Interesting facts about Gary Johnson term as Governor of NM.
Many have opined that Gary Johnson is an important force in this election, that he offers real choice, and more importantly, that Ron Paul supporters should jump ship to the Libertarian party and vote for The Governor.
But before you do so, let's point out a few inconvenient facts that Governor Johnson doesn't want to talk about.
Such as the fact that in 1995, the year Gary Johnson became Governor, the State of New Mexico spent a total of $8.1 billion; $4.4 billion at the State Government level, $3.7 billion locally.
In 2003, the year he left office, The State spent $7.7 billion and local governments $5.7 billion, for a total of $13.4 billion.
Population went from 1.7 to 1.9 million over the same period.
Former Governor Gary Johnson wants you to believe he slashed spending and is a model of fiscal restraint. The truth is that state level spending increased by about 7.5% annually over his eight-year term. County and local governments did a better job of restraining spending; their spending advanced by "just" 6.5% annually during the same period.
Population advanced by about 12% over the same period, so don't let Governor Liar tell you this was all population increase; the facts are that he spent 75% more the year he left office than was spent the year he entered it.
Much-more-damning, State GDP went up by 38% during the same period, so in point of fact former Governor Johnson advanced state spending twice as quickly as the economy of his state grew in size.
The coup-de-grace though is that State Debt was $1.8 billion in 1995 when Johnson took office. In 2003, when he left, it was a stunning $4.6 billion, or 155% higher. That's right -- former Governor Johnson more than doubled New Mexico's state public debt during his time in office, adding about 12% a year.
For comparison when President Obama took office total public debt was about $10.6 trillion; today it is about $16 trillion, or 51% higher. That's about a 12% increase annually.
Attention alleged Libertarians: Governor Johnson expanded New Mexico's public debt just as quickly during his administration as President Obama has during his and he did so during a monstrous economic boom rather than a time of recession. He has no record to run on when it comes to fiscal restraint; Johnson did just as much damage to New Mexico's debt profile on a percentage basis as President Obama has nationally!
Governor Johnson is in fact just another big-government promoter that grew spending at twice the rate of the economy of his state and six times as fast as population expanded. He more than doubled the State's public debt load.
He in fact expanded New Mexico's public debt at a rate approximately equal to that of President Obama.
And all of that government expansion came during the "meat" of the tech and Nasdaq boom, a period during which it was easy to expand the economy faster than the government -- if you cared about such things.
Source: usgovernmentspending.com
So what's Governor Johnson really about?
We know what he's not about -- he's not about cutting the size of government, as under his administration government expanded in size more than six times faster than the population expanded in his state and double the rate of State GDP growth. County and local government agencies under Governor Johnson's administration did a better job of controlling spending (which isn't saying much) than he did.
And yet Governor Johnson claims from the stump he is going to slash the size of the Federal Government and get it out of your life.
Or is he? He's not going to get government out of your life when it comes to marriage -- he wants to increase that involvement, by shoving the government's nose in the bedroom of gay people to go along with all the straight couples that are already being abused by big government. Spend a day in a divorce court listening to the guys in black robes trashing people's lives before you tell anyone about how great government involvement is in marriage.
In short Governor Johnson is a liar on all counts. He never reduced spending, he never got the government out of your life, he in fact presided over a 75% expansion in the size of state government in New Mexico which grossly exceeded both GDP and population growth.
Worse, he expanded State Government debt at a rate approximately equal to that of President Obama.
Those are the rather inconvenient facts.
Add all this up and then try to explain why Governor Johnson is running as a Libertarian.
