Budget 2013 & The Entitled

Here we go again. Budget 2013 was delivered by the Alberta Government yesterday, awash in RED INK. Plunging Alberta back into debt.
Back in 1985 Don Getty entered the Premiership in Alberta with no debt, by the time he left 7 years later the province had taken on $23 Billion in debt. So I would refer to him as our "architect" of debt. Enter the 12th Premier of Alberta Ralph Klein leading the PC party to victory with 45% of the popular vote. Klein headed into the election making no promises, only saying how the government will balance its books and start paying down its multi-billion dollar debt. Away he went, slashing every department by 20-40 percent. The pain of the cuts were felt across the province, but in 1997 he his provincial support rose above 51% of the popular vote. Winning 63 seats he was clearly given the mandate to stay the course by Albertans.
Now here lies the issue, was it Klein that put us in the situation by paying the bills, or was the architect of debt Getty for taking it on in the first place? During the Klein era even after spending we saw surpluses during his reign of a unbelievable $52 Billion. That's right, the debt was paid and massive surpluses, with Albertans happy to put their hand out and receive the Ralph Bucks. To turn around today and blame him for our woes is a pretty easy out.
Enter Stelmach and Redford. With Alberta spending upwards of $40 Billion per year and posting year over year deficits since the exit of Ralph Klein. Let's be clear, it was 2005 when we declared debt free and spending started under Klein ramping up at an unsustainable rate. Almost 8 years later many Albertans blame today's spending on him.
It's utter B.S., want someone to blame? You best take a long hard look in the mirror and the current government. Scandal after scandal of wasteful spending, Billions thrown out the window to industry, and billions more thrown out to unions to keep them quiet election after election. We have entered into an entitled generation who want everything now, but don't want to pay for it. No cuts we cry, no tax increases either though. Enter debt, the popular way to pay for todays wants/needs and unload the payments on future generations. A Premier to afraid of losing an election to put us on the right track. We want the Schools, roads, hospitals etc... and they are going to build them. What's not in the projections is the cost to operate and staff them. More red ink my friends, this is not for future generations...this is for OUR generation. We need a government not afraid to make the tough choices.
We are at a crossroads. We can make cuts to balance our books. Maybe instead we raise revenues via taxes, royalties, and fees. Maybe we do a mixture of both. One thing for certain is to place the debts WE are incurring on the backs of another generation to pay is ridiculous. Why would we ever want to put anyone through what we had to go through in '92? We are spending 110% of what we earn, obviously we can't service the debt.
The answer is clear with our way of thinking. WE ARE THE ENTITLED.