a dysfunctional state economy while the Connecticut Democrat Party moves blindly ahead without even the least criticism of this debt. But the solutions are simple. Cut spending and cut taxes. Learn the spelling of the word "governance" But that concept is always ignored in the wasteland of debt, in the state known as Connecticut, which is the paradise of unchecked and enabled Democrat Party led economic gibberish leading to ultimate collapse.

The Mythological Connecticut Republican Party

 If you were an ardent consumer of Connecticut State-run news sources this past year, you may not be aware that there was another election in Connecticut this November. Despite the microscopic and unenthusiastic endorsement from the Mythological Connecticut Republican Party, President Donald J. Trump gained a substantially higher vote count in the state than in previous elections, receiving almost 42% in 2024. However, despite the dogged efforts of the Mythological Connecticut Republican Party to deny the existence of anything relating to the obscene word “Trump,” no group of state Republican candidates came close to beating the ultra-liberal Democrat machine in 2024.

On a state level, Republicans lost even more ground in being a small minority in the Connecticut House, now holding only 49 seats to the Democrat Super Majority of 102 seats while in the Senate Republicans are down to 11 seats to the Democrat Super Majority of 25 seats. (excluding the results of the 8th District State Senate race). Sadly, things look poorly for the Mythical Connecticut Republican Party. 

As much are failures are continually attempted to be explained and excused away, it was more of the same in state Republican losses as have been seen year-in and year-out. It is argued that “all politics is local” However, it has become obvious that the state Republican message is ignored, lost, misspoken and or non-existent. What exactly is the message does the Mythical Connecticut Republican Party want to express to the Connecticut voting public? Is it less state governmental spending and the lowering of taxes? Is it a smaller, more efficient state government? Is it full transparency in state government along with a real check and balance mechanism? Is it more school choice and letting parents actually parent their children?  Is it liberty and personal freedoms? Is it a crackdown on crime and criminals with meaningful enforcement of laws to prosecute criminals? Is it the state taxpayer defunding of self-appointed sanctuary cities in the state? Is it enforcement of actual voting laws that would have prevented the ongoing crime in the city of Bridgeport's election and removed questions from other races? Is it the abolishment of dodgy “quasi-public” entities and opaque state-connected nonprofits that were most useful in the crooked Covid-19 machinations of King Governor Ned Lamont the Unaccountable? Is it enforcement of real ethics laws that govern state elected officials and state employees especially when state taxpayer funded contracts are involved? Is it criminal sanctions for law-breaking elected officials? Is it a “DOGE” type-effort in slashing the bloated and self-aggrandizing state workforce? Is it that state taxpayers have a real Bill Of Rights when dealing with state officials in Connecticut? Is it civil and criminal penalties when someone in that bloated workforce harms an innocent person?

What is it that the Mythical Connecticut State Republican Party bases itself on considering there is no doubt what is happening on the left. To this fact, it is quite clear that the Connecticut State Democrat Party stands for socialism, operative communism, government intervention at any and all costs, full term state taxpayer paid for abortion along with a state taxpayer funded abortion "hotline", minimal personal freedoms, election fraud, more and higher taxes, “creative ways” for finding employment for illegal students in state colleges, unobtainable clean/green energy conquests at any cost, more crime, less enforcement of laws that are actually legally binding, state run local planning and zoning law enforcement, and a crumbling bridge and highway system to just to name a few items.  In true Pravda style, the Connecticut State Democrat Party is able to achieve this with an obedient state run and state-supported media that echoes the Connecticut State Democrat Party rhetoric daily in its continual effort to help brainwash the public.

However, due to the efforts of a handful of independent reporters  and dogged ordinary citizens there are encouraging signs of political life in Connecticut with strong independent Libertarian and Conservative journalists and common citizens like my good friend Tony De Angelo and others who fight a daily battle in the state against this omnipotent one party machine's incoherent gibberish, effectively doing the work of what an opposing party should do.  Connecticut is in dire need of a vibrant, coherent Republican Party that no longer embraces the "coolness" of condemning all things Trump and all things Conservative while playing the continual patsy to the Connecticut State Democrat Party's hold.

The Mythical Connecticut Republican Party must end. It needs a functional and common-sense platform that embraces those who work and pay taxes in the state. It needs a functional and common-sense platform that embraces and relates to minorities especially the working Hispanic population that is found in many cities in the state. It needs new people from top to bottom in the party organization and not the perennially failed Republicans that embrace the Party's race to oblivion and stupefaction to nothingness and continual defeat. The Mythical Connecticut State Republican Party needs to emerge from myth to reality and generate a real candidate to run for Governor in 2026 and not another self-destructing unknown or benign party poster child running to be acceptable to all things wrong.

To emerge from obscurity, The Connecticut State Republican Party has time to prepare if it wants to. It must embrace the heart of the country that is rooted in strong American principles. It must be able to say the word MAGA and not run behind a tree in shame. It must show its dedication in fighting first for the non-state connected working person. It must champion a DOGE-based effort to shrink the monolith of state government and the administrative state. Or the Connecticut State Republican Party can continue in perpetual uselessness and defeat in becoming the new Whig Party of 2024.

To conclude, I will borrow one of Tony's favorite phrases. Change is simple as that, and just as difficult.

President Trump's 2024 Victory- (AKA- “The Revenge Of America”)

 America has seen it all in its 248-year history. A history that is rich in freedom and prosperity along with wars and Depressions. We have seen good Presidents and bad Presidents. We have seen Presidents caught up in scandals in their administrations and other Presidents whose ethics and honesty were immaculate. And we have also experienced divine interventions. One such intervention was experienced on November 5. For on that day, our forty-seventh President was elected, and this President was also our forty-fifth President. His name? Donald J. Trump.

President Trump plays a unique role in our nation's history. He had been almost assassinated by a killer’s bullets, belittled, denounced, eviscerated, slandered, vilified, and vituperated. He was impeached on two separate occasions, attacked relentlessly by a Democrat state Attorney General, two local Democrat prosecutors, and a Democrat Federal Special Prosecutor while being indicted 91 times in three separate and different criminal courts. He was found liable in two civil court cases and at the same time he was convicted of thirty-four supposed felonies. His Florida home was raided by special agents while his business in New York City was effectively confiscated by a Democrat Manhattan judge. The state-run media coverage of President Trump was aggressive, belligerent, malicious, spiteful, and venomous. Other men would have been broken by this mental and physical daily abuse paid for by United States Taxpayers. Not Donald J. Trump. No, Donald J. Trump could not and would not be broken or give up on his strong beliefs and convictions in his unyielding desire to make our country great again.

Despite this blitzkrieg over the past four years, over 73 million voters decided that President Trump was their choice to go back to office and become our 47th President.  He defeated Vice- President Harris on Tuesday. He staged what will be viewed in our nation's history as one of the greatest comebacks in political history. Greater than Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt, or Richard Nixon. Despite everything that he was put through, he prevailed. He did not give up what he believed in, nor did he give up the fight for America. He exhibited a positive thought process in his movement that rarely has been seen in this country for years. His optimism and his willingness to fight a true political battle to help save our country was evident by his wide range of support, much of whom came to him from former detractors and former persecutors. He went to the ‘hood. He touched people of all backgrounds and walks of life. He offered exciting and new economic concepts. And people embraced and cherished him. It was truly history for the ages.

President Trump's victory has proven that a vast majority of Americans and American voters rejected the political correctness, woke divisive culture, and illogical economic policies that benefited the wealthy, while shaming the working middle class and small businesses of our country. President Trump's victory also has proven that most Americans and American voters rejected failed foreign policies that have us on the verge of World War III, a border crisis, an illegal drug crisis, and a human trafficking crisis. Americans and American voters rejected the past four years of a living nightmare courtesy of the failed Biden-Harris Administration. Americans and American voters had enough of the failed Democrat Party and their obliteration of our society and economy to suffice their incoherent gibberish of diversity, equity, and inclusion among other tortures and self-aggrandizements spread in our daily lives.

However if I were to relay the wonderful news above to a Martian exiting his flying saucer on his first trip to earth, he would be surprised to know that a number of states of the United States of America voted for the exact opposite of what is described above, choosing to embrace the malignant policies that have driven their regions into ruin. Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts proudly declared that she would violate Federal law and not participate in the deportation of illegal migrants in her state. Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois brags of his wonderful “governance” while Chicago leads the world in the murders of young men of color. Governor Gavin Newsom of California continues his disastrous ruin of California by pledging to defend the rights of lawbreakers as we weep at the wreckage of Los Angeles and San Francisco. And not to be undone is Connecticut’s own King Gov. Ned Lamont The Unaccountable, who in a hastily arranged press conference on November 6 stared into the camera with a deer-in-the-headlights blank stare saying that his Democrat Party has lost the ability to connect with humble people. These same humble people being the people he locked down, robbed from, stole personal data from, threw out of business, shamed, rendered jobless, and insulted. (Yes, Sire. You must forgive them for being unable to relate to you).

However, even in these failed bastions of woke liberalism of America, hope springs eternal. It is remembered that America was brought to the brink for the past four years as it has been many, many times since 1776. Election Day has proven that good has once again overcome evil, incompetence, and stupidity. Our Lord continues to watch over the United States of America daily through good and evil times. We now see that our Federal Government needs a major cleaning and reset. All legal Americans need to have representation again. Americans have spoken loudly. Americans do not need to be governed by un-elected and imperious career bureaucrats who could care less about the working men and women of all occupations that are the backbone of our economy. And once again, we are reminded that we do live in the greatest country in the world contrary to those who spread hatred across our lands. 

God Bless President Trump and Vice President Vance. Let the future begin now.

And God Bless America.

 

I Require Strength and Leadership And Not Cowardliness, Incompetence, and Failure. (Do You?)

 What a beautiful country we live in! When driving through rural towns, I am amazed at seeing the homes, farms and small stores and buildings that grace those areas.  When driving through bustling cities, I gawk at the size of massive office buildings and apartment and condo complexes in addition to the menagerie of stores, shops and restaurants, each one a testament to the belief of their owners in free enterprise and freedom.  The economic variety of what our country has to offer is endless.  Economic wealth and economic prosperity are enormous.  The American mind has developed and designed incredible inventions/technologies/tools to simplify our lives and help us live longer, healthier lives.  We take for granted our country and abundant lives. And many know and believe with me that all levels of our government continue to assert an autocratic and dictatorial rule of the towns, cities, states, and country via the oppression of non-elected, non-productive bureaucrats and their nurturing administrative state.  Personal freedoms such as freedom of speech, economic freedom and property rights have become endangered, especially over the past four years of the failed Democrat Biden-Harris administration. 

However, we are commanded to forget the oppressions of the last four and five years. Take the Covid-19 debacle (or as my friend and colleague Tony De Angelo refers to as “The First Attempted Communist Takeover”). Due to the failures, lies, frauds, murders of the elderly, and political obfuscations of King Gov. Ned Lamont The Unaccountable and his minions and henchmen, we are to forget any of this ever happened (Think: Is not “Turn The Page” an oft-heard term from Team Left?). But this is an Alinsky-esque model of how the left does business. Because the last four years of the failed Democrat Biden-Harris administration also. never happened.  Decay and destruction of our society and economy over the past four years never happened.  The putrid wreckage of our great cities, never happened. A massive loss of lives in a horrific and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan, unchecked illegal immigration. and illegals voting, and a never-ending illegal drug crisis never happened!  A $36,000,000,000,000.00 National Debt, fueled by an idiotic energy policy, with attendant runaway inflation doubling and tripling the cost of many necessities, never happened.  A re-education of our public school system focusing on politically correct and woke education and gender-confusion, apparently never happened!  Countless attempts to give away American Taxpayers monies for loan forgiveness of all types through Executive Orders, never happened!  Anti-Semitism, Jewish Hatred, an abandonment of the right of Israel to defend itself and unchecked anti-Israeli demonstrations never happened!  A demented President Joe Biden calling 250,000,000 Trump supporters “garbage”, was really Joe Biden stuttering, so calling these people "garbage", never happened!   This is the record the "joyful" and “forward moving" Vice President Harris and her incompetent, buffoon-esque and pro China Tim Walz sidekick are running on this coming Tuesday.  

Policy? There is none! Policy for this crowd is rooted in the “Rules for Radicals” of Saul Alinsky. (Turn the Page! Lie! Lie! Lie! Deny! Deny! Deny!. Blame the Other Guys for your screw-ups!) So have a party in trying to understand the platforms that Harris-Walz is running on.  Incoherent gibberish of socialist dreams and ideals coupled with word salad laughter while sprinkled with a mix of grunting against Trump and his "garbage" supporters using venom and hatred are all we hear.  We now have a laughable and completely false narrative of the past four years.  It just never happened! In this manner, we can embrace four more lost and dangerous years of the McDonald's employed Border Czar, as she is joyful, teleprompter-dependent, disguised and playacting the part of President of the United States of America.  No strength, no coherency, no energy, no policies, no foreign policies except for our enemies, and no leadership. This is exactly what the next four years will look like under a Harris-Walz regime.

 It is time for the silent majority to speak up.  America is on the line on November 5. We cannot afford as a country what we have just lived through for the past four years. Because of political beliefs, Conservatives have become a badly divided country according to our state-run media and its ill-tempered elitist supposed journalists.  Compromise is forbidden as beliefs and concepts that we were once taught as true, are now despised, and deemed forbidden by this minority of supercilious pompous asses now dictating to the majority what as to we can have and not have.  Americans are tired of this waste of our personal and natural resources.  Americans are tired of being lied to.  Americans are tired of seeing our enemies coddled while our friends are abandoned.  Instead, we need a new way forward of strength and leadership. 

It will happen again under a Trump-Vance administration.  And may Almighty God light the way for the preservation of the United States of America.