Cato Institute grades the state governors

Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/PA668.pdf

Mine got a B.

Cato man explains himself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkjN_S065I&feature=player_embedded

Right leaning much?

I guess the people at the CATO institute didn't bother to visit the states with "A" governors. Louisiana, WV, and South Carolina?

Some dems got good grades and some repubs got bad grades. Worth a read.

That is a ridiculous list. My parents live in SC and they have more problems in their state financially than you can imagine. Whereas in Arkansas where I live we actually have a lower unemployment then before the recession and lower taxes but he gets a D.

This seems like a rather silly list. It's providing a ranking based not on how well they are doing, but on meeting some ideological litmus test. If you are going to champion low taxes and low spending then you really should do it without pointing at states that are economic disaster areas.

I like Cato, but like every ranking system, this one returns results based on their own metric. They like small government, therefore more small-gov/libertarian governors get the high grades. This is no different than the Siena university poll that had Obama as the #15 president of all time in his first 6 months; if you are familiar with their polling over the years, it is entirely consistent. If you really want to know what a poll says, find out what the REAL questions were.

Mine got a "D." I didn't vote for her, but I don't have any major complaints.

CATO is a bunch of wanna be asshats who like hearing themselves talk.

They want people to think they are diffrent then other special interest groups, but their big contributor is Exxon.

I was sucked into going to one of their "big" events with all the leaders, and walked away laughing at their act. A bunch of Rubes.

This might as well be "Who is most friendly to Koch Industries?"

I find that as I go down the last the states get better and better. Probably no coincidence.

thisiswhatsisay wrote:

Right leaning much?

If the results suggest the right is doing a good job, it's right leaning? There isn't some possibility that the right might actually be doing a good job when you look at the numbers?

Crist of Florida(Republican) gets a D. They quote one of the reasons as his increase on the cigarette tax. That annoys me.

themanontherun wrote:

thisiswhatsisay wrote:

Right leaning much?

If the results suggest the right is doing a good job, it's right leaning? There isn't some possibility that the right might actually be doing a good job when you look at the numbers?

The Cato institute is just a bunch of right-wing libertarian nutjobs, so the best governors are probably the ones the gave an F to.

coach d wrote:

The Cato institute is just a bunch of right-wing libertarian nutjobs, so the best governors are probably the ones the gave an F to.

No way Pat Quinn (Il) deserves an F. That rating is way too high for that hack. Another example of grade inflation.

Not surprisingly, my state's guv, Pawlenty, got an A. He tried to make an entire governing philosophy out of tax-cutting and spending reductions. He was counter-balanced by a Democratic legislature, and the State Supreme Court ruled against him when he tried to unallot some of the current budget.

He always seemed to have one foot out the door as he aspired to the Presidency. He was affable and camera/mic-friendly, but not impressive or inspiring.

We could have had worse... while there were cuts, things weren't drastic. But when he left at the end of 2010, the State has a six-billion-dollar deficit, and cities and counties are hurting.

A neighbor works for the Dept. of Natural Resources and gave slight and muted praise-- "T-Paw" was there to pose while hunting and fishing a la Palin, and didn't force crazy agendas or slashed bugdets to the Department.

In related news, Education Week ranked Minnesota 36th among states in its Quality Counts report.

http://www.startribune.com/local/113251344.html?elr=KArksUUUycaEacyU

Precious Roy wrote:

I guess the people at the CATO institute didn't bother to visit the states with "A" governors. Louisiana, WV, and South Carolina?

You know its about governors, not the states, right?

hahaha, that EMBARRASSMENT of a public official Mark Sanford got an A?!?!?!

If you have paid any attnetion to the news in the last year, you would know that guy in no way deserves an A for anything in his life or work. WOW.

coach d wrote:

The Cato institute is just a bunch of right-wing libertarian nutjobs, so the best governors are probably the ones the gave an F to.

Right wingers have about as much in common with libertarians as left wingers have in common with socialists...

Also, you didn't address my point, you just accused them of being nuts and suggested that whatever the opposite of what they say is the truth.

mine's not on there, but I'm sure its an F

themanontherun wrote:

thisiswhatsisay wrote:

Right leaning much?

If the results suggest the right is doing a good job, it's right leaning? There isn't some possibility that the right might actually be doing a good job when you look at the numbers?

This is literally a political litmus test being given to the governors.

"That is the backdrop to this 10th biennial fiscal

report card of the governors, which examines

state budget actions since 2008. It uses statistical

data to grade the governors on their taxing and

spending records—governors who have cut taxes

and spending the most receive the highest

grades, while those who have increased taxes and

spending the most receive the lowest grades."