It's the blind leading the befuddled in Montana

Holy cow. The Grinch gave back Christmas.

After dire campaign forecasts of the horrors of deficit spending, all bets are off. The state of Montana now has too much money.

A $433 million surplus of all things. How could so many have been so wrong? Go figure the odds.

The legislators now have a very short time to change from demanding funding cuts for programs to demanding increases in funding for their favorite programs and pet projects. It will probably cause philosophical whiplash for many of them. Watch for a rash of political cervical collars on legislators in both houses. And canes to help them walk after runaway knee jerk reactions to the budgetary news.

Those accustomed to looking at the gloom and impending doom of previously predicted governmental bankruptcy will now be faced with the blinding specter of funds in the state treasury.

What a quandary.

From the dark and stormy waters of Montana politics, insolvent state programs have washed ashore on beaches of gold nuggets.

A dirty trick on all the politicians who have been predicting a fiscal disaster.

What next? Lower taxes? Full funding for social programs?

The citizens of Montana who were expecting a bloody fight over which programs would get the axe this session, instead will now be treated to a bloodbath over which new programs will be funded. It will be akin to watching hungry dogs fighting over a bone…all so our esteemed legislators can claim to have delivered benefits to their constituencies.

A dirty trick on voters who voted on what turned out to be non-existent issues.

But the projected surplus might not occur anyway. The Office of the Legislative Analyst has not made an accurate prediction in something like 50 years.

The situation in the Capitol is very much like the blind leading the befuddled. Our poor abused legislators do not know where they want to go, nor can they see how to get there.

But they all know they want to go somewhere and do something.

Jack Jackson,

Bigfork