Paying the Price for Government Spending

A $1.5 trillion deficit and a $14 trillion debt—that to me would be enough of a red flag to get our government to stop spending.

But no—those on the Hill and in the White House are too busy playing politics to make real, impactful cuts. That's not the story in state houses across the country, which don't have the same privileges as the federal government.

Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott today proposed slashing state spending by more than $5 billion dollars, and even cutting taxes by more than four billion dollars. Also today Oklahoma's Governor Mary Fallin is looking to lower the state's income tax rate by .25% and cutting spending.

Iowa's Terry Branstad is cutting income taxes in half in his state to 6%, while lowering spending on pre-school education in Iowa to $43 million.

Texas state aid to public schools will likely be cut by 15% or $7 billion, including shuttering a handful of community colleges.

Education is a frequent target of cuts for governors, but guess what—it’s not just Republican state leaders slashing spending. New York's Andrew Cuomo has proposed a budget to slash nearly $9 billion from the state budget with a more than 7% cut in public school funding and nearly 10,000 layoffs.

And then there's Obamacare, the massive law further burdening states, doing whatever they can to get their books back in the black.

And one governor is fired up. Indiana's Mitch Daniels told The Wall Street Journal today that health-care reform a massive mistake.

He says the requirements to keep nearly 20 million people on their Medicaid systems could cost Indiana taxpayers $3 billion.

Indiana is one of 21 states asking the health and human services secretary to change things to make it more affordable including waiving the law's benefit mandates and its discrimination of HSAs.

It's bad enough no one in Washington can seem to get on the same page about spending— Democrat or Republican—but the fact that they are hampering bold efforts of governors to make the tough choices with this Obamacare mandate is just unfair.

And we're once again the ones who are paying the price.

Be sure to catch the Willis Report on the FOX Business Network every weekday from 5-6pm ET.