Flouting a Constitutional Rule: Gov. Strickland's Deficit-Shifting Plan

Ohio, prohibited by Article VIII, Section 1 of its Constitution from running a deficit, will shift its deficit this summer to the federal government. But an improper act does not gain legitimacy because someone else does it for you, and the costs of this free money will mount in the years ahead.

The Columbus Dispatch reported yesterday that Ohio stands to receive more than $9 billion from the Obama Administration – call it Obamafare, the bailout program for states. That’s almost double the amount Gov. Strickland had asked for, and more than the worst-case scenario $7.3 billion deficit predicted over the next two years.

Gov. Strickland did not seem displeased. "I had not heard of this number, and I haven't heard of that kind of estimate state by state," Strickland told the Dispatch. "That would exceed what I asked for, wouldn't it?"

When one person does a prohibited act – say, stealing – by having someone else do it, they are both guilty of the theft under the law. It’s called complicity. The same moral logic applies to this deficit shifting. Gov. Strickland, prevented by law from deficit spending, is relying on President Obama to do it for him.

But it’s your money. Or, more precisely, it will be your money that either pays back the Chinese from whom the money is borrowed, or it will be your money that loses its value as the printing presses crank out more currency, and inflation kicks in.

Aside from the obvious financial costs of spending money we don’t have, there are other dangers in this free money.

One of them might be called the Medicaid problem. Federal money has narcotic properties – it produces dependence and an artificial sense of security. No government program has grown like Medicaid, the majority of which is funded by the federal government, with states providing smaller matching funds.

In exchange for the federal Medicaid money, the states give up important powers that could otherwise enable them to control costs – for example, there is a long list of mandatory procedures that must be covered. After 43 years, states across the nation are going broke paying for their share of the program.

Obamafare will surely come with stacks of new rules binding the state’s hands. And, like the ill-fated Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of the 1970s, Obamafare is likely to be extended in the years ahead, because governments always predict deficits.

Ohio is a strong, major state, and its people are resilient and resourceful. We should make the hard decisions about what government we need, pay for it, and let people get about building the lives they choose.