Mass Insanity

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results. "

This quotation is attributed to Einstein, but whether he said it or not, it absolutely applies to Massachusetts politics in general, and the Boston Globe-Democrat in particular.

The BG-D has been a big-time proponent of Gov. Patrick's $1 billion boondoggle to corporations involved in the thriving life sciences industries. This sector of the high-tech economy is booming, both in Massachusetts and across America, and without taking a single tax dollar from guys working construction in Dorchester.

But Gov. Patrick and his Globie lapdogs never saw an opportunity they couldn't screw up. Patrick proposed giving $1 billion in tax dollars to an industry that doesn't need it, the BG-D cheered him on and the bill was sent up to Beacon Hill for those responsible, trustworthy pols to work their magic. The result?

"Backers Cry Foul on Science Legislation," is the front-page headline in the Globe-Democrat today. "Say measure weaker, laden with earmarks."

Wait--are you telling me a legislative body that is 95% Democrat and 100% Massachusetts took a billion-dollar spending bill and loaded it up with goodies and giveaways? Wow, who could have seen THAT coming? (Other than every Massachusetts taxpayer, that is). So the "high-tech, life-sciences, cutting-edge" bill will be paying for, among other things, a sewage plant in Framingham and a highway interchange in Andover.

Roads and sewers? Golly, what will those science wizards on Beacon Hill think of next?

But wait--there's more! Proving that Massachusetts politicians are impervious to both experience and reason, today's Globe-Democrat--the same one reporting the "big business boondoogle turns into BIGGER boondoggle" life science industry story--has a favorable article on Gov. Patrick's plan to give $100 million to "clean-energy research and business development, an expensive wager on the future of companies that produce and institutions that research solar panels and biofuels." We need those tax dollars, of course, because with heating oil and gasoline around $4 a gallon, there's absolutely no interest in alternative energy from the private sector at the moment.

I say "Spend the $100 million tax dollars!" What could possibly go wrong...that already hasn't?