Three Daisy-Chain Questions

The government says sales tax revenue has "exceeded expectations".

The Municipal governments are crying out for a $485 million bonds emission.

The legislature votes it down...and Aníbal "Jellyfish" Acevedo borrows a spine and orders yet another special legislative session to debate the issue.

Is the sales tax working? Is the governor hiding something? Is the legislative pigsty cleaning up its act with fiscal responsibility?


---Is the sales tax working? Of course not. Think of a struggling runner trying to complete a marathon, his chest heaving as he tries to get his second wind. Now cram a sweaty sock in his mouth and tape it shut. That's Our sales tax right there: Counter-productive and nasty.

As expected by The Jenius, near-Geniuses and true Geniuses (none of whom work for the government), the sales tax is producing less money than expected. So why the "above expectations" remarks? Semantics, otherwise known as spin: The current revenue exceeds the lower-end projections made by The Fools and their butt-licking sycophants. But those scenarios were publicly deemed "highly unlikely failures" by the cretins who crammed the tax down Our throats...and of course, it's in those scenarios where We find Ourselves now.

---Is the governor hiding something? Most definitely. Another fiscal crisis looms with the added concomitant of an election year. He's also hiding a disintegrating (worm-infested) Cabinet, a looming economic disaster known colloquially as "plant closings and lost jobs" and a deep-seated rejection to his campaign plans from within his own party. (He wants to play a waiting game while party insiders want to "rally the masses.") So why does The Jellyfish want to incur another massive debt by issuing bonds, thus increasing an already-huge public debt? Because he has no choice. If he loses support at the Municipal level, he is doomed.

And yet, he has always been trapped in an economic corner by an adverse legislature. At no point in Acevedo's administration has he worked with a "full" budget. As central government was forced to push services and programs to the Municipal level, Jellyfish and legislative Fools were technically on the same side, spending money "out there" to buy votes--er--to provide support in a very visible and self-serving way. So why the sudden divorce? That's related to question 3.

---Is the legislative pigsty cleaning up its act with fiscal responsibility? Of course not. It's simply more politics-as-usual. A tax revenue shortage puts The Jellyfish in bad light, with the opposition party scoring points and the governor's party ratcheting up the pressure to change his strategy. It doesn't matter to the pigsty if their own mayors get hammered by the lack of funding: They'll "make it up" after the elections. But here's where mayoral Fools and legislative Fools part ways, because the legislative Fools have a much better chance of winning their obscene positions than mayors do.

The bottom line here is that the cozy daisy-chain that screwed Us over for the past three years is nominally broken. The gloves are off, the stakes are more personal and instead of focusing on Us as the recipients of public service, We once again become the battlefield for public menaces.


The Jenius Has Spoken.